TOPSHAM
With only about three dozen registered voters in attendance, Wednesday’s special town meeting at Mt. Ararat High School wrapped up business in about 35 minutes.
Residents elected Robert Lenna to moderate the meeting, then made quick work of the remaining four warrant articles, passing them all. Of those four, a proposed sign ordinance amendment contained in Article 4 garnered the most discussion.
Donald Spann, chairman of the Planning Board, said the board recommended passing the amendment to provide the town with zoning for new zones that were created but “fell through the cracks” and weren’t added to the sign tables. The town’s attorney advised that Topsham shouldn’t allow signs in these zones until rules for their placement could be incorporated into the sign tables.
The Planning Board continues to work on a comprehensive review of the entire sign ordinance as was requested by voters at the last town meeting.
Resident Bill Fitzsimmons asked, “Am I to understand this is a temporary ordinance? The intention is that there will be a new ordinance that takes a more holistic approach to the sign ordinance?”
Planning Board member Stephen Mathieu affirmed that the measure before voters Wednesday would be temporary.
“This will stand until the current sign ordinance is replaced,” Mathieu said. “We’ve been working since the last town meeting on a comprehensive sign ordinance. We’ve had workshops … every meeting actually,” and the next three months will include a third monthly meeting to “ take a very activist approach to get to a comprehensive sign amendment … we can take to the May (2012) town meeting.
“The sign ordinance today, it’s old and it doesn’t (address) all the new zones that have popped up in town, so we’re looking at sizes, descriptions, where they can go, where they can’t go, a lot of things,” Mathieu added.
The amendment voters subsequently adopted Wednesday affects four zones put in place as part of the Main Street Plan in 2008 and 2009
“We have zones in our town today that can’t have signs,” because of the omission, “and the Planning Board feels that’s really not fair,” Mathieu said.
According to a handout map, the zones affected by the amendment are the Business Park 2, Limited Industrial, Village Center and the Main Street Residential zones.
Speaking as a business potentially impacted by the sign table omission Wednesday was Adam Lee, chairman of Lee Auto Malls and president of Lee Toyota. Lee made the case “ that we’ve spent years designing and working with the town and they’ve worked incredibly hard to work with us and we’ve tried to work with them and we’ve come up with a lot of compromises.”
The dealership is building a new dealership on Main Street on the opposite side of the Route 196 Coastal Connector from its current location on Main Street.
“We’ve put in 50,000 bricks in front of our building to make it look like the town hall — the same color brick, the same brick, the same brick yard,” Lee said. “We’re trying very hard to be good neighbors and good citizens. We were a little shocked to find out while we may be opened in April, we may not have a sign then, or who knows when. It’s discouraging.”
Selectman Andrew Mason told fellow residents he has been conflicted about the proposed amendment, and questioned why the town should pass temporary zoning that would allow signs to go in that might become non-conforming and need to be grandfathered, when in six months, a more comprehensive solution would be in place.
Planning Board member Michael Colleran noted that there is no guarantee a new comprehensive sign ordinance would be adopted at May town meeting.
Other votes
Article 2 asked voters whether to approve a $10,000 Community Development Block Grant to fund a public transit feasibility study.
The Midcoast Council of Goverments prepared the grant application, which requires no match from the town, according to Economic and Community Development Director John Shattuck.
Community Development Block Grants require a municipal sponsor, which Topsham will serve as because it is the direct beneficiary.
The study the grant will fund has three goals. It will assess the feasibility of connecting Topsham to the Brunswick Explorer area, as well as the feasibility of connecting the Brunswick Explorer transit area to the Bath public bus transit area, “and finally to see if we can maximize the impact of the folks” at the expanded Downeaster service at Brunswick Station, by moving visitors to area attractions and events, Shattuck said.
Voters also adopted Article 3, which sought “ to take money that was set aside at the 2005 and 2006 May town meetings for the specific purpose of developing a waterfront park in the area of the Lower Village in the Green Street area,” Shattuck said.
Voters on Wednesday endorsed the Board of Selectmen’s recommended amount of $26,000 for design of conceptual waterfront park plans.
During five public forums, Shattuck said Wednesday, “the interest in developing a size appropriate” waterfront park area of appropriate scope for neighboring residents and businesses, was strong and is reflected in the interim report that has been developed by the town’s consultant, Wright-Pierce, which conducted the study.
In answer to a question from Fitzsimmons, Shattuck confirmed that no new funds will be raised this year for this item. The $26,000 voters agreed to spend are funds that have already been authorized, and the article sought authorization only for the expenditure.
The last article, which amended the fairground ordinance, passed as recommended by the Planning Board with no discussion.
The amendment creates three layers of review for events at the fairgrounds: Events during regular fair week; with some additional review standards, events outside of fair week consisting of the same type of activities held during fair week; and special events that will require selectmen to hold a public hearing and to conduct a conditional use hearing.
According to Town Clerk Ruth Lyons, 37 of Topsham’s 6,558 registered voters attended Wednesday’s meeting, a 0.56 percent voter turnout.
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