On Sept. 19, Damariscotta selectmen agreed to allow a petition for a moratorium on new retail development to move forward to a public hearing. The board made the decision after consulting town attorney Jennifer Villeneuve. The petition halts all approvals of new projects 25,000 square feet or greater, retroactive to June 7, which would include a proposed large development at 435 Main Street.

That development was slated to include a bank, a restaurant and a retail complex. The process includes two sets of public hearings, both at the Board of Selectmen and the Planning Board, followed by a special town meeting, which is a ballot vote on Nov. 6.  The board went with a referendum over an open town meeting, to allow absentee voting.

The select board’s vote was not unanimous; Selectman Mark Hagar voted against it. Chair Robin Mayer said, because over 150 residents had signed the petition, she felt it should go through the process. Villeneuve said the petition could not be modified or withdrawn, so short of establishing a new and competing ordinance for the ballot, the petitioned one will be the document residents will vote on. Mayer said it came to her attention from multiple sources that a member of the planning board, Shari Sage, and a planning board alternate Mayer would not name were involved in collecting signatures for the petition. Mayer said she would ask the two to recuse themselves from any decision related to retail development while serving on the planning board until the issue is resolved.

The petition process began in early summer after selectmen voted not to draft a moratorium themselves, citing a need for greater economic development. In August, Villenueve said the petition was invalid because it did not have the name of the town written in with most of the signatures. The petition collectors corrected the error and resubmitted the petition. Villenueve said, after she and the Maine Municipal Association’s law service reviewed it, she did not see any reason to prevent the petition from being presented at a public hearing, the next step toward a special town meeting or a ballot question. Selectmen questioned the town’s potential legal risk, and the board called an executive session to consult with legal counsel. The executive session lasted nearly an hour. When the open session resumed, the board voted to allow the petition to go forward.

Also in the early summer, a new subcommittee, the Planning Advisory Committee (PAC), was formed to look at Damariscotta’s codes and the process by which the codes were established, with the goal of informing the selectmen of ideas to rework the cumbersome system of land use ordinances, and tie them more firmly to the visionary charrette process residents developed over the last 20 years, through the Heart and Soul process, the Waterfront process, and the new “Our Town” group.  The moratorium was suggested to hold off on any new development until that process was complete.  A “form-based code” for future land use ordinances was looked at but not recommended.

A public vote on the form-based code idea, called “Damariscotta SmartCode,” was voted down in 2011. Form-based codes regionally call for multiple-story, mixed-use buildings typical of historic main streets in New England. Now, in the wake of the “Our Town” group’s and petitioners’ anger about the large retail projects proposed or being built on Business Route One, form-based codes are getting a new look from the PAC. The PAC meets next on Tuesday, Sept. 26 at 5 p.m. at Town Hall.