WATERFORD – Trying to get ahead of a proposed land management ordinance, Beech Hill Farm owner Paul Hersey has decided to take action on a subdivision project he has contemplated for years.
The ordinance will go before voters at the March 5 town meeting. Although, if approved, it would not be effective until Jan. 1, 2006, Hersey is concerned the changes would prevent him from building his 20- to 25-lot subdivision atop Beech Hill.
“I think some of the developers are keeping a close eye on this,” Hersey said Wednesday morning, just hours before he presented preliminary plans to the Waterford Planning Board.
Hersey predicts that if the ordinance is passed, the board will see a rash of new projects from people anxious to escape new restrictions. On Wednesday, he asked whether the Planning Board was prepared.
“Well, we’ll have to deal with that as (it comes),” Chairman Tim Fanning replied.
Fanning on Thursday said people should be ready for many of the changes, which have been pending since recommended as part of a comprehensive plan approved by voters in 2001.
“It’s not something that has just come up,” he said.
The land management ordinance is intended to help manage growth. Although not as restrictive as more traditional zoning ordinances, it would set minimum lot sizes and setbacks throughout town, and also would restrict uses in some areas.
Fanning said the lot-size requirements would be the biggest change and would affect what some property owners are able to do with their land. Currently, the minimum lot size throughout Waterford is 40,000 square feet. Under the new ordinance, that would change to between 1 and 5 acres, depending on location and type of development. An acre is 43,560 square feet.
Hersey said the 100 acres he hopes to develop on his Valley Road property would fall under the proposed General Development District standards, which would require two-acre lot sizes. He’s planning lots of about four acres.
He has had his entire farm, which is about 220 acres, on the market for a while. With no serious bites, he and his wife, Marcia, have decided to stay in Maine and build a new home within the proposed subdivision.
Hersey also intends to split off two lots for his sons.
The project will be “tastefully done,” he said. “We’re not going to have red roofs and bright white houses and all of that.”
The homes will be tucked amid trees atop Waterford’s highest hill, Hersey said, and he hopes the views will be a selling point.
Waterford Town Clerk Brenda Bigonski said Thursday that the town saw an increase in subdivision applications this week.
“This is unusual, to have three (subdivision applications) on the agenda at one time,” she said.
Fanning said one subdivision was approved months ago but the plans were brought back for a change. The other, proposed by former Paris Town Manager Steve McAllister for a site near his Crooked River Diner off Route 118, was new.
Hersey believes that if the land management ordinance is approved, it should be phased in over time. He said he will speak to such concerns before the vote at town meeting.
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