Bangor council refers proposed ordinances to planners

BANGOR – Four proposed ordinance amendments, one of them concerned with efforts to bring the Bangor Lumberjacks to Husson College, were among the matters city councilors addressed Monday night.

Two others would regulate ice cream trucks, while the fourth would pave the way for a paintball facility.

During their meeting at City Hall, councilors conducted first readings of the amendments and then referred them to various panels for review. If they pass muster, the amendments will return to the council for a second reading and adoption.

Referred to the Planning Board were two proposed amendments to the city’s land development code. City staff said the panel would review the amendments on Sept. 2

One change, if approved, would add sports arenas and stadiums to the list of allowed uses in government and institutional service districts.

It is connected to efforts to bring the Bangor Lumberjacks to Husson College. The minor league baseball team owned by Bangor businessman Charles Hutchins has been playing in Orono for lack of a suitable home field in Bangor.

Before the team can relocate, however, a series of improvements must be made at Husson’s Winkin Sports Complex. Planned improvements include the installation of bleacher seating for 3,000 spectators.

The project has generated some controversy in the community, including an effort to recall the seven city councilors who voted for the city to contribute up to $381,000 toward the improvements, which they said they saw as economic development.

Questions over permitted uses also prompted an appeal to the city’s Board of Appeals, which is scheduled to be heard on Aug. 20, unless the matter is tabled before then.

A key issue raised in the appeal, filed by Nathaniel and Leslie Rosenblatt, who live in the neighborhood of the stadium, is whether a professional baseball team’s use of Husson’s stadium is allowed in a government and institutional service district. Husson is located in such a district.

The amendment seeks to clarify what’s allowed by adding sports arenas and stadiums to the list of uses allowed in the districts.

As things stand, the code lists seven categories of permitted uses, ranging from schools, daycare centers and cemeteries to certain kinds of medical facilities. It also includes a provision allowing for “accessory uses on the same lot and customarily incidental to and subordinate to the above uses.”

The city’s and the Rosenblatts’ differing interpretations of that provision is at crux of the dispute.

The amendment to the land-use code would permit outdoor entertainment or recreational developments as unconditional uses in personal service districts. It was prompted by a query from a businessman seeking to establish a paintball range.

Two more proposed amendments – both dealing with ice cream trucks – were referred to the council’s government operations committee, which is slated to review them tonight.

One would create an ordinance regulating the trucks, requiring that operators hold a city license, pay an annual license fee, undergo criminal background checks, provide proof of insurance, meet minimum vehicle standards and follow certain operating regulations. The other would adjust the maximum limit for “sound trucks,” or vehicles that produce sound like the ice cream truck’s limited repertoire of tunes, from 75 to 65 decibels.