NEW GLOUCESTER – Selectmen will hold a special town meeting Dec. 14 to ask voters to approve articles dealing with trash, a zoning ordinance change and money for the local fairgrounds.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at Memorial School on Route 231.

If approved, the zoning ordinance amendment would allow the transfer of development rights. The concept, adopted by other Maine towns including Brunswick and Cape Elizabeth, allows landowners in some zones to sell development rights to landowners in other zones. The transfers are permanent.

Roughly 1,800 lots are eligible. A lot must include a minimum of 10 acres, must currently be used for agriculture or animal husbandry, or forestry or be undeveloped land.

If passed, the amendment would go into effect 60 days after the date of adoption.

Town Planner James Isaacson said, “In the rural area, we want to keep things the way they are. And, in the growth area we want more homes to be built.”

New Gloucester relies on private wells for drinking water and private septic systems.

Residential growth would be concentrated between the Maine Turnpike and the Route 100 corridor.

A section of the Lower Village, including the Cobbs Bridge Road and Gloucester Hill Road, are not included in the transfer plan. Also exempt is an area near the Auburn town line on Route 100 and the entire Peacock Hill Road.

Trash and recreation

Voters will also be asked to approve spending $16,375 from a transfer station reserve account to purchase a new rolloff container; install a concrete pad and fabricate a new rear door for an existing container; and pay for engineering and repairs to a holding tank at the Bald Hill Road facility.

More solid waste at the New Gloucester Transfer Station is due to the growing population.

Residents must bring their trash to the transfer station or hire private haulers to manage solid waste. Selectmen say more municipal solid waste requires more equipment to handle the large volumes, especially on weekends and holidays.

This year, the surplus trash has accumulated on the floor of the station until the town’s only hopper unit could be hauled to the Auburn’s Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp.

In the third article at the special meeting, voters will be asked to spend $16,200 from a capital reserve account for upgrades at the New Gloucester Fairgrounds.