Belfast panels reach consensus on big-box stores

BELFAST – The City Council and planning board have reached consensus on establishing a contract rezoning area for big-box stores.

The two panels conducted a joint meeting Wednesday and agreed to allow one large store in the area bordered by Crocker Road and U.S. Route 1. Development will be confined to the north side of Route 3.

Both groups also agreed to conduct joint preliminary meetings whenever an application for any store 75,000 square feet or larger is filed with the city. Under the current policy, applications receive their initial review by the planning board before being passed on to the council. The council will still have final approval of all contract rezoning agreements.

City planner Wayne Marshall said conducting joint reviews would improve communications between the council and planning board while also providing the applicant with a sense of what the community wants for a specific project.

“There will be more interaction between the two boards,” Marshall said Thursday. “It’s so the entire community has a good understanding of where it’s headed as a whole. This is injecting them [the council] in the key decision-making process.”

He said that the process would benefit the applicant as well because the firm would know going in what it was the city wanted, instead of waiting until the contract rezoning application landed on the council’s desk for approval.

“It will give the applicant more confidence as well,” he said. “They will be dealing with more knowns than unknowns when they walk through the door.”

During the meeting, Marshall presented the council and planning board with an outline of what the revised retail zone would look like and how oversight of the permitting process could be controlled. Councilor James Roberts reacted strongly to the information packet, claiming that the council wanted something less cumbersome that could be quickly legislated into law.

“You’re dragging this thing out,” Roberts chided Marshall.

Marshall replied that some of the items in the package, while not directly related to the big-box retail zone, were policy decisions he believed needed to be addressed. Included in that group was a proposal to prevent development from extending along Route 3 beyond Crocker Road.

Marshall said the recommendation called for banning gas stations, fast-food restaurants and retail stores from that Route 3 area. He said the existing Perry’s Furniture store would be grandfathered and allowed to expand.

Marshall stressed that under the proposed contract rezoning ordinance, only one store larger than 75,000 square feet would be permitted in the new retail zone. That store would be limited to sales of groceries, general merchandise or clothing.

He said the ordinance would specifically prohibit building supply stores, such as Lowe’s, which currently has an option on an 80-acre parcel within the boundaries of the new zone. He said the ordinance would also include a requirement that the applicant conduct an adverse economic impact study, similar to what is now governed by state law.

The council and planning board are scheduled to continue their discussion of the proposed contract rezoning ordinance when they meet again next week.