New challenges and responsibilities are facing Town officials after a recent Maine state law directed communities to increase housing density to address the statewide shortage of single family and multiple unit housing.
Local land use ordinances must be revamped to meet regulations requiring towns and cities to allow significantly increased housing units in designated “growth areas,” a task initiated by the South Berwick Planning Board last fall, with a July 1 state deadline for compliance.
At the same time, little more than a year after the Town accepted an extensive update of its 2007 Comprehensive Plan laying out the community’s vision for the future, certain sections of the 200-page document finalized in November 2024 must be modified to comply with the land use law while maintaining the town’s intended vision.
The dual processes are expected to take months – and will involve a new Comprehensive Plan Committee; information gathered by the Planning Board and resident volunteers; community discussions and public hearings; and additional meetings of the Planning Board and Town Council to develop amendments that rework strategies to accomplish the community’s goals.
The Planning Board agreed in October to spend time outside of meetings to survey geographic areas in town where properties share similar characteristics such as building size and age.
This information will be used to draft new ordinances that preserve the look and feel of the various neighborhoods while complying with the new law.
Given the looming July deadline for meeting state requirements and the recent start of the Town Council’s 2027 budget season – with three new council members on board – the council decided at its Jan. 13 meeting to charge the Planning Board with acting as the Comprehensive Plan Committee, a role assumed by seven townspeople during the wide-ranging 2024 process.
South Berwick residents are invited to volunteer with the Planning Board and Planning Department in February to survey neighborhoods in the town’s designated growth areas.
A worksheet with several dozen elements such as distance from the street, lot and house size, and number of stories will be used to compile data from 10 dwellings in each area. Surveying will be conducted by paired volunteers who view properties only from public roads and likely will stop on the roadside as they fill out each form.
The collected data will be used by the board and the public to make decisions on potential changes in boundaries of growth areas and zoning districts, and in ordinance standards.
Old Fields Road resident Brad Christo read a letter to the Planning Board at the Jan. 14 meeting that had been submitted at the Town Council meeting the night before, questioning the process the board is using to address the new housing density legislation. Christo expressed frustration with the lack of detailed information on how the “neighborhoods” were determined.
“People do not respond kindly to land use changes affecting their property or adjacent properties without grasping how the process works,” Christo wrote in his letter.
Town Planner DeCarlo Brown addressed Christo’s questions in a written response he read into the record at the Planning Board meeting, which Christo said afterward was the first clear explanation he had gotten from the town after reading minutes and attending meetings.
Brown said Thursday the town staff would post more information and a schedule for community involvement and discussion this week.
Three options for action by July 1
The town has three options for action before July 1, all three involving amendments to the 2024 Comprehensive Plan and local ordinances to comply with LD 1829, according to Brown.
The first option would be to write the new law into the local ordinances and leave in place current land use standards, which Brown described as inadequate to control the growth to come.
“To keep the same pattern of development within our neighborhoods, we need better regulatory tools,” he said, citing potential situations whereby, if nothing is changed, the new law will allow properties on the right side of a street to have 32 units per acre while the left side requires three acres for one unit.
The other two options involve revising land use ordinances by adding new regulations aimed at maintaining the existing character and style of different areas in town.
One way to guide new growth, according to Brown, is with form-based zoning that focuses standards on the size, form and placement of buildings and parking, and less on land use such as residential vs. commercial.
The third approach is to use objective design standards that specify exact guidelines for new structures, such as requiring buildings to be at least 50 feet from a road or no more than three stories tall, he said.
The community is strongly encouraged to get involved in all phases of the land use work ahead, said Brown. Residents who want to participate should contact the Planning Department at 207-384-3012.
“If we do not make the decisions,” he said, “they will be made for us.”
