PARIS — Selectmen have green-lit a committee to amend the comprehensive plan in order to strike a controversial zoning requirement that would double minimum lot sizes in rural areas.

Selectmen appointed and then immediately authorized the five-member committee to review reducing the minimum lot size in rural areas to less than 2 acres and 250 feet of road frontage Monday evening. 

Committee members include Howard Field, Lawrence Reid, James Hakala, David Shaw, Ronald Fitts and alternate Robert Ripley. 

The specific wording of the selectmen’s order gives the committee jurisdiction to establish a new value for the minimum lot size; residents previously supported one acre.

The move is the first step in addressing residents’ concerns that the lot size requirement is too large before voters are asked to make the changes legal. 

The town zoning ordinance rules are driven by the comprehensive plan. By rewriting the plan, changes can be made to the ordinance, which seeks to create five distinct districts within the town, each with different rules on the types of businesses and construction that can occur there.

Once the zoning ordinance changes are implemented, the proposed law would have to be approved at a town vote. 

Existing lots would be exempt from any future ordinance until changes, such as splitting a larger lot, are made. 

In February, Paris held a 2½-hour public hearing at which residents voiced a mixed response to the proposed rules. Specifically, lot sizes proved controversial to some landowners who felt imposing restrictions on development will hurt businesses and damage the rustic character of historical villages such as Paris Hill.

Selectmen first created the committee in May, though in the four months since only one volunteer had joined. Appointing a full committee will allow that work to begin.

“I think that the biggest issue that you have here is the minimum lot size,” Town Manager Amy Bernard said. 

Shaw asserted the job could be finished within a reasonable time frame. 

“If changes need to be made in the comprehensive plan … it doesn’t have to take a long time,” Shaw said.

[email protected]