To the Editor:
I’ve spent the last few days reading the proposed “Smart Code.” I am not impressed. The rush to install a new ordinance was started not by the citizens of Damariscotta, but by a nameless, faceless gentleman from away who paid the town to hire a drafter to create a new ordinance that would allow the development of the so called Piper Village.
First, it appalls me that the town took private funds to hire someone to create a new ordinance for a single purpose. Subsequently, the town hired a very nice gentleman from Vermont who drafted the so called smart code, modeling it after one that was installed in his town there. Just because it fits Vermont, doesn’t mean it fits Damariscotta.
Unlike many, I have read every word in this new code. I find it confusing, using cute words like “Hamlet Plan” rather than “subdivision” and overall, find that it limits the public input in development rather than expanding it. If a proposal meets the requirements, there appears to be no hearing required, a simple review by the CRC (Comprehensive Review Committee) and one breaks ground. Appeals are very limited.
How many of you who are going to vote for it have actually read and understood every word of the Smart Code? Recently we chastised our Congress for rushing through a many thousand page health care bill without having the time to read it, let alone understand it. If you have not read it, I urge you to do so. If you have not read it, I urge you not to vote in favor of it. Don’t vote for something you haven’t read and don’t understand.
This plan will change the fundamental way in which development takes place in Damariscotta. It threatens to move the center of business from Main Street to an area far removed from our center of commerce. All this to please and profit a nameless, faceless gentleman who wants to invest in our town, not to benefit the town, but to make a profit for himself.
There is nothing wrong with profit – our nation is based on profit motive, but when he leaves and we have to live with the dramatic changes he has bought and paid for, word by word, what will we do then? Can he do the same thing under our existing code? Probably, but it will be open to more comment and closer scrutiny and appeal.
Our existing code is not broken. It does not need to be fixed. This is not a “Smart Code.” It’s a code made to benefit someone who wants to “out smart” us. Don’t let it happen.
James Gallagher, Damariscotta
