Officials considering two construction ordinances
By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer
DOVER-FOXCROFT — Earlier in the month Town Manager Jack Clukey met with the planning board to bring up the concepts of impact fees and contract rezoning. An impact fee could be used to cover and/or assist with the costs to a community related to development costs, such as roads and sidewalk improvements, with the developer funding a portion or all of the expenses, while contract rezoning can make conditions easier for developers to work with a town on projects provided certain conditions have been met.
“At our last meeting we talked about the tools that can be used for land use planning,’ Clukey said during a Jan. 13 selectmen’s meeting, adding that tools such as impact fees and contract rezoning can provide more flexibility for some zoning issues. “So basically the planning board talked a little about those concepts and thought they would be valuable for the town to have.”
Clukey drafted language that would amend the Dover-Foxcroft Land Use Ordinance to include both impact fees and contract rezoning. “That is basically the minimum language that would be required if we wanted to incorporate that language into our land use ordinance,” he said.
The selectmen voted to proceed with the potential ordinances, sending the documents to the planning board for further review. “This enables a proposal to be put together,” Clukey said, as the planning board would examine both the land use ordinance amendments concerning impact fees and contracting rezoning.
The planning board could hold a public hearing or multiple sessions on the amendments, which would then be decided via town meeting vote.
In other business, Connie Sands was appointed as building inspector through the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2014. “Every town our size needs to have an appointed building inspector,” Clukey said, saying former building inspector Tom Brown moved out of town.
“Connie has graciously agreed to step in,” Clukey said. “Really the focus is identifying dangerous buildings and working with the property owner.” Sands also serves as code enforcement officer for Dover-Foxcroft.
Clukey said during the December selectmen’s meeting the board discussed the Municipal Review Committee (MRC) — made up of communities disposing waste at the PERC facility in Orrington — which is “really looking at now and between 2018 and what really is the best route for waste disposal beyond 2018; really they are trying to look at options and see what is most cost effective long-term.”
A bill is in the Legislature concerning waste disposal in which funds would be collected from communities that send waste to landfills and then distributed to towns that utilize waste to energy facilities. Clukey said the MRC approves the bill and feels it reinforces the status quo at a time when municipalities should be examining other options that may provide longer and more cost effective solutions.
In his town manager’s report, Clukey also said Dover-Foxcroft’s portion of the 2014 Piscataquis County budget is up by “a very modest increase from last year.” He said the town’s portion of the spending plan, which will be formally voted on by the selectmen at a later date, is up by about .7 percent from the previous year.
“For a few years we have been part of the Maine Downtown Network,” Clukey said. He said as part of this membership the town and other organizations will be working with the Piscataquis Regional YMCA on a project, funded by the Maine Healthy Access Foundation, to identify health-related issues in the area and strategies to then address the problem.
“Every Saturday till the second weekend in February volunteers will teach ‘Learn to Skate,’” Clukey said about the program from noon to 1 p.m. at the rink at the Piscataquis Valley Fairgrounds.
Selectman Scott Taylor said, “Town rec programs have record numbers,” in regard to participants in youth basketball this season. Taylor added that trail maps will soon be posted on the town website for activities such as snowshoeing and cross country skiing.