The Bethel Citizen published a great story in advance of our Wednesday, Feb. 25 forum about the proposed Act to Update the Site Location of Development Law at the Bethel Inn Conference Center that we’re putting on in conjunction with the Bethel Area Business Association. Read the story on their website here, or below.

And remember, this forum, which begins at 8 a.m. is open to the public and we’d love to see you there. Coffee and light refreshments will be provided. Call us at 207.897.6752 or email darryl@main-landdevelopment.com with any questions.

Forum here next week on proposed tightening of DEP land-use restrictions
By Alison Aloisio of the Bethel Citizen

A public forum will take place Wednesday in Bethel on a bill before the Maine Legislature that includes restrictions on the construction of roads to hillside developments, and on the layout of some residential developments larger than 30 acres.

The bill, proposed by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, would update the Site Location of Development Law.

The law regulates medium-to-large-scale development in the state.

The proposed updates have raised concerns among some development-related businesses and have prompted one of them, Main-Land Development Consultants Inc. of Livermore Falls, to hold a series of forums in western Maine.

The Feb. 25 Bethel meeting, which will take place from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the Bethel Inn Conference Center, is co-hosted with the Bethel Area Business Association.

In a press release dated Monday Darryl Brown, the president/owner of Main-Land, voiced his worries about some of the bill’s proposals:

“If enacted, it would limit large-scale non-residential development to designated growth zones, urban compact zones, census designated areas or those areas served by public sewer systems.

“Meanwhile, if a residential development larger than 30 acres is proposed outside these zones, that development would be classified as a conservation subdivision, requiring the preservation of at least 55 percent of the land area.

“The law changes would also prohibit the disturbances of slopes 20 percent or greater, limiting projects in Maine’s mountainous regions, like the greater Bethel area.

“In nearly four decades as a land planner, never have I been more worried about the impact of a piece of legislation than I am now. This would essentially prohibit development in rural Maine and the jobs and revenue it brings.

“In these trying economic times, we should be encouraging investment in our communities, not legislatively preventing it.”

DEP response

Jim Cassida, the licensing coordinator for DEP’s Division of Land Resource Regulation, acknowledged that the bill currently includes wording requiring the preservation of at least 55 percent of the land in some developments larger than 30 acres.

But, he said, “I think we’ll see a lot of discussion about that number. Where we end up could be some place different.”

Cassida said towns that currently have conservation subdivision ordinances requiring such preservation are “all over the map” with their percentages.

But, said Cassida, “Fifty-five is high compared to most.”

As for restrictions aimed at development on steep slopes and ridgelines, Cassida said the bill would not prevent such development, but would limit the design of the roads leading to it.

The intent, he said, is to prevent roads that go “straight up the mountainside.”

Such roads minimize the land area taken up with infrastructure and allow a developer to create more lots, said Cassida.

But roads with lesser grades that follow a more meandering route would generally fit into a hillside environment better.

Other changes

Other parts of the bill include a change in the groundwater standard that replaces a requirement to avoid an unreasonable risk of discharge to a “significant ground water aquifer,” with a requirement to avoid an unreasonable risk of discharge to “ground water;” as well as the repeals of current exceptions for lots of more than 40 and 500 acres in the definition of “subdivision.”

Cassida said DEP welcomes public input on the bill, and anyone wishing to be added to an e-mail list providing updated information on it can contact him at james.cassida@maine.gov.

More information on the bill is currently available on the DEP website at www.maine.gov/dep/blwq/docstand/sitelaw/2009/index.htm.