On Thursday, the City Council will consider the Planning Board’s recommended amendments to Shoreland Zoning ”“ the results of nine months of hard work and considerable debate.
The proposed amendments seek to resolve longstanding problems with the current ordinance. Besides settling problems of interpretation, they will extend Shoreland Zoning Protection to an additional 93 acres, City Planner Greg Tansley said in a memo to the City Council, and provide stricter standards than state law requires.
But the proposal has been greeted with vigorous opposition because a provision could allow new residential construction along a key section of Mile Stretch Road. As one opponent said, the proposed rules would create five new buildable lots next to “one of the richest intertidal resources in the state: Biddeford Pool.”
That observation was made by a wildlife ecologist writing on behalf of Maine Audubon. The city also received letters of concern from the Biddeford Pool Land Trust, the Biddeford Conservation Commission, EPA New England, and the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge.
“Anyone who drives along Bridge Road and Mile Stretch reacts to the startling openness of salt marsh and tidal pool,” commented the president of the Biddeford Pool Land Trust. In a letter to the Planning Board, Tom Craven argued that the area merits the highest level of Shoreland Zoning protection, not only as habitat but as an area of great natural beauty.
The Planning Board has put in months of work on this project, and has labored to be fair to property owners and to establish an ordinance that is effective and enforceable. The city planner has assured the council that the change would have no effect on coastal resources.
But we urge city councilors to carefully consider the objections raised by someone who is fully involved in this project. Anita Coupe, who chairs the Planning Board, argues that the city should not create a Limited Residential zone on Mile Stretch property that is now designated Resource Protection.
This approach would allow construction of five additional houses, she said, and would increase development on the Pool side of the road by 30 percent, raising the risks of water pollution, stress on wildlife and a loss of scenic beauty. Her letter to the City Council makes a persuasive argument that the Mile Stretch proposal works against an essential purpose of Shoreland Zoning ”“ preserving valuable shoreland resources.
We hope councilors are committed enough to this valuable effort, and to the preservation of Biddeford Pool, to promote an option that does not encourage new construction on Mile Stretch Road.
— Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Nick Cowenhoven at nickc@journaltribune.com or City Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski at kristenm@journaltribune.com.
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