Westbrook is considering a change to its Land Use Ordinance to eliminate the use of private ways to meet street frontage requirements and bring back so-called flag lots.
But before the Westbrook City Council makes any decision on the amendment, a public hearing will be held on Monday, Nov. 6.
The way the ordinance is written now, a landowner may build on a back lot that has no street frontage, but has a private way as access. According to City Administrator Jerre Bryant, two homeowners sharing a single private driveway isn’t the problem. The problem is when builders of subdivisions use private ways as access to the subdivisions.
Private ways are used by homeowners to establish frontage. However, the city doesn’t require that private ways meet the standards of public streets. Additionally, the city does not provide plowing, maintenance or trash collection services to properties on private ways.
According to City Planner Brooks More, city staff are concerned that in the future homeowners in subdivisions off private ways might want city services on their road. However, the roads are not built to city standards, so they may be too narrow or unpaved, making access by city plows and garbage trucks difficult or impossible.
The homeowners might feel they deserve city services because they pay taxes, said More, and they might feel the city is “cheating them.” If they garner enough support, they might be able to force the city to start providing services on those roads, said More.
“These private ways are a bad idea,” said Bryant. “It was never the intention to build big subdivisions off of them.”
The alternative, proposed by the Westbrook Planning Board and the administration, is to allow flag lots. This would enable landowners to split a single lot into two lots and then build on the back lot. Flag lots can be created with less than the minimum required street frontage and without building a private way.
The planning board has recommended that the city require driveways on these flag lots to be within a certain distance of the frontage in lieu of a private way. The city would not be required to maintain the driveway.
In other news, the Westbrook City Council gave final approval Monday for the extension of the public sewer to three homes on Harrisburg Avenue.
They are the only homes in the neighborhood without service. When they were built, the three houses in question were considered too far from the nearby existing public sewer system to be cost-effective for the city to service, and have been on septic systems ever since.
“We’re the only three in an enormous landscape that aren’t provided sewer,” said homeowner Craig Bernier at a Facilities and Streets Committee meeting Sept. 25.
A new development of 94 homes is going in near the three homes, so the homeowners asked the city to extend the sewer system being built for the development to their houses and help share the costs. It would require about 225 feet of gravity sewer line, according to City Engineer Eric Dudley.
The city has accepted a proposal for the project from Gorham Sand and Gravel of Gorham costing just over $25,000. Of that total, the city will pay just under $9,500.
The council took an initial vote on the extension at its Oct. 2 meeting, and denied the request. The denial came because the three homeowners couldn’t agree on how to split the just over $15,500 they would have to pay to share the costs with the city.
Immediately following the denial vote, City Councilor Ed Symbol and Bryant met with the three homeowners, who then agreed to split the costs. According to the agreement, Clarisse Davis will pay $2,500, Paul Bernier $5,000 and Craig Bernier just over $8,000.
In other news, the city has adjusted the hours of its finance department at Westbrook City Hall. Residents will now be able to make payments to the city beginning at 8 a.m., instead of 8:30 a.m. This change does not apply the clerk’s office.
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