NORWAY — Planning Board Chairman Dennis Gray said Thursday that proposed changes to the shoreland zoning map will bring the town into compliance with state regulations and the town’s comprehensive plan.
The board held a public hearing Thursday evening on revisions to the Shoreland Zoning Ordinance and Shoreland Zoning maps. Voters will act on them at the annual town meeting at 7 p.m. June 17 in the Forum at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris.
“The map brings us into compliance with what the town policy is to keep it in compliance with the comprehensive plan,” Gray told members of the board and the one member of the public who attended the hearing.
The board had worked with the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments to revise the maps, which were last updated in 2009. Since then, the town adopted a comprehensive plan and the state made changes to its shoreland regulations.
The new map largely affects the North Pond area.
The board will recommend to voters that they adopt the revisions to the ordinance and Shoreland Zoning map labeled “Option 2” that preserves the resource protection zoning around part of North Pond and several other water bodies, including some identified as significant wetlands.
Some of the revisions, including those to protect inland wading birds, are to ensure that an area on the north side of North Pond continues to be a protected resource area. There are currently no structures built in that area, he said. The changes also address protection of surface ground water and other wildlife habitat. Other revisions address changes in definition.
Gray said in a statement that the revisions also clarify the guidelines for retaining walls in the shoreland zone, remands oversight of forestry practices in the shoreland zone to the Department of Conservation and clarifies the role of the Appeals Board in hearing appeals of decisions made by the code enforcement officer or the Planning Board.
The maps and copies of the revised Shoreland Zoning Ordinance are available for public review in the selectmen’s meeting room at the town office or by asking Code Enforcement Officer Joelle Corey-Whitman to email a copy of the proposed changes and map.
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