MINOT – Buoyed by news that the town’s Comprehensive Plan meets state approval, Planning Board member John Gould urged townspeople Wednesday night to approve it.
Residents will vote by secret ballot on Friday, March 3.
“We got the state’s blessing. That is a big accomplishment. If we reject it, we may not get state support on another version,” Gould said.
One feature of the updated 10-year plan drew criticism from one of the attendees at Wednesday night’s final public hearing. It was a stipulation that raises the minimum size for house lots in rural areas from two acres to five.
“I own 300 acres of land, all in rural residential or resource protection. I would like to sell lots way off where I can’t see them, and this ordinance will make it impossible,” said Hersey Hill Road resident George Buker.
Candace Benwitz, chairman of the Comprehensive Plan Committee, noted that the plan allows for cluster development in rural areas. With cluster development, she pointed out, property owners are allowed to build houses in a concentrated area, with the bulk of the property maintained as permanent open space.
Buker noted that recent growth in the town happened because many of the large-lot owners sold their land for development as farming became less profitable.
“Those who wanted to sell their land have. Because we have held this land, we are going to be penalized,” Buker said.
John Geismar, chairman of the Planning Board, pointed the intent of the plan was not to eliminate growth but rather to “channel it intelligently.”
To that end, Geismar pointed out that the Comprehensive Plan merely sets a guide, but that it is the land use code that determines what can and cannot be done.
Geismar then pointed out that any change in the land use ordinance can only come as a result of a town meeting vote and thus the townspeople retain ultimate control.
A second feature of the revised Comprehensive Plan is a proposal calling for new village areas, such as expanding West Minot village and encouraging similar development along Route 119 in the area of Jackass Annie Road as well as a section of Center Minot Hill Road.
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