Paris subdivision changes going to MMA

PARIS — A selectman said Monday that amendments recommended for a new subdivision ordinance will be sent to the Maine Municipal Association to ensure that necessary requirements are met.

Selectman Troy Ripley said a committee of residents, selectmen and Planning Board members has reviewed recommendations on the ordinance from senior planner John Maloney of the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments and town attorney Geoffrey Hole. He said a public hearing will also be scheduled on the amendments and they will later be sent to the Board of Selectmen.

"We all agreed on it," Ripley said of the revisions. "It was a consensus agreement on what should be sent to the MMA."

In December, a subdivision ordinance was petitioned to the town to replace one that passed in a 487-461 vote in 2007. The new ordinance, which petitioners said would be more competitive with subdivision ordinances in neighboring towns and improve landowner relations with the town, passed in June in a 461-441 vote.

The new ordinance eases several of the requirements of the 2007 document. The changes include allowing subdivision roads to meet gravel road standards rather than paved road standards; allowing appeals to go before the Board of Appeals rather than the Oxford County Superior Court; having one application process instead of separate ones for major and minor subdivisions; and allowing fire protection requirements to meet the approval of the fire chief where the former document required a sprinkler system, hydrants, or a 20,000-gallon water storage tank.

However, several concerns were raised at public hearings prior to the vote that the new ordinance would be more difficult to enforce and compromise public safety. The six-person committee was formed in April to address flaws in whichever document was in place after the June vote, with recommendations to be voted on at a referendum vote after review by the selectmen and Planning Board.

The original committee consisted of Ripley, resident Ron Fitts, selectmen David Ivey and Raymond Glover, and Planning Board members Robert Kirchherr and Rick McAlister. Ripley said that after he was elected selectman in June, Ivey stopped attending the meetings so that there would not be a third selectman on the committee.

Ripley spoke about the amendment process after Chairman Ivey sought comment from Kirchherr and McAlister. Neither man was present at the meeting.

Franca Ainsworth, a Planning Board member, protested the discussion but was not recognized by Ivey. Ainsworth said she did not feel discussion on the item should have taken place without additional input from committee members.

"No one else from the committee was there to speak to it," she said.

mlangeveld@sunjournal.com