BELFAST – The City Council is moving forward with plans to eliminate the East Side big box zone established by the voters four years ago.

The council on Tuesday agreed to take up the matter at their next meeting and instructed City Planner Wayne Marshall to prepare the documents needed to amend the comprehensive plan and the zoning ordinance to block a Lowe’s Home Improvement Store from building a shopping center on the 80-acre Searsport Avenue site.

“I will have the language ready for their next meeting, and there will probably be a public hearing by the end of March,” Marshall said Wednesday.

The big box zone, or special commercial district, was established by public referendum in 2004 and was promoted by local businessman Dana Keene, who holds options on the site. The measure passed by a vote of 1,981 to 1,795. The vote reversed a 2001 election that rejected big box stores 1,296 to 770.

Keene’s group, New Shopping Opportunities for Belfast, pushed for the vote after the council established a maximum size cap for retail stores of 75,000 square feet after the 2001 vote.

Within a year, forces mobilized in support of a measure to change the city charter to eliminate the provision that allowed land use decisions to be approved by referendum. The amendment passed by a vote of 1,225 to 1,131.

In approving the amendment, the voters placed the power to determine zoning issues in the hands of the City Council. The result was that a majority of three councilors now have the authority to overturn the will of the 1,981 voters who approved the special commercial district.

“When three of you can say ‘Your vote does not count,’ that offends me,” Back Belmont Road resident Vera Bailey told the council.

Bangor attorney Andrew Hamilton, who represented the shopping opportunities group at Tuesday’s meeting, acknowledged that the council had the legal right to eliminate the commercial district. Hamilton suggested, however, that because of the public’s strong support for the district, especially residents of the East Side, the council should consider another referendum, preferably in November when presidential elections usually attract a large turnout.

“You can make a decision on the zoning issue, but is that the right thing? You might want to consider this as a democracy issue,” Hamilton said. “Ask the voters what they think.”

When councilor Larry Theye made a motion to conduct a referendum on Nov. 4 it was defeated by a 3-2 vote. Theye’s motion was supported by councilor James Roberts. Roger Lee, Jan Anderson and Cathy Heberer voted against the referendum.

“I think to have growth on both sides of the city is totally wrong,” Heberer said.

Heberer was referring to last year’s decision by the council to establish a special zone for large commercial development on an 80-acre site off Route 3. That site was zoned for a single store selling general merchandise and groceries, similar to a Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart officials informed the city last week that there are no plans to locate a store in Belfast.

Even before the city zoned that site to accommodate Wal-Mart, it was targeted by Lowe’s as an ideal spot to locate a home improvements store. When the council, again by a 3-2 vote, rejected Lowe’s request for a zone change on the Route 3 site, the company turned its gaze to the Searsport Avenue district.

The district is zoned for shopping centers up to 200,000 square feet in size, and Lowe’s has proposed building a 175,000- square-foot store and garden center along with two separate 2,500-square-foot buildings.

Economic consultant Noreen Norton of Augusta advised the council that the Lowe’s project would cost in the range of $16 million to $18 million. The store would create approximately 150 new jobs, 75 percent of which would be full time, and pay in the $14 to $21 per hour range. Benefits include medical, dental, life insurance, retirement plans and scholarships. Norton said the store would contribute $2 million in property taxes over 10 years.

Lowe’s is scheduled to outline its proposal to the planning board next week.

wgriffin@bangordailynews.net

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