CAMDEN – The Select Board plans to hold separate public hearings Aug. 12 on three warrant articles submitted by petition by residents.

Two of the articles have to do with the sale of the Apollo Tannery property and one would amend the local zoning ordinance to prohibit all residential inn, hotel and motel uses within the Harbor Business District.

The three petitions were submitted to the Select Board before the annual town meeting in June, but the board voted against placing the articles on the warrant.

Instead, the board members placed their own articles on the warrant, which voters on June 10 approved by almost 2-to-1.

The petitioners feel the Select Board, in rejecting their petitioned articles, stepped on their constitutional rights. Portland attorney John C. Bannon, who represents the petitioners, called the board’s action illegal under Maine law, which allows residents the right to submit legislation through the petition process.

“I certainly think the right to petition is one of the most critical parts of government, to submit a petition without having anything filtered out,” Bannon said Friday in a telephone interview. “That’s way beyond the discretion of the board to exercise.”

Select Board Chairman John French said Friday by phone that the right to petition law in Maine is not in jeopardy because of the Camden board’s action.

“The board at the time felt the petitioned articles were not for the good of the town,” French said.

“At the time, the planning board had put so many hours into reviewing harbor zoning, and the special task force for the Apollo Tannery property had put so much effort into the project,” he said. “We recognized all that effort and that they had some good ideas.”

French said the board will move forward after Tuesday’s hearing and schedule a referendum vote at a special town meeting in mid-September at the public safety building.

“I can’t say the board will support the articles, but we will have the referendum,” he said.

Under a July 10 agreement between the Select Board and the petitioners, the three articles will be placed on the warrant for a special town meeting to be held in September.

The wording of the two Apollo articles filed by the Camden Citizens for Megunticook Riverwalk will be placed on the special town meeting warrant without change, according to Bannon.

Tuesday’s public hearing will consider the revised wording of the Harbor Business District Overlay Zone amendments for the third article submitted by the petitioners.

The planning board in a public hearing July 2 had voted 4-1 not to support the proposed article.

The public hearings on the petitions will be held starting at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 12, at the Washington Street meeting room.

gchappell@bangordailynews.net

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