ANDOVER – Future land-use worries drove Andover planners indoors on a sunny Saturday to draft the town’s first site-plan review ordinance.
Using Bethel’s ordinance and parts of ones from other towns, Planners Leon Akers, Victor Peterson and Gerard Michaud created one for Andover in less than three hours at the Town Office.
In a 3-0 vote, they then OK’d sending it to their consultant, Fergus Lea of the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments in Auburn, for review and typing.
Chairman Akers convened the emergency meeting to hurriedly give planners a tool to deal with unplanned-for growth in the wake of a New Hampshire developer’s proposed 9-lot subdivision on 5,398 acres in Andover’s scenic backcountry.
“Someone made a comment at the last meeting that we don’t have to hurry, but we should think of other possible development,” Akers said.
Needed now
He said another 500-acre parcel in town had been sold.
Discussing development possibilities there, Akers said, “Right now, if we don’t have something like this site-plan ordinance, he could go up on the side of the mountain and decide to put in a ski area or golf course, and we don’t have any say.”
“It’s not a subdivision if he uses the whole lot of land, so we need to get this ordinance in place now,” he added.
Lacking commercial zoning regulations, Andover has only three ordinances with which to regulate land use: shoreland zoning, subdivision and road.
Based on input from a recent public hearing, planners sought to develop a more restrictive site-plan ordinance than Bethel’s or Norway’s.
They discussed performance guarantees, creating a historic district, agriculture and forestland management, building and lot sizes, exterior lighting on signs and structures, and even dumping of hazardous and radioactive materials.
Against exemptions
Akers advised against exempting small businesses from the ordinance, “because somebody could stick a McDonald’s (restaurant) in by the library, and, if we exempt it, we can’t stop it.”
Other worries involved gravel pits, mineral extraction, and strip mining and resulting erosion. Peterson said the area where the nine lots are proposed is known for its gemstone tourmaline deposits.
His suggestion to use the town of Warren’s site-plan section dealing with these topics was accepted as part of Andover’s draft.
Other sections came from Harpswell and Oakland ordinances.
In other business, Akers said the board’s regular meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3, is to be held in the town hall instead of the town office due to increased attendance.
MaineVest LLC, the New Hampshire developer proposing to create the 9-lot, 5,398-acre subdivision in Gardner Brook Valley, is on the agenda for continued discussion.
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