To the editor:
With the start of work on two unneeded “little box” stores, i.e., a sixth place to buy paint and a mini Wal-Mart, so begins the homogenization and “uglification” of our town. We now join every small town between here and Bangor and beyond to have our very own Dollar General. Great.
Why do our planning board and selectmen feel that any and all possible growth in the tax base is a good thing for the sake of property tax relief? The solution is not to destroy the character of our town by embracing every lousy plan for development that comes around, but to make developers conform to our vision of our town. Most of the cause of our ever-increasing property taxes is a result of LePage’s fiscal policy of cutting taxes for the wealthy at the expense of revenue-sharing to be sent back to the towns.
These developers want to come here. We didn’t invite them, so let’s be smart and take charge of our town’s destiny and not allow them to dictate the rules by waiving ordinances. Every developer should be made to conform to our vision so that when they leave, as they will, we are not left with ugly, abandoned mini-boxes that no one can or will reconfigure for other uses.
A second point to think about is the fact that every dollar spent in them will be money sent out of Maine at the expense of our own, homegrown businesses such as Renys, Damariscotta Hardware, and Louis Doe’s.
Damariscotta needs time to decide how we want our town to grow and until we can finish that discussion, a temporary moratorium is necessary.
Mark Lazzari
Damariscotta
