03/13/09
(updated 05/08/09)
Council sets hearing on business district rewrite for May 11, 2009
The Town Council will hold a public hearing on Monday, May 11, on a proposed set of amendments to the zoning ordinance that will re-define the Business A District in town.
The hearing will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Town Hall chamber. Cape Elizabeth has two business A districts: One along Route 77 roughly between Broad Cove roads and Kettle Cove roads; and, the other along Shore Road near the South Portland line.
The business district overhaul is a directive of the 2007 comprehensive plan update, and is designed to create a more neighborhood-friendly business district.
Features of the re-write include new definitions, permitted uses, performance standards and design standards, all with an eye toward creating a more neighborhood-friendly business district.
The purpose of the Business A District, as re-written in the ordinance overhaul, defines it as "neighborhood business district where the business uses are geared to the needs of nearby residents rather than a large scale, regional destination center.
"The district requirements should promote (i) business vitality, (ii) pedestrian connectivity between the business district and the adjacent residential areas, (iii) a mix of commercial and housing uses, (iv) high quality design that is pedestrian friendly, compatible with, and protects the integrity of the adjacent residential neighborhood, and (v) an efficient use of the land within the district for business uses. The smallest lots may have an abbreviated range of uses in order to comply with the purpose of the district," the amendment reads.
Among highlights are:
- Definition of a "restaurant" as an establishment that derives less than 25 percent of its annual revenue from the sale of alcohol;
- Restrictions on hours of operation and serving of alcohol for businesses located within 100 feet of a residential district;
- Requirements for either sidewalk construction or improvement (Shore Road area) or pedestrian pathway (Route 77 area);
- Inclusion of "bed and breakfast" as a permitted use.
Also under consideration will be amendments to the resource-protection standards of the zoning ordinance, which will reduce the required buffer around a critical wetland in the BA district from 250 feet to 100 feet, provided the business is served by public water and sewer. This change would only impact the Route 77 area, where some businesses are currently prohibited from expansion or any other activity because they are already within the current 250-foot wetland buffer.
On the Shore Road end of town, the amendments also propose to amend the zoning map by adding the property at 553 Shore Road to the business zone.
Addition of this property generated the most discussion at the Town Council's meeting March 9, when the council set the amendments to public hearing.
Neighborhood residents have long opposed the rezoning. Edward Materson, a resident of Charles Road, told councilors that 553 Shore Road is surrounded by residences, not businesses. "There is no reason we should tolerate more business in what is essentially a residential zone," he said.
Complicating the issue is the questionable zoning of 551 Shore Road, which stands between 553 Shore Road and the existing business district. Town maps show the property as being zoned for business, but the property's owner, Jane Waning Nicholas, said that she bought the property as residential in 1992.
She has formally applied to have the property returned to residential zoning, and some councilors believed discussion on the business district amendments should wait until the zoning of 551 Shore Road is considered by the Planning Board. Jim Rowe, chairman of the council, moved to table the business district amendments, but only councilors Paul McKenney and David Backer supported his motion.
Sara Lennon, a councilor and chairman of the council's ordinance subcommittee, said she believed the zoning of 551 Shore Road was too small an issue to prolong a vote on the business district overhaul. "These issues are not necessarily interdependent," she said. "To send this back to committee would be counterproductive," Lennon said.
The council referred the business district amendments to the ordinance committee last November. They had been reviewed and re-written, following several meetings and public hearings and forums, by the Planning Board, which recommended their approval to the council last October.
Since then the council's ordinance committee has also met several times and conducted a site walk. Councilors did see a need to move the proposed amendments forward, but were also concerned that next month's agenda, which will include a public hearing on the town budget, will be too full to give the business district amendments proper attention. The May 11, 2009 date was chosen instead, and approved by a 6-0 vote. Councilor Anne Swift-Kayatta was absent from the meeting.
Previous and related stories:
|
