KINGFIELD – About 30 people voiced concerns at a hearing Monday night on ordinance changes proposed in anticipation of Poland Spring Water Co.’s application for a bottling plant.
Planning Board Chairman David Guernsey said the nearly four-hour meeting “cleared the air about a lot of the things” he thinks Kingfielders worry most about concerning construction of a plant. They include more noise, lights and traffic, and creating an eyesore. Some suggested putting a moratorium on industrial permits until new ordinances are written that regulate water-dependent businesses more stringently than the proposed changes do, Guernsey said. Others suggested simply adding that language to the existing proposal.
Planning Board members disagreed with the changes suggested by residents.
“Those issues are best addressed during a permit application,” Guernsey explained. Writing more specific language into the ordinances “only adds complications and risks taking away some of the flexibility we would have to deal with some of the issues.
“If ordinances get too specific, all you do is give the applicant room to move around them,” he explained. “If you have just general provisions, then you can react to whatever” the applicant does.
The board began revising some town ordinances in anticipation of Poland Spring’s application, which is expected to be submitted this spring. Guernsey said the board is concerned the ordinances relating to the permitting process, among other things, are either unclear or written weakly enough to permit-seekers to easily fight the board’s decisions.
With the help of lawyers from firm Eaton & Peabody, board members proposed amendments clarifying rules already in place, added the use “aquifer-dependent industry” to the town’s list of approved land uses and put rules in place that regulate the ways in which “aquifer-dependent industries,” or bottling plants, can operate.
Board members hope residents will vote to accept the proposed changes during town meeting.
The board will hold a workshop at 1 p.m. Friday to discuss the issues brought up at Monday’s hearing.
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