On Tuesday, Peru citizens will be asked to vote on an article to add to the town’s Shoreland Zoning Ordinance. Selectmen and the planning board are asking to have the area of a basement included in calculating the permissible square footage allowed in camps closer than 100 feet to the shore when expanding. The state Department of Environmental Protection publishes a guideline ordinance for towns to follow. State environmentalists never included this in their guidelines because adding a basement is not damaging to the town waters.

I do not agree with making this ordinance more restrictive than the state guideline unless there is a unique situation at Worthley Pond. There are already plenty of state-mandated restrictions to prevent environmentally bad expansions in the present ordinance. Building a basement when updating a camp is not one. What we need is better enforcement of the current ordinance.

To make an ordinance more restrictive is bad for the town as it becomes more difficult to enforce and discourages property improvements, which result in more property taxes for Peru. In the past, the town has had difficulty in enforcing what is already in the ordinance. A more restrictive ordinance is hard to explain and can discourage citizens from participating on the planning board.

Within two years, Peru will have to update the town’s shoreland zoning to conform to a revised state guideline. It needs to be done to include only what the state DEP requires.

Article 4 on the ballot should be voted down.

David B. Clement, Cornville