Citizens for Sensible Growth is an organization of Auburn residents who advocate for zoning laws that promote sensible growth in Auburn.

The organization supports a comprehensive and inclusive process, with significant public participation, that respects existing neighborhoods, provides a variety of housing opportunities for all residents, and protects the natural resources in the city.

Citizens for Sensible Growth circulated the referendum petition to repeal the zoning changes, promoted by the mayor and adopted by the City Council, called T-4.2 zoning to the “Court Street” area.

We are not opposed to growth in Auburn, growing from the city core outward, reviewing zoning laws, or using form-based codes in the development and application of new zoning regulation.

We are opposed to applying zoning laws intended for downtown development with a broad brush to residential neighborhoods without significant public input in a comprehensive and inclusive process.

The Form-Based Code Institute has published a standards of practice for form-based codes. The first step in the standard practice is “A detailed physical plan and clear vision, which has been developed and adopted through an inclusive community engagement process.”

Herein lies the problem. A shared community vision related to zoning starts with the city’s Comprehensive Plan. The land use chapter of the Auburn Comprehensive Plan was recently amended.

The Zoning Subcommittee, which drafted the proposed future land use zoning districts and maps, consisted of the mayor, a city councilor and a Planning Board member. Contrast this to the 2010 comprehensive plan committee which consisted of 45 members of the public. Of the five meetings held by the Zoning Subcommittee, only one meeting is listed on the city calendar, and there was no public participation in these meetings.

The limited citizen participation may have been due to insufficient public notice, it may have been due to COVID, or it may have been due to the lack of citizen awareness, but the fact remains that these amendments are not articulating a shared community vision, as there wasn’t sufficient public participation.

During the Planning Board discussion of the proposed amendments to the Comprehensive Plan, a member of the Planning Board said that they were “disappointed with lack of public comment and that is important to make a decision on this item today.” It isn’t clear why the Planning Board felt compelled to take immediate action on such an important issue if they thought there wasn’t sufficient public input.

When the zoning for the Court Street zone was reviewed, there wasn’t a standards-based approach to identifying a shared community vision. There was simply the application of the existing T-4.2 form-based code that had been developed for the downtown area. When citizens pushed back, the mayor and two city councilors developed the new T-4.2B regulation in a meeting without public notice or public participation.

The Planning Board reviewed T-4.2B, but the chair made it clear that since the proposal came from the City Council this was to be a yes or no vote, thus no real planning was undertaken by the Planning Board.

The City Council has accepted the petition, and without a referendum vote repealed the current T-4.2 zoning in the Court Street zone, returning it to Urban Residential. They then started a process to apply T-4.2B to this zone within five weeks.

What does the response to the citizen referendum petition tell us? That a small number of people are intent on pushing through zoning changes as quickly as possible without a shared community vision, without adequate citizen input, and without regard to the potential impact on thousands of city residents.

We talked with over 2,000 citizens from across all five wards when gathering petition signatures. While the City Charter restricted the referendum to a narrow question, the message the people are trying to send transcends the specific zoning in the Court Street zone.

The citizens of Auburn are clear — they want greater participation and voice in the development and application of zoning in the city so that any new zoning aligns with their vision for the city and their neighborhoods. A desire that would be fulfilled by using the accepted practices for the development and implementation of form-based codes.

If the City Council didn’t feel that the petition signers represented the sentiment across the city, they should have sent the referendum to a vote. Absent a referendum vote they should hear the message being sent by the residents of Auburn. It is not too late to employ a standards-based planning process to create a shared community vision in the land use chapter of the comprehensive plan and in the development and application of form-based codes.

To do anything less is not only ignoring the message clearly being sent by the citizens of Auburn, it is subverting the will of the voters. The citizens of Auburn deserve to have their voices heard.

Jeffrey Harmon of Auburn is a member of Citizens for Sensible Growth. He is retired as the deputy chief of the Maine State Police and from Constellation Software Inc. as the general manager of its Equivant business unit. 

Copy the Story Link