Dexter planners table Community Bill of Rights

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    DEXTER — The Dexter Planning Board briefly discussed an ordinance at its April 23 meeting to prohibit the construction of “private transportation and distributing corridors” through the community, but took no action on the request.
    A Community Bill of Rights Ordinance targeting the proposed highway was rejected by the Town Council earlier this month because of concerns about its legality.

    Many Planning Board members hadn’t received a copy of the document or the legal opinion from Bernstein-Shur until just prior to Thursday’s meeting.
    “I think we better take this home and study it,” said Chairman Richard Gilbert. “This has been kicking around here for about three or four years already.”
    But Marcia Delaware, a member of the committee that drafted the ordinance, said that she would like to see the Planning Board “come up with a simple statement that could go into the land use ordinance that would give us the protection that the referendum called for.”
    Dexter voters approved a referendum last year to prohibit construction of a private transportation route through the community by a vote of 788-630.
    The question – and the proposed ordinance – was aimed at the proposed East-West highway, a 220-mile controlled-access road linking the New Brunswick and Quebec borders.
    The Town Council has also extended an original six-month moratorium on construction of the corridor three times.
    But the Community Rights Based Ordinance takes the ban one step farther. The statute “challenges the idea that corporations, supported by the state, can harm the community against the will of the people who live here.”
    The group promoting the ordinance also cites the Maine Constitution’s Declaration of Rights which states that “all power is inherent to the people” and since government was instituted for their benefit, citizens have the right to “reform or totally change the same when their safety and happiness requires it.”
    Planning Board member Geraldine Mountain said that other towns in the area have also rejected similar Community Bill of Rights ordinances “so this may not be a good fit for Dexter, in my opinion.”
    Town Councilor Fred Sherburne said that the council “turned down the ordinance – as written” but said that the referendum results showed that residents “made it clear that don’t want the highway.”
    Sherburne added that the committee that drafted the ordinance “is willing to compromise on some of the language to get it passed.”
    Committee member Jill Jones also emphasized that everything in the ordinance “pertained just to the corridor. I don’t think we made that clear enough because there were questions about whether someone could build a tote road or if CMP could put up a tower.”
    The board also briefly discussed a new shoreland zoning ordinance that the town will have to adopt in order to meet Department of Environmental Protection guidelines. Code Enforcement Officer Al Tempesta said that in some ways, the 100-page document “is a little more lenient” that current regulations.
    For example, expansion of existing structures is based on the “footprint” of the building rather than the volume of the interior.
    The board will examine the current ordinance along with the mandated changes, set a public hearing and vote on enactment later this year.