By Zack Anchors
Staff Writer

Mayor Maxine Beecher announced the establishment of a committee to reshape South Portland’s “convoluted, complex and hard to understand” zoning ordinance.

The nine member Zoning Improvements Committee will work with in cooperation with the South Portland firm Planning Decisions, which was awarded a contract last week by the South Portland city council for consulting services during the project.

Chapter 27 of the city’s Code of Ordinance, which outlines zoning regulations, has not been substantially updated in 20 years and city officials expect its improvement to bring much benefit to the city.

“I think this will affect everyone in the city,” said Councilor Linda Boudreau at the most recent council meeting.

Planning Director Tex Haeuser also stressed the importance of the project.
“This will initially affect developers most, but it will indirectly affect people who will be living around land that would be developed, and ultimately will affect the whole city.”

The city has several goals in restructuring the ordinance, ranging from strengthening environmental regulations to making zoning easier for residents to understand.

“Simply due to the fact that the ordinance hasn’t had a comprehensive review in twenty years, it has been amended a little here and a little there,” said Heauser. The result, he said, is an out-of date series of regulations that have been pieced together.

“It’s like a car that hasn’t had a tune-up in a really long time,” said Haeuser.

Mayor Beecher, who appointed to the committee individuals representing a wide range of interests, said that in South Portland “there’s not a ton of land and what is there needs to be used right.”

Beecher expects there will be many issues dealt with during the zoning improvements process that may raise controversy. As examples, she referred to the city’s handling of grandfathered lots, and it’s policies on storm runoff.

“I think we’re going to have to sell a lot of this stuff,” she said.

Beecher said a main goal of the project would be to implement recommendations laid out in the city’s comprehensive plan. According to Haeuser, these include “strengthening environmental regulations, incorporating architectural standards, improving quality of life protections, and making the city’s land use regulations more user-friendly.”

Regarding environmental regulations, Beecher referred to Clark’s Pond, which she described as severely polluted, as an example.

“In this case ignorance is not bliss--we’ve allowed stuff to run off into there... it’s an embarrassment that we’ve let it get this far.” She said that stronger zoning policies could prevent such circumstances in the future.
A representative from the conservation commission, Barbara Dee, will be part of the Zoning Improvements Committee.

Dee said that she believes the city should explore requiring larger setbacks for developments and following more closely guidelines laid out by the Department of Environmental Protection.

“We have a large concern about the ordinances protecting wetland, because so far there has been none,” she said.

As the city grows, she said, “we need to be careful—we need to make sure we don’t endanger our neighborhoods.”

Haeuser said that the city would try to structure the zoning ordinance in a way that will ensure current and future residents in South Portland a high quality of life. He said such matters as how large a house could be put on a particular lot, or what kinds of structures could be built in certain zones are the types of issues the committee will consider.

“I feel—and I’ve heard this from quite a few other people—that the ability of the zoning ordinance to protect the quality of life… is now quite weak,” said Haeuser.

Beecher said that because the current zoning ordinance is out of date and overly complex, it makes the city government run less efficiently, and particularly makes a lot of extra work for the planning board,
“It makes their lives more difficult,” Beecher said. “They have certain parameters that they have to make their decisions match.” With the current zoning ordinance, she explained, those parameters often don’t make sense.

A major benefit of the zoning improvements project, she explained, will be to make those parameters clear and reflective of the current reality in the city.

Beecher expressed confidence in Mark Eyerman, the consultant from Planning Decisions who will be working with the city. Eyerman, whose office is neighboring the South Portland Municipal Building, has experience with similar projects in other towns and cities, including Gorham and Kittery.

“Mark will bring to us his experience in doing this elsewhere," Beecher said. “He says we can’t do it in 15 months but I’d like to prove him wrong. But he knows better than I do.”

Haeuser said he expects the entire process will likely last more than a year and a half.

“It will be an educational process to start off with,” Haeuser said. “We’re certainly going to want to get public input at the beginning and throughout the process.”

Besides the input of the committee, Beecher says there will be several opportunities for residents to have a voice in the process.

“There will be open forums,” she said. “We are sure of that.”

Besides the mayor and Dee, the committee will include representatives from the planning board, the board of appeals, the chamber of commerce, three residents and a developer.