Gray-The citizens and the Council and Manager argued
about the difference between the letter of the law
and the intent of the Council at Monday's council
workshop meeting, and most left unsatisfied that the
town-wide zoning review process was on the right track.
The first part of Monday's workshop meeting was a
reconvened session left over from Tuesday, April 19.
That regular meeting ended with questions from citizens,
led by Denise Duda, as to whether proper notification
of all impacted property owners within affected zones
had been executed by Planner Dick Cahill and Manager
Mitchell A. Berkowitz. Many residents in the audience
that Tuesday night stated that they had not received
a letter notifying them of the pending changes to
their zones.
The Council had voted to recess and re-open Monday
night so they could hear a report from Mr. Berkowitz
regarding the methods he and the staff had used to
generate the list of property owners who should be
notified.
Depending on the nature of the research results, recessing
then reconvening left the Council open to be able
to take action if they decided to cancel the scheduled
Planning Board hearing of the pending zone changes,
three days hence from Monday's workshop.
Maine Statutes govern how and when property owners
are to be notified when their zone changes. Sometimes
a zone change means a property owner can do more things
inside the zone and sometimes it means they can do
fewer things, depending if the change adds or deletes
uses.
Mr. Berkowitz said that Town Attorney Mr., William
Dale had explained in a legal opinion that the trigger
to notify residents occurs when the change has the
effect of either prohibiting all industrial, commercial,
or retail uses where they are permitted or permitting
them where they are prohibited. Not only the property
owners in these certain areas must be notified, but
all the abutters too.
Mr. Berkowitz said that the owners were alerted through
placement of notices in the two local papers, by posting
them posted at Town Hall, as per statute, and by sending
first class letters to affected property owners within
the zones under review that met the above statutory
requirement. Mr. Berkowitz also said that an extra
step was taken by paying for two full-page ads in
both local papers. He and Mr. Cahill produced the
list they had used to send the first class letters
and they verified that it was updated and correct.
Many citizens still said that they had not received
notification. As further discussion between the citizens
and the Council and Manager progressed, Mr. Berkowitz
stated that only those who met the statutory standard
were notified through mailed letters. No property
owner in the newly proposed Residential Medium Density
(currently Medium Density) were notified because although
there may have been changes to the zone, they were
not strictly met with the trigger for notification,
described above. For example, he said, of there was
only a name change to the zone, or if space standards
were changing, the owners would not have been notified.
Ms. Duda said that the Council had confirmed several
times that the intent of the Public Hearing at the
Planning Board was to encourage input from a wider
range of citizens, an further, that all citizens who
would have been impacted, not just those meeting a
narrow subset of the law, would be alerted to the
changes. If only selected zones that met the strict
letter of the law were notified, then the intent of
the hearing would not be met. She asked if the Council
directed the staff to select only the certain zones
to be notified though first class mailings, of if
that was an interpretation that Mr. Berkowitz and
Mr. Cahill had applied to the situation.
Chair Pam Wilkinson said that she was satisfied that
all proper notifications had been met, statutorily
and otherwise. Vice-Chair Lynn Olson stated that she
was satisfied and Richard Hall said he agreed with
Lynn.
Councilor Matt Sturgis had said earlier in the meeting
that he was certain that proper notification had been
met but when he learned that the RMD residents on
Rt. 100 South of Gray had not been selected for notification,
he said "I am not happy."
Councilor Gary Foster said that he thought the situation
was questionable and urged the Council not to move
forward with the scheduled Public Hearing on Thursday.
Ms. Wilkinson said that the consensus was 4-1 for
moving forward with the hearing and the Council voted
to adjourn.
