Dear Editor:

Between Sheepscot Falls and Head Tide, Alna and Newcastle residents enjoy a quiet stretch of undeveloped Sheepscot River estuary. The vegetation along the river’s edge is thriving; it provides habitat for fish and waterfowl; it filters runoff to sustain water quality. It makes this one of the cleanest rivers in the state, and it contributes to the character of the place we share as neighbors.

On Dec. 10, the Alna Planning Board voted for change. They agreed to allow a stone and gravel ramp and military-grade roll-out mat in the shoreland zone for private use. We know how that decision will benefit one individual. But the planning board has yet to explain how their decision benefits us as a community.

Some see this as a matter of individual property rights. But it’s about community rights, too. Waterways are shared resources—like the air we’re breathing now. Communities, the state, and the country have agreed that the land abutting a waterway is special and distinct. It protects property and resources well beyond those of any single landowner. That’s why Maine mandates shoreland zoning ordinances. And those ordinances are developed by consensus among citizens for their mutual benefit: not for the benefit of one or a few.

Alna residents voted the current shoreland zoning ordinance into existence in 1993; they reaffirmed it in 2010. And it is strict; it’s strict because citizens knew that if each landowner has his or her way, we as a community stand to lose a lot. So how does this recent decision reflect the spirit of that ordinance?

Arguing that this will be the last special exception along this stretch of river defies common sense. So  imagine that more residents build launch sites, removing the mudflat to create a harder bottom, rolling aluminum mats and vehicles back and forth across the intertidal zone. Imagine how those sites would scar the banks and marshes and alter the character of the river itself. Which Sheepscot would you rather pass on to your children and grandchildren: the one just pictured, or the one described in the first paragraph?

Carol Gardner

Alna