PARIS – After a state employee discovered two houses built too close to a river, Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection has asked Paris to more diligently enforce shoreland zoning laws.
The town has no zoning, so instead since 1993 has used a state ordinance for building near lakes and rivers, which among other things requires a setback of 75 feet from water.
The DEP told the town that although it was too late to correct the error – the two houses have already been built on Paris Promenade – it must ensure that the errors are not repeated.
The dead-end street is next to the Little Androscoggin River and comes off Penley Street, which is off High Street.
It did ask that the town notify the landowners that they could do no further construction in the setback area.
Moreover, Richard Baker, Maine’s shoreland zoning coordinator, wrote in a letter to the town addressed Jan. 17, “I would also like to take this opportunity to encourage the town to adopt its own shoreland zoning ordinance, rather than maintaining the current state-imposed ordinance.”
Because the town was responsible for issuing the building permits in 1995, selectmen voted on Monday to send the two property owners a letter promising that the town would take no legal action.
Town Manager Sharon Jackson said Monday she thought Steve Riggott, the code enforcement officer in 1995, may have issued the permits by mistake.
She said it won’t happen again. “We’re going to abide by standards,” she said.
Baker was in the area assessing another lot owner’s request to subdivide, and while visiting, spotted the other two zoning infractions, Jackson said.
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