LOVELL – A set of proposed changes to the town’s zoning ordinance will be presented for public input tonight. The hearing will take place at 7:30 at the New Suncook School.

The revised ordinance is in its eighth draft, and has undergone three draft revisions since its first public hearing in August, said Ed Ryan, chairman of the Planning Board. The final ordinance will be presented to voters at the annual town meeting in March.

Based on comments and suggestions made at the first hearing, as well as further review by the board, the ordinance has undergone several changes. One deletes language regarding net residential area, allowing lot size requirements to remain as they are. However, the ordinance retains language determining the number of lots allowed within a subdivision.

A permit from the town’s code enforcement officer would be required for new roads and driveways. According to Ryan, such standards have always been a part of the ordinance, but the land use table never indicated that the standards were required.

Timber harvesting standards from 1996 have been restored after being deleted from an earlier draft.

The Planning Board is revising the ordinance to meet the state’s shoreland zoning guidelines. The board has also made several proposed revisions.

One allows for construction of a single-family home in a resource protection district, provided the construction meets several conditions, including placing the structure and improvements outside the 100-year flood plain and proof that the lot was established before the adoption of the resource protection district.

The board also proposes that the Appeals Board, in considering potential errors by the Planning Board, may not consider evidence that was not available to the Planning Board at the time of the application. The board could hear written or oral arguments, however.

The board may consider new evidence in appeals to decisions by the code enforcement officer under the proposed revision. Appeals on issues in the shoreland zone would be heard in Oxford County Superior Court.

Copies of the ordinance are available at the town office, the Charlotte Hobbs Memorial Library, and online at www.lovellmaine.us.