KINGFIELD – Members of the Planning Board will vote Monday on a series of proposed additions and amendments to Kingfield’s zoning ordinance. They plan to present them at a public hearing Jan. 23 and at the March town meeting for a vote.
Board Chairman David Guernsey said Wednesday that the proposed changes are the board’s attempt to clarify and strengthen the ordinance before an expected Poland Spring Water Co. application to build a bottling plant in town.
“My personal view,” he said, “is we’re better off with a clearer ordinance” than what the town has now, which does not include specific guidelines for bottling plants or water extraction.
He said the Planning Board does not hope to “change the ordinance more than necessary.”
Planning Board members and lawyers from Eaton Peabody held a workshop Wednesday afternoon and outlined and revised the proposed changes. One of the most important, suggested Eaton Peabody lawyer Thomas Johnston, was not related to water or bottling plants at all but would prohibit any land use “not specifically enumerated as either a permitted or conditional use” in the town’s Table of District Uses.
Johnston explained that when creating ordinances, many towns assume uses left out of the table are prohibited, while applicants sometimes assume left out items are allowed. “That’s the type of thing appeals are made of,” Johnston said.
The Planning Board also proposes to add “Aquifer Dependent Industry,” which would include bottling plants, to the town’s list of district uses, thereby allowing them to place specific performance standards on bottling plants.
Guernsey said creating rules aimed specifically at the water bottling industry is not only in Kingfield’s interest but would also benefit applicants such as Poland Spring. “This ordinance is in their interest, too,” he said. “At least it makes it clearer to them what they have to do.”
Planning Board members also hope to add application submission requirements and performance standards specific to aquifer-dependent industries to Kingfield’s ordinance, including requiring the plant to report on the amount of water pumped in any given week, month or year. The proposed ordinance would also prohibit companies from causing unreasonable adverse diminishing of the water source and surrounding surface and groundwater.
The Planning Board will meet Monday, Jan. 9, to vote on which version of the changes they will bring to the public. Guernsey added a public hearing will be held Monday, Jan. 23, to discuss the proposed changes with Kingfield residents before the issue goes to a vote during town meeting.
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