Voters will decide whether to accept changes to Waldoboro’s land use and shellfish conservation ordinances at a special town meeting today, Feb. 25, at 6 p.m. at the Waldoboro Municipal Building.
The proposed change to the land use ordinance comes unanimously recommended by the Waldoboro Planning Board and affects vegetative buffer requirements on commercial properties along of Route 1.
The ordinance currently requires a buffer equal to the minimum building setback of the various districts along Route 1, and the proposed amendment would change the buffer to a minimum of 15 feet from the front property line.
According to a Jan. 9 memo from Willa Antczak, the town’s planning and development director, the planning board found it was necessary to amend the ordinance since no parking is allowed in the current buffer strips and several grandfathered businesses do not comply with the requirement anyway.
Most of the property along Route 1 is broken down between the districts of Route 1 Commercial B, primarily the denser commercial areas immediately east and west of the Medomak River, and Route 1 Commercial A, which, roughly, extends from the hills on either side of the river to the town lines.
The two districts are required to have buildings set back from the road a minimum of 25 feet and 100 feet, respectively.
According to town maps, the one exception along Route 1 is the property on which the Waldoboro Municipal Building is located. The property is within the Village district, and also has a setback of 25 feet.
The proposed change to the town’s shellfish conservation ordinance would make currently mandatory conservation activities voluntary, among other changes.
The current ordinance has created a state of employment under the town for clammers performing the conservation work and subsequent minimum wage and minimum age issues with the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to an Aug. 26, 2013 press release from then-Town Manager John Spear.
Instead of requiring six hours of mandatory conservation work such as reseeding clams or pollution mitigation, the license fee would be raised $60 and those that complete the six hours voluntarily would receive a $60 discount; a move Spear said the shellfish conservation committee is in support of.
If the applicable state or federal minimum wage for six hours work were higher than $60, the discount would equal the larger amount, according to the proposed amendment.
If, by the second Monday in July, applicants had not reached 18 years of age, had reached age 60, or were unable to perform the conservation work due to being on active military duty, those applicants would be entitled to the same discount.
The selectmen voted unanimously to approve the shellfish conservation ordinance amendments.
No questions or comments were made at the Feb. 11 public hearing held for the special town meeting.
