By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
When tourists visit Carl Dittrich’s Cape Elizabeth antique shop, they often ask him four questions: Where can we stay, where can I get a lobster, where’s Portland Head Light and how much are houses along the water?
Dittrich, owner of Off the Wall Antiques & The Unusual on Ocean House Road, hopes, in regard to the first question, he might someday be able to direct tourists to his own bed and breakfast establishment.
Dittrich brought his request to the planning board at a Nov. 6 workshop. He said his two-acre property with frontage on Route 77 and room for 10 cars to park would be an ideal location for the “low impact” business that he said would likely attract “empty-nesters.”
Visitors to Cape Elizabeth have limited lodging options, Dittrich said. Rooms at the town’s only hotel, Inn By the Sea, are frequently unavailable for people traveling on short notice and too expensive for many visitors, he said.
According to the Inn By the Sea Web site, a one-bedroom suite with a two-night minimum and including a full kitchen, living room and dining area can range in price from $349 to $379 during the months of July and August. The Inn is currently closed due to extensive renovations underway.
Currently bed and breakfast establishments are only permitted in the town center district, which doesn’t have many buildings that would suit that type of use, said Code Enforcement Officer Bruce Smith. The residential A district, which encompasses Dittrich’s property and the majority of town land, has a number of properties that could qualify for a bed and breakfast establishment if the town were to allow them, Smith said.
“In concept, I like the idea because I think the need is there,” said Planning Board Vice-Chairman Peter Hatem. “The issue we’re going to struggle with is performance standards.”
A possible standard may include limiting the establishments to 40,000 square foot lots or dwelling units of a certain size. Town Planner Maureen O’Meara also suggested requiring frontage on an arterial road, like Route 77.
Planning Board Chairman Barbara Schenkel said limiting bed and breakfasts to arterial roads was unfair. She said running a bed and breakfast is not easy work and there likely wouldn’t be a lot of people attracted to the idea of opening one in town. 
Gorham Code Enforcement Officer Clint Cushman said there are probably three bed and breakfast establishments in his town, with the last inquiry dating back to the late 1990s.
A bed and breakfast is a permitted use in Gorham under the heading of a “rooming house,” Cushman said. The town’s zoning ordinance defines a rooming house as “any dwelling in which more than three persons, whether individually or as families are housed for compensation with or without meals.”
Typically the rooming houses are permitted in the more compact, built up areas of town such as the Gorham Village Center District and not rural districts, Cushman said.
Applicants interested in opening a bed and breakfast are required to put their business proposal in writing which would then be reviewed by a site plan review committee of town department heads.
O’Meara said she expects Cape Elizabeth residents to have concerns about “anything other than a single family home next to their single family home.”
The planning board requested more information regarding how other communities treat bed and breakfast establishments in their ordinances. The item could come forward for more discussion at the Nov. 26 planning board meeting.