JAY — Town officials have sent a letter to Gov. Paul LePage requesting an opportunity to discuss a state building and energy code that will affect residents and businesses in town.

Jay voters soundly rejected adoption of an administrative ordinance to oversee the state’s Uniform Building and Energy Code on June 12. The law requires towns with 4,000 or more residents to enforce the state-adopted legislation as of July 1. Towns that had already adopted a building code began enforcing the new code in 2010.

The law requires building permits and occupancy permits to be issued and inspections for new structures or renovations to existing buildings, among other objectives.

“We really need your assistance to make this a less demanding mandate on these property owners,” selectmen and Town Manager Ruth Cushman wrote in a letter to LePage. “In order for a family to build a new home they must complete all construction before moving into their home and they must obtain a certificate of occupancy from the code officer. There is no factor in the code to allow a consistent variance to the rule.”

Jay is a rural community and it is not unusual for residents to construct part of a building and live in it while they finish the rest of the house, Cushman said Monday. That is no longer possible, she said.

Voters in Jay have rejected any type of proposed ordinance for building codes or zoning for years, Cushman said. Now the state has stepped in and mandated one that affects not only residents and businesspeople but the town, she said.

Residents feel the state is trying to take away more local control.

“We really feel that the State of Maine is taking away another right of Home Rule and imposing another mandate,” Cushman said. “We truly feel that this will inhibit construction in our community and drive more to the communities under 4,000 in population where the code is not mandatory and thus creating an uneven playing field.”

It is another mandate from the state that was not supposed to affect the town financially because there were supposed to be third-party inspectors, she said. But it does affect the town. The town is supposed to enforce it, which means issuing permits and complying with aspects of the law. The town doesn’t have a budget for this. If the people of Jay want a building code, they would pass it, Cushman said.

“We don’t,” she said. “I think it is a shame in rural communities to have this imposed on them.”

The town wants to be business friendly and encourage growth. Right now, people could choose to settle in neighboring towns such as Chesterville and not have to comply with a building code, she said.

“For a long, long time the State Planning Office has worked on a plan to discourage sprawl and this is encouraging it,” Cushman said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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