Group launches anti-Walgreens petition

ROCKLAND – Residents opposed to a Walgreens pharmacy coming to the city launched an official petition drive Friday to repeal the zoning ordinance amendment passed in a 3-2 vote by the City Council on Aug. 11.

The petition is part of a four-pronged strategy to overturn the council’s decision, said Robert Peabody of the Rockland Neighborhood Association, a citizen group formed to protect residential neighborhoods from encroaching commercial development.

Walgreens is seeking to build an 11,500-square-foot drugstore at the corner of Maverick and Camden streets.

Peabody told the Bangor Daily News by telephone Friday that he was sorry the City Council had set aside the recommendation of the planning board and the comprehensive planning commission not to have the zoning change.

Other points of the neighborhood strategy include hiring an attorney to consider a lawsuit against the city on the grounds that the council’s decision went against the comprehensive plan, finding neighborhood-friendly candidates for two council seats open in the November election and looking into a state law to apply for mass tax abatement by all the neighbors whose residential properties would be adversely affected by the planned drugstore, Peabody said.

“We would sue the city because the City Council is not following its own ordinance,” said Peabody, a former mayor.

On Friday morning, a committee of 19 residents led by former councilor and state legislator Paul Chartrand took out petition papers from City Clerk Stuart Sylvester to start the drive. Chartrand said 480 signatures of voters registered in Rockland are needed.

The petition question reads: “Shall the ordinance entitled ‘Authorizing Zoning Map Amendment and Conditional Zoning of Property in the vicinity of the Intersection of Camden Street and Maverick Street for a Walgreens Pharmacy’ be repealed?”

Chartrand said the City Council would have to review the petition after the signatures are gathered and schedule a public hearing on a referendum and then another council meeting to pick the day to vote.

“I would say late November or early December, maybe even January,” Chartrand said. The council has 60 days to schedule a vote.

“They’re going to be in control of the timetable, but they do have to put this on a ballot,” he said.

The petition committee includes four former city councilors, two former city attorneys and a former state representative.

“This is a diverse group of citizens,” resident Ken Pride said of the committee. “They’re not just from the neighborhood.”

gchappell@bangordailynews.net

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