After a public hearing on Tuesday July 26, the Windham Town Council approved a set of design guidelines as an amendment to the land-use ordinance with a six to one vote in favor. Councilor Elizabeth Wisecup voted against the design guidelines citing that they would be difficult to enforce.
Debate at meetings prior to the public hearing centered around whether design criteria for new commercial development in Windham would be adopted as standards or guidelines. Standards would have dictated how a developer must design their commercial property. Guidelines would require the developer to address certain design criteria to the “greatest extent possible,” according to the amendment to the ordinance. The new design guidelines grant the Planning Board the power to negotiate design with developers, but do not enforce specifics.
Kristi MacKinnon of Haven Road asserted during the public hearing that the council should not be afraid of instating strict design standards for fear that developers might build elsewhere.
“Windham is our home and we can make the rules as to what people are going to do if they are going to come into our backyard,” MacKinnon said. “And so I don’t think we should worry about doing they want us to do. I think they should worry about what we want them to do.”
Tom Gleason conversely argued that the guidelines need to be flexible so the town doesn’t scare away needed business in town.
“You’ve got to get some jobs here,” Gleason said. “The design standards have to be flexible. You don’t want to throw any business out of town. We’re in dire need of that.”
Planning Board member David Nadeau thanked the council for moving forward with the design guidelines, but argued, by dictionary definition, that the guidelines should be considered as standards if they are to be part of a town ordinance.
“Definition of ordinance: a statute or regulation, especially one enacted by a town government,” Nadeau said. “I believe this herein lies our problem. Laws, statutes, ordinances are written in black and white. Yes, they’re flexible, but you put in the law each little flexibility to it.”
According to Town Attorney Kenneth Cole, the difference between standards and guidelines also lies in the wording. Standards say “must” and guidelines say “should”, he said. It may seem like a small change, but it makes a difference in the way the law is enforced, says Cole.
After much squabble and confusion over definitions, word choice and Robert’s Rules of Order, the council decided to amend the amendment and add a paragraph to the ordinance stating that developers must produce a written response as to how they would address each item in the design guidelines.
With the approval of the guidelines, new developers will now be required to address the design criteria as part of their site plan review process.
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