News in brief ORONO: PUD MORATORIUM EXTENDED

The council voted Monday to extend the moratorium on planned unit developments for six months while revisions are made to the current ordinance. The town’s planning consultant, Evan Richert of the University of Southern Maine, is expected to have a first draft of the revised planned unit development ordinance ready for a public hearing at a planning board meeting sometime in late October. It then will go to the council for another public hearing and final approval. The current moratorium on PUDs expires at the end of this month but has been extended through the end of March. Town officials intend to have completed the revisions before that time, Town Manager Cathy Conlow said Tuesday. “We’re looking to adopt something by the end of 2005, beginning of ’06,” she said. The council then will simultaneously adopt the revised ordinance and lift the moratorium. “We expect to get done well before the end of the six months,” Conlow said. (Aimee Dolloff, BDN)