Comprehensive plan reviewed Blue Hill residents raise questions about land-use proposals

BLUE HILL – There were more concerns than accolades Wednesday night as a group of about 50 residents reviewed the proposed comprehensive plan for the town.

A committee has been working for about three years on the plan that recently was accepted by the state as being in compliance with Maine’s Growth Management Act. The plan is scheduled to go to voters in a referendum vote in March, and Wednesday’s gathering was the last scheduled informational meeting before a formal public hearing on the plan.

The vote itself was one of the concerns raised by some residents who argued the issue should be discussed at the annual town meeting rather than decided by a referendum vote.

“We got signatures from 90 people who are upset that it will not be discussed at town meeting,” one woman said. “All previous plans were; this one should be, too.”

Comprehensive plan committee members argued that the vote should be done by referendum.

Selectman Bill Grindle noted the town meeting rarely draws more than 120 people, he said.

“And as soon as the school budget passes, most of them leave,” he said. “The way to get to the most number of people is to put it up for a town referendum vote.”

Most of the discussion Wednesday, however, focused on the land-use section of the plan that recommends establishing a residential growth area surrounding and adjacent to the existing village area. That proposal is part of a rural area protection strategy designed to keep growth at the center of town, according to committee Chairman Barney Boardman.

As a way to encourage growth in that designated area, Boardman said, the plan recommends offering more building permits for the residential growth area than for the rural area, on a 2-1 ratio. Residents, however, raised a number of concerns claiming that restrictions would limit the ability of people to build homes. Some predicted a backlog of people in the rural area waiting for building permits that could damage the town’s construction industry.

Others argued that much of the designated residential growth area is unbuildable for a number of reasons, which further restricts the number of permits available in the rural area.

“The rural area has about 80 percent of the land in town, and you’d be severely limiting the rights of those landowners,” one man said. “They’d be held hostage to what happens in the residential growth area.”

Committee members noted that the first step in the planning process was a community survey which drew responses from 800 households in town. According to Boardman, 70 percent of those responding indicated they wanted the town to stay the same.

“This plan will help us do that,” he said.

Others noted, however, that the survey indicated that 57 percent of those responding wanted to be able to build anywhere in town while only 18 percent favored limiting building to designated areas.

Although committee members stressed that the plan contained recommendations in the form of sets of goals and strategies to reach those goals, it did not establish any new rules or regulations. Residents, however, raised the possibility that the plan lays the groundwork for zoning.

“This is the first rung on the ladder,” said Selectman John Bannister. “If you like what you see, vote for it to get to the top of the ladder.”

“Don’t vote for this thinking it’s just a cordial little thing,” he said. “This is a very serious document and if it is approved, it could come back and affect the town in ways unforeseen by a lot of us.”

Committee members argued that the document was indeed the first step toward resolving some of the issues the town has faced in recent years, including a dwindling younger population, living-wage jobs, traffic, and affordable housing, as well as the issues of growth and sprawl.

“Blue Hill is growing exponentially,” Grindle said. “The town has to start somewhere if we want to retain any profile of what they have now.”