By Adam Kernan-Schloss
After a few weeks of community-wide anxiety and confusion, a controversial proposal to amend the town’s shoreland zoning ordinance was voted down almost unanimously during a special town meeting on September 17. Selectman Gary Read made a motion to delay action on the proposed changes until the planning board and town can do more work. Planning board member Lori Follett appeared to be the only person among the 100 or so attendees to vote against the motion.
After the meeting, Planning Board Chair Marie Varian told the Observer, “We’ll go back the drawing board.” The day before she had said, “We have more work to do on this issue between now and the next town meeting in June.”
The vote came a day after Town Administrator Evan Goodkowsky shared an email from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which suggested it would not approve Phippsburg’s proposal because it was less restrictive than state law.
The town meeting came three days after a group of 67 residents, property owners, taxpayers and stakeholders wrote two letters urging a delay. And three weeks after a large community meeting surfaced multiple questions and concerns about the process, timing and substance of the proposals.
The issue
The state’s shoreland zone guidelines govern what can be done within 250 feet of the water. For years, Phippsburg homeowners in the shoreland zone have been allowed to trim and cut down trees, using a complicated point system overseen by a trained arborist or forester. But two years ago, a representative of the state’s DEP (Jeff Kalinich) visited the Chimney Rock subdivision being built off Capt. John Parker Road and pointed out that the town was violating its own ordinances.
That’s because sometime in the 1980s, Phippsburg placed almost all property inside its shoreland zone into a special Resource Protection District, where tree-cutting is banned. None of the planning board members knew why that had happened or why longtime code enforcement officer Lee Rainey still allowed tree work within the resource district.
“Basically, we were told we can’t cut any trees anymore” after that DEP visit, planning board member John Totman, Jr. told a jam-packed community meeting on August 25. “All we’re trying to do with this revised map is to give people the ability to cut trees according to the shoreland zoning rules.”
“We’re only reinstating the point system we’ve used for years,” added planning board member Roger Clark.
The new map, developed by consultant Viewshed, significantly reduces the number of properties in the resource protection district; the key criteria now are whether the property is in the flood plain, has an extended slope of 20 degrees or more, or is near an inland wading waterfowl pond. The new map brings the town more in line with the state and neighboring communities, planning board members said.
The major concerns
Despite the clarifications and reassurances, residents voiced many concerns during the community meeting.
Process and timing. Although the planning board has been meeting Sunday mornings for two years with the state and a mapping consultant, most residents only recently heard about the proposed changes.
“I was blindsided and I work in the Town Office and I didn’t know about it,” said Harbormaster Peter Blachly.
“This was unexpected, we need more time,” said Jim Loney from Brightwater.
“Most were not given notice, it was all word of mouth,” added Bob Reyes from Parker Head Village, who co-chairs the town’s Conservation Commission.
Several people, including Sam Gamber, the town’s Climate Resilience Coordinator, pointed out that Phippsburg also is preparing a new comprehensive plan, a climate vulnerability assessment and a wildfire protection plan – all of which will have a bearing on shoreland use. “The Phippsburg-based plans should be available to the town before any decisions so residents can make fully informed decisions,” she said to applause.
“How do we educate the public with more workshops and materials?” asked Denny Dart, who lives in The Basin. “Do a couple of workshops, walk through these lot by lot,” urged David Duncan of West Point. “It would be helpful to have more time. How do we learn what you know?” The Basin’s Michael Foster asked board members.
Negative environmental impacts. Several attendees voiced concerns about the impact of more tree trimming and removal.
Reyes worried that fewer trees inevitably will create more water runoff and that the proposal could undermine Phippsburg’s comprehensive plan, which calls for maintaining the town’s rural character. “We don’t want to live in suburbia.”
“Fewer rules mean more opportunity for development and associated run-off,” said Laura Sewall. “We already have a water quality issue. We could see more impact on water quality, marshes and mudflats, and marine resources — clams, oysters and lobsters.” She added: “The state has just established a commission to study and strengthen stormwater rules. A little bit of stormwater can do a lot of damage.”
Inadequate maps. The planning board’s Totman said that at some point the town would need to approve a new map, but many complained about the map’s quality, variously calling it confusing, incoherent and inaccurate.
Responding to the concerns and confusion, the Select Board decided to bring only a modified proposal to the special town meeting – no map, but an amendment that would have exempted all properties in the town’s Residential District from Resource Protection District limitations.
Again, they said the change was needed mainly to ensure property owners could continue to trim or remove trees near the shoreline. But many year-round and seasonal residents continued to raise concerns.
Letters: Focus on priorities and policies first
The concerns were communicated in two letters signed by 67 people and delivered on September 14.
The letters said Phippsburg should first clarify its priorities and policies, through mechanisms such as the comprehensive plan, before getting into the technical nitty-gritty of changing ordinances.
A cover letter urged the planning and select boards to take five steps before acting on zoning changes: 1) clarify the proposal’s status; 2) make the complete record public and accessible; 3) document the problems and potential consequences; 4) provide meaningful public participation; and 5) demonstrate policy and regulatory alignment before action.
Letter-writers made it clear they are focused on process, not the merits of the proposals. “[We are not] collectively asking the Town either to strengthen or weaken environmental protections, or to expand or restrict private-property rights. Individual signatories are not agnostic on those matters and may hold different views about how the Town should ultimately balance them,” they said. “The common position expressed by these letters is more fundamental: those substantive choices must be made through a legitimate, transparent, and orderly public process.”
But a separate blog by Island Institute Fellow Kate Cart also raised significant questions about the potential environmental impact of the proposed ordinance changes. “The proposed ordinance changes will likely increase the potential for development and other disruptive land use in Phippsburg’s shoreland. Increased development and vegetation removal will likely lead to greater erosion, putting properties and roadways at risk and increasing harmful runoff into waterways and mudflats. This will endanger an already vulnerable but absolutely crucial set of habitats and harvesting areas, ultimately harming Phippsburg’s community,” she wrote.
On September 16, the DEP weighed in with an email from DEP’s Kalinich: “After consultation with my Supervisor it has been determined that adding the term Residential as proposed in the draft is less restrictive than required by Chapter 1000. Should the amendment be approved be sure to send required documentation [to] me so it can be corrected. While not required, I suggest sending draft amendments to the Department for review prior to placing them on the warrant to avoid situations like this.”
That appeared to sway the select board to recommend a delay, which it did a night later at the special town meeting.
Next steps
Exact next steps are unclear. The Planning Board holds weekly workshops on Sunday mornings at 9am and then meets monthly (2nd Tuesdays, 5:30pm) to address multiple agenda items.
The Comprehensive Plan Committee is about to finish a first draft, meeting with various committees and will be seeking community input in the coming months.