AUGUSTA – Coastal Maine towns that want more control over proposed aquaculture leases would have that option under legislation that cleared the Joint Standing Committee on Marine Resources on Tuesday.

The bill, which now goes to votes in both the House and Senate, would give communities the opportunity to develop local aquaculture ordinances that apply to the first 2,500 feet of a town’s waterfront, according to Sen. David Lemoine, the Old Orchard Beach Democrat who co-chairs the committee.

A municipal officer must initiate the ordinance before it goes to the floor of a town meeting, a provision that was suggested by the Maine Municipal Association, Lemoine said. Ordinances may be designed to apply to shellfish or finfish aquaculture, but one ordinance cannot apply to both types, he said.

The option for municipalities to develop their own aquaculture ordinances is the most controversial part of a bill that initially included a proposed two-year moratorium on new aquaculture leases west of the Bass Harbor Light, a requirement that the aquaculture industry pay a living wage, and municipal veto power on proposed aquaculture leases off their shores.

The original bill drew hundreds of fish farm workers, municipal officials, conservationists and others to a Jan. 26 hearing. The committee dropped the moratorium, the living wage requirement and the provision for municipal veto power during its first work session after the hearing, but met for two more work sessions before adopting a final bill by a vote of 8-4.

Lemoine said that Sen. Peggy Pendleton, D-Cumberland, did not attend Thursday’s work session.

Voting against the bill were Sen. Kenneth Lemont, the York Republican who co-chairs the committee, and Reps. Ronald Usher, D-Westbrook, Deborah McNeil, R-Rockland, and Kevin Muse, R-Fryeburg, Lemoine said.

Lemoine said the committee worked for hours on a way to add to the existing siting criteria municipal concerns, such as tourism, recreation and scenic character, but decided it would be more effective to allow towns to develop their own ordinances if they chose to do so.

“We can’t generate from Augusta a one-size-fits-all ordinance to cover the entire coast of Maine,” he said.

For coastal communities that do not develop their own ordinance or for aquaculture lease applications that are more than 2,500 feet from shore, the Maine Department of Marine Resources will continue to apply existing siting criteria.

Those criteria include whether the lease proposal will interfere with flora and fauna, commercial or recreational fishing, and the ability of riparian landowners to have access to their property, Lemoine said.

The proposed legislation expands the notification requirement on lease applications from landowners within 1,000 feet of a proposed lease site to those within 2,500 feet, Lemoine said.

The committee accepted the DMR’s proposed change in the notification process to include notice that an application has been filed as well as notice of a public hearing on the application.

The bill requires finfish farmers to certify to the department yearly that their operations are in compliance with their National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permits, Lemoine said.

The bill also creates an Aquaculture Advisory Council made up of three shellfish farmers and three finfish farmers appointed by the commissioner and the commissioner and his designee.

The proposed legislation establishes an Aquaculture Fund that will be created by assessing fish farmers. Finfish farmers will pay 1 cent a pound for each pound of whole fish they produce and will pay more in lease fees.

Lemoine said the DMR would determine how to assess shellfish farmers for the fund.

The money will be used, in part, to fund two new monitoring positions within the department, Lemoine said.

Lemoine said he knows there will be heavy lobbying around the bill, but is optimistic about its chances before the full Legislature.

“It was approved by a very solid margin and I think it balances the competing uses of the ocean very well,” he said. “It encourages the growth of aquaculture, but also allows other values to be brought into the process at a local level.”