BANGOR – Members of the city’s planning board voted 5-0 Tuesday night to recommend that the City Council rezone a Davis Road property.
At issue is a roughly half-acre lot at 53 Davis Road that has housed a mobile home since 1989.
The mobile home was installed on the wrong lot, an error that went undetected until recently, when the property was acquired by Green Tree Servicing LLC through foreclosure proceedings.
Now Green Tree, through its attorney, Robert Neault of Naples, is asking that the property be rezoned from its current rural residents and agriculture designation to low-density residential.
That would bring the property into closer conformance with the city’s land development code, but it would still be in violation. That would be a problem outside the planning board’s purview but within the jurisdiction of the city’s code enforcement office, Planning Officer David Gould noted.
During the public hearing that preceded the board’s recommendation, Chairman Robert Guerette asked if Green Tree had explored any alternatives to rezoning, such purchasing land from an abutter.
Neault said that would not solve the problem because the adjacent lot just meets the city’s minimum frontage requirements.
Guerette also wanted to know if there was any benefit to city from the rezoning.
Gould said that it would preclude some of the activities allowed in the less restrictive rural residence and agriculture district.
Gould further said that the city’s comprehensive plan indicates that a low-density residential designation would be appropriate for the parcel, both in terms of land use and zoning.
“I don’t see it as any really major fix, but I don’t see any harm in doing it,” Guerette said.
Gould agreed. He added, however, “As to how the city is going to resolve the lingering issue of nonconformance, I don’t know.”
The zone change request will be among the items that city councilors take up during their next regular meeting, set for 7:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall.
Comments
comments for this post are closed