Orland to vote on land use ordinance

ORLAND – Voters will decide whether to adopt a new land use ordinance when they meet next week for a special town meeting.

The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 6, at the Orland Town Hall.

The proposed land use ordinance is based on the recommendations of the town’s comprehensive plan that voters adopted in 1999, according to planning board Chairman Millard Clement. The board has worked on the ordinance for about two years, Clement said Wednesday.

The ordinance, if adopted, will establish specific land use districts in the town: village, industrial, highway development, general residential and rural residential, along with the shoreland zone, which had been established earlier. Each district will have specific restrictions, mainly dealing with setbacks and lot size, Clement said.

“Basically, we’re just trying to govern development in the town reasonably,” he said.

The proposal to go before the town contains some changes based on residents’ comments at a public hearing earlier this year. The major changes will affect district boundaries and will include a reduction in lot size and frontage requirements in the rural residential zone. Initially, Clement said, the ordinance proposed a minimum of 300 feet of road frontage and 3 acres for that zone.

“Residents thought the lot sizes were too large,” he said.

The revised ordinance would set 2 acres, with 200 feet of road frontage as the minimum in the rural residential zone.

The ordinance also includes the state’s junkyard law, which the town has used for decades, Clement said.

Voters also will be asked to authorize the selectmen to appoint a committee to research the construction of a new town office building.

Town offices now are located in the lower level of the town hall and are no longer sufficient to meet the town’s needs, according to Selectman Wayne Ames.

“The increase over time has probably been about 200 percent in the amount of traffic in and out of the building,” Ames said Wednesday. “We just don’t have adequate space for our offices or for the public.”

The building also has humidity problems, which was not a serious problem until the town began using computers heavily, he said.

There are some potential sites that could house new town offices, including town-owned land on the Gray Meadow Road where the town’s new salt and sand shed is located.

In other actions, voters also will be asked whether they want to retain two tax-acquired parcels. Each of the lots provides water access, one to Rocky Pond and the other to Upper Patten Pond.

Voters also will be asked to approve minor changes to the town’s site plan review and subdivision ordinances.