Brewer approves zoning change

BREWER – When the city’s shore land zoning was put into place years ago, it didn’t take into account existing utility lines, and now that Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. is looking for permits to add a new transmission line through the city, an amendment is needed, city officials are saying.

After a public hearing on Monday, Brewer planning board members reviewed and approved three changes to the land use code, two that changed outdated wording and one that would allow gas or electric transmission lines as a permitted use in two of the city’s three shore land districts.

“What we did was add, under the stream protection district and overlay district, electric transmission lines and gas lines” as permitted uses, City Planner Linda Johns said Tuesday.

A Maritimes & Northeast pipeline and a Maine Power Co. electric transmission line, both built years ago, now pass through Brewer.

The planning board’s recommendation will be forwarded to the City Council for review during its Oct. 11 meeting.

The new wording would “change language to allow the code [enforcement] officer discretion to allow uses in the shore land zone,” Dave Russell, Brewer code enforcement officer, said at Monday’s meeting.

Bangor Hydro requested the city to review the zoning to ensure there would be no problems with the Brewer portion of its planned Northeast Reliability Interconnect, which is a new 345-kilovolt transmission line that starts in Orrington and connects to Point Lepreau, New Brunswick.

“In our point of view, this is an expansion of an existing use,” Steve Sloan, Bangor Hydro NRI permitting manager, told the board on Monday. “This is not a new use.”

The proposed NRI would run parallel with the existing MEPCO line, which starts at the Orrington town line and crosses the junction of Wilson Street and Interstate 395 before heading toward the Eddington town line and on into Canada.

If City Council approves the zoning amendment, “[Bangor Hydro] would have to come back and get the [building] permits from the code officer,” Johns said.

During the meeting, the board also:

. Approved a site plan for two apartment buildings, with a total of nine units, for Pierce Road owned by Rick and Susan Scripture. The buildings will be located behind Wing Auto Sales and construction is expected to start this fall on one of the buildings.

. Amended a site plan for Downeast Toyota, 652 Wilson St., to allow the car dealership to expand and construct a display parking lot on the empty lot created by the realignment of Pierce Road.