Dexter planners recommend approval of expanded manufacturing zones

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    DEXTER — The Dexter Planning Board unanimously endorsed a proposal at its March 27 meeting to allow manufacturing facilities in the town’s commercial zones.
    The measure will now go to the town council for a public hearing and a vote on April 10.
    Although the town council was hoping for a quick-and-easy change to the ordinance last week, Planning Board Chairman Sherman Leighton said that the process wasn’t as simple as changing a “no” to a “yes” on the town’s land-use table.

    Currently, manufacturing is only allowed in the town’s industrial zones and prohibited in commercial, residential and rural areas.
    The request for a zoning change was made by a group of local entrepreneurs who hope to restart shoemaking in the community, most likely as a hand-sewing operation.
    One of the principals in the venture, Gerald Marshall, has offered the use of the old school complex on Abbot Hill which he bought from the town a few years ago. But since the buildings are zoned as commercial, they couldn’t legally be used for shoemaking.
    But Leighton cautioned the board that the zoning change would affect all the commercial zones, not just the Abbot Hill complex. “If we make this (change on the land-use table) a ‘yes,’ it is going to affect all the commercial property in town,” Leighton said. “But anything that’s coming in will still have to come before the Planning Board.”
    Board member Dick Gilbert also noted that Erda Artisan Handbags, which is technically a manufacturing firm, plans to move into the old Seaman’s building on Spring Street in May “which is in a commercial zone, too.”
    John Lawson, a former Planning Board member, said he would be “a little leery of changing all the commercial property (to allow manufacturing) in Dexter. That’s what you’d do if you change the ordinance. But you could give him a variance for that particular area if he wants manufacturing.”
    As it turned it, they couldn’t.
    After a phone conversation with Code Enforcement Officer Al Tempesta, who was home nursing a leg injury, Leighton said that variances are only granted by the Zoning Board of Appeals – and for limited reasons, such as setback violation.
    But Gilbert said that “in order for this town to grow, we’re going to have to have some kind of manufacturing. We’re going to have to work this out.”
    After some discussion about what constituted “manufacturing” among the board members, Marshall and others involved in the shoemaking revival venture, Lawson gave the board copies of a sample ordinance that defined three types of manufacturing zones: Business Park, Limited Manufacturing and Rail Manufacturing. (See sidebar)
    While most agreed that Marshall’s property would probably be more suited for Limited Manufacturing, others felt that it was better to recommend passage of one ordinance with all three zones. “That way, we won’t have to keep coming back here,” Leighton said.
    Marshall said he was somewhat skeptical of using a model ordinance, instead of something crafted specifically for the town of Dexter “specifically for this purpose. This is something I’d expect to see in Bangor, Augusta or Portland.”
    Lawson responded that he’d rather see the town adopt an ordinance that’s “already proven than taking a definition (of manufacturing) out of the dictionary.”
    The board agreed and voted unanimously to forward their recommendation to the town council for further review.
    The council usually meets on the second Thursday of the month at 7 p.m.