The Gorham Town Council has passed an ordinance limiting where registered sex offenders can live in the town.
The ordinance prohibits sex offenders from living or loitering within 2,500 feet of a school and 1,000 feet of a child-care center.
Councilor Shonn Moulton, who sponsored the ordinance, said the ordinance applies to the campus of the University of Southern Maine because the Gorham campus has a child-care center.
The new ordinance, passed July 3, takes effect on Aug. 1.
Moulton said the ordinance is a blend of similar sex-offender ordinances developed in Waterboro, Lyman and Baldwin. He described it as an ordinance that affects police power and doesn’t need approval from the planning board.
There are now 16 convicted sex offenders living or working in Gorham, according to the Maine sex offender registry Web site.
Moulton said he sponsored the measure because the Maine Legislature had failed to enact a law restricting where sex offenders could live.
Rep. Chris Barstow, D-Gorham, said recently the Legislature is still in the process of reviewing how the state should regulate where sex offenders live.
“It’s my hope that Legislature could pass a solution in the coming year that would be workable for all communities,” Barstow said.
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