Updated comprehensive plan will be on November ballot

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — On the Nov. 8 ballot residents will be voting on updates to the town’s 2005 comprehensive plan, which serves as a vision for the next 10 to 20 years, a way to manage costs and control property taxes, a way to access outside sources of funding, a legal foundation for local regulations and a way to address major issues and concerns. The document is not an ordinance or regulations and does not authorize expenditures.

A public hearing on the comprehensive plan was held on Sept. 28 at the Morton Avenue Municipal Building. “It’s basically our second public hearing since we got the comprehensive plan in a complete form,” plan committee chair and selectman Steve Grammont said.

Grammont said the comprehensive plan was sent to the state for review. “We got it back with only some minor changes,” he said. “We were fortunate, the state had no objections, they had suggestions. There was nothing in the comprehensive plan we submitted they objected to.”

“It showed how thorough our consultant Gwen Hilton was when she put it together,” Town Manager Jack Clukey said.

Hilton then explained the proposed changes made during the work of the plan committee and from public comments.

“We beefed up the public notice requirement so it’s consistent with the size of a project,” Hilton said. She said more time is needed for abutters and the community concerning larger-scale projects. Projects are divided into minor categories, six-lot subdivisions and under 5,000 square feet; major, five-lot subdivisions and over 5,000 square feet; and mega, such as wind farms, industrial-scale water extraction and major utility and highway corridors.

Hilton said the industrial district for Pleasant River Lumber on the Milo Road was reduced in size to protect Daggett Brook and to consider a possible deer yard.

“We added a Branns Mill Pond Hamlet to accommodate the village-like quality of that area,” she said about another change.

Changes from the state review include a new undeveloped habitat map and removing wild brook trout habitat from Sebec Lake. “There is some habitat in the tributaries to the lake but not the lake itself,” Hilton said.

“Dover-Foxcroft has opted to have the state review forestry activities,” she said, for work conducted in shoreland zones.

“Adoption of this plan does not require ordinances or regulations, nor does it require the expenditure of money,” Hilton said. “It is the legal foundation for your ordinances.”

Grammont said any ordinances created would be done by a committee, and their work would then be subject to a vote by the town.

As part of the Oct. 24 selectmen’s meeting, at 6:30 p.m. at the town office, residents will be able to comment on the comprehensive plan as part of a public hearing on the November ballot.