A historic special review district ordinance draft that has inflamed municipal meetings will not come before Newcastle voters this calendar year. On Monday, Oct. 23, the Newcastle Select Board scheduled a January workshop to review the draft ordinance with planners and legal counsel.
The core zoning code voters adopted in 2020 listed historic preservation as a priority for the town with the plan to develop a specific ordinance in future years. Board members have said the pandemic delayed that process.
An ad hoc committee drafted the ordinance this year, establishing three tiers of formal review and approval for landowners in the town’s three historic districts who want to make exterior changes to their properties. The planning board voted to send the ordinance to the select board after a contentious public hearing in September.
Select board members said Oct. 23 that the agenda item was only to determine a next step for the ordinance, not evaluate the content. There will be another public hearing before the ordinance is sent to voters, board Chair Karen Paz said.
Amid heated comment from a packed audience, board members decided to hold a workshop for discussion of the ordinance’s next step in January, saying the document was not ready for a vote this year.
Resident David Levesque said at the Oct. 23 meeting that the planning board had told residents no vote would be taken after the public hearing, then amended the agenda to discuss and vote at the September meeting’s close.
“I don’t believe you can go to the next step because it shouldn’t be here tonight,” he said.
Select board Vice Chair Joel Lind said there was likely no legal concern about the planning board meeting and that the board’s job was determine whether the ordinance fit the comprehensive plan and the direction residents gave their elected officials with previous votes.
“We can’t make our decisions based on what we like and what we don’t like,” he said. “We have to look at all sides, look at all information before us, look at … the documents that, again, the legislative body of the town, which is the voters (approved to) … give us our directive in how we’re supposed to look at these things.”
Continuing frustration from the audience and requests to make public comment led to disagreement between the board and residents. Board members said the item’s placement on the agenda as a new business item did not mean public comment was open.
“We haven’t pushed anything forward. We haven’t proposed any action other than learning about this and discussing it further. That’s it,” Lind said.
Interim Town Manager Kevin Sutherland said the select board meetings are to determine what goes to the public at a town meeting, which is where debate should take place.
“This would be a great discussion, back-and-forth discussion, over whether or not this should be passed as a collective of the people, rather than just the select board, who decides what goes to the people to make decisions on,” he said.
After this discussion, representatives of the engineering firm VHB presented three options for culvert replacement on Lynch Road. The 10-year-old, three-sided box culvert there that failed in a May 1 rainstorm was the second one to do so in recent years, board members said.
Because the storm that caused the failure was declared a disaster event by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA will cover 75% of repairs, the state 15%, and the town 10%.
Members said replacing the three-sided culvert has so far cost about $1 million every 10 years, and using federal funding to cover the majority of the $1.7 million bridge was a better value for the town. The 50-foot span bridge would have a 75-year lifespan.
After reviewing data from the engineers, the board voted unanimously to authorize Sutherland contracting with the firm for design, bid development, permitting, and construction oversight of up to $150,000. Sutherland said other sources of funding are likely available to cover the town’s responsibility.
A special town meeting was set for 7 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 11 at the fire station to repeal a former purchasing and bid ordinance. The select board approved a purchasing and bid policy in August that will replace the ordinance once repealed.
Minor amendments to the core zoning code may also come to vote at the meeting depending on action by the planning board next month.
Another board authorization allows Sutherland to ask for proposals for pre-engineering on Main Street and Mills Road through the Village Partnership Initiative, a cost-sharing project with the Maine Department of Transportation.
The board also approved updates to the general assistance ordinance and its appendices in the annual process of adopting state changes.
Patricia Nease, Damariscotta Lake watershed manager for Midcoast Conservancy, gave a presentation at the start of the meeting about the organization’s homeowner erosion control projects through Clean Water Act grant funding. She said cyanobacteria levels were lower in the lake this summer than previous years.
The Newcastle Select Board next meets at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 13 in the Clayton V. Huntley Jr. Fire Station community room and online.
