By Stowell P. Watters

Staff Writer

Kennebunkport Selectmen recently approved nine questions and 65 articles voters will have a chance to vote upon at the annual Town Meeting June 10 and 14. 

Question eight is an amendment to the land use ordinance concerning changes to the contract zone. Brought to the warrant by the selectmen, this question would allow for more public and municipal input and review in the contract zoning pocess, Chairmen Mathew Lanigan said.

If the new language passes, contract zone applicants would be required to make a presentation during a joint meeting of the selectmen and planning board. Following a preliminary site plan review by the planning board, a series of public meetings would be scheduled.

Following a full site plan review, the planning board would convene and make its recommendation to the board of selectmen, who would in turn bring the issue to a town wide vote. Upon the acceptance of the zone change, the planning board would then have to complete a final site plan review before any physical changes could be made to the property, according to the question language.

Question nine will appear on the warrant as a result of a voter petition and asks the town to enact an ordinance that would repeal contract zoning altogether. If passed, question nine, the result of a 210-signature petition, will negate question eight – both concerning contract zones in Kennebunkport. This fact prompted Lanigan to pause for clarification.

“Just so voters know, the more restrictive of the ordinances applies – if both are approved, the repeal will win out,” Lanigan said.

Selectmen vocalized opposition to the placement of the question on the warrant, and lamented that they could not deny the 210 signatures.

“I have serious reservations about this one,” Selectman Kristi Bryant said.

Selectmen approved question three, concerning the creation of a board of assessment review in response to the upcoming May 1 revaluation. During a previous selectmen’s meeting, Town Manager Larry Mead provided the draft language for the administrative code that would create such a group, a step he called necessary, because it negates the need to involve a county commissioner – a service the town would pay for to review all assessed properties.

“We know we are going to have some residents who will appeal, it is inevitable,” Mead previously said. “It just makes sense to create our own board of assessment review.”

Selectmen approved a question that would allow the town the option to refund excess excise tax credits. During the 2007 Legislative session, a new law was passed that would allows taxpayers to receive a tax credit when replacing a more expensive vehicle with a less expensive one in the same year.

If passed, question four will allow two alternate member positions to be added to the Growth Planning Committee (GPC). Town Planner Werner Gilliam said those positions are three-year, staggered terms. 

Question five is an amendment to the town’s Comprehensive Plan. Mead said the amendment will allow the town to make changes to the table of content and introduction sections of the Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 1946 and updated in 2007. 

Voters will have a chance to allow room for golf courses in the conditional use and village residential zones if they approve question six. The purpose of the amendment is to add golf courses in existence since January as a conditional use, subject to site plan review. Planning Board member Chris Perry said he and Planning Board Chairman David Kling both support the change.

Question two concerns an amendment to the mass gathering ordinance that would decrease the amount of people needed for a mass gathering application from 500 to 250 and clarify in the definition that a mass gathering is “any event held outdoors to attract more than 250 people,” according to referendum language. Provisions for enforcement during all gatherings and inability to pay for non-commercial gatherings were also added, the provision regarding a third-party, surety bond was stricken from the ordinance language.

Mead said question seven tackles changes to the shore land zoning ordinance passed down from the state.

“There are a number of changes in the definitions section of the ordinance, primarily remedying inconsistencies between our ordinance and the state’s changes,” Mead said.

Mead said the most notable change is to the definition of where setbacks from coastal wetlands are measured. In the past, a wetland was defined by the area in which salt-tolerant vegetation could grow. Mead said because this definition rests the issue on a “somewhat speculative” basis, the town is asking voters to approve an amendment that would tie the boundary of a wetland to seven feet above sea level – in accordance with the National Geodetic Vertical Datum taken in 1929.

Another change this question would bring about is allowing porches and decks to be counted in allowable expansions, Mead said.

Residents will also have a chance to approve the proposed budget items for fiscal year 2009 beginning July 1 which, among other things, asks the town to approve nearly $800,000 for the highway department in part for repairs to Beachwood Avenue, Stone Road and Arundel Road and bond $1.5 million for the road upgrades as well as a study to the seawall on Ocean Avenue.

“I had a secret hope a storm would just pull that whole thing out into the ocean. It is in seriously rough shape,” Highway Superintendent John Hirst said.

“These are major repairs, the longer we wait the worse they will get,” Lanigan said. 

Voters will also have the chance to approve the replacement of two police cruisers for $47,300 as part of a yearly replacement plan, $39,000 for a fire department standby generator and vehicle exhaust removal system at the Wildwood Station and $10,000 for a radio replacement program for the fire department.

In all, voters will be asked to approve $5.4 million in operating costs and $900,000 in capital need. Mead has said the budget is fiscally conservative.

“This is a very ‘hold the line’ budget proposal,” Mead said.

Voters can weigh in on Questions one through nine from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on June 10 at the Village Fire Station. The annual Town Meeting continues at 9 a.m. on June 14 at the Consolidated School, where voters will decide upon the articles.

To contact Stowell P. Watters call 282-4337, ext. 219 or email news@kennebunkpost.com.