Edgecomb residents decided to nix plans to purchase 22-acres of land on Davis Island from the Bank of Maine during an April 4 meeting at the town hall with the Edgecomb Board of Selectmen.
The decision, made by a hand vote at the end of the meeting, showed overwhelming support for modifying the town’s zoning ordinances instead of extending the life of a tax increment financing loan (TIF).
The proposed purchase, offered at $950,000 by the Topsham based development firm, the Priority Group on behalf of the Bank of Maine, had been the subject of intense debate over the past few months.
“Going forward we’re going to tell the Priority Group we’re not going to purchase the land,” said Selectman Stuart Smith to a round of applause.
At the outset of the hour-plus long meeting, Smith explained to residents that one option was to extend the TIF for an additional “10 to 12 years” to finance the purchase. After a conversation with Lincoln County Planner Bob Faunce, Smith suggested changing the existing ordinances to permit certain types of activity in the Davis Island area.
“This would keep the kind of development out that we don’t want,” said Smith. “The town wouldn’t have to add to the TIF or buy anything. We can direct that development through our ordinances.”
In comments to the audience, Faunce said the town could restrict uses that are not taxable such as churches or schools. In examining the zoning ordinances, Faunce concluded, “all the zones allow everything everywhere.”
“You can do anything you want anywhere in Edgecomb,” said Faunce. “For example I could start a piggery tomorrow or a cement plant on Davis Island and that would be ok. That’s a fundamental problem with the ordinance.”
Faunce said that because of the rapid growth in Edgecomb, pegged at 14 percent by just released preliminary US Census data, the time was right to get the town’s zoning ordinance in order.
“If you want to protect areas of town from development like Davis Island, you need to spend the dough, unless you create a true zoning ordinance” said Faunce.
The roughly two-dozen Edgecomb residents who attended raised a number of objections over the value of the land and the motivations of the bank to sell the property. According to Smith, the Bank of Maine, formerly the Savings Bank of Maine, had recently been purchased by a different ownership group based in Miami and Georgia respectively.
“The contract is with the bank who are no longer on shaky footing,” Smith said in response to a question concerning the solvency of the bank.
Some residents questioned whether or not the bank would be able to sell the property if the town did not buy it, arguing that the $950,000 price tag was grossly inflated.
“Has the bank indicated that someone has come to them with vast sums of money for this property?” said Edgecomb resident Amber Tonry.
In response, Smith said that the bank was “holding off” until the town decided what they were going to do, an answer that drew murmurs of disapproval from the audience.
Resident Jo Cameron read prepared comments from JD Neeson, owner of Marine Parts Express, who urged the town “to wait long enough” to seize the property for failure to pay property taxes.
“The idea is that the whole development is a bit shaky and they’re having trouble with the sale,” Cameron read.
Kenneth Schuler objected to the clandestine nature of the prior meetings between selectmen and the Priority Group.
“I think it was not proper to hold those meetings in an executive session,” said Schuler. “To have closed meetings on business deals is not appropriate. We were all wondering what was going on.”
Smith said that the meetings were in fact legal, a premise supported by resident Jarryl Larsen who cited language from the Maine Municipal Association.
“They have provided selectmen with some guidance,” said Larsen. “It doesn’t seem right to us but it was apparently appropriate.”
At the conclusion of the meeting, Smith led the crowd through three votes by hand with the option of going forward with the purchase receiving no support. The final two votes, both in favor of modifying the ordinances, were supported with final language to be decided in the future after a consultation with Faunce.
