Damariscotta Town Manager Matt Lutkus on Feb. 4 explained his surprising proposed changes to the Planning Board’s sign ordinance, which the board received at its Feb. 1 meeting.

The scope of the town manager’s changes were broad, cutting about half the 12-page draft sign ordinance.  The Planning Board and Lutkus will meet on the issue at a public work session on Feb. 29 at 6 p.m.  If a draft can be hammered out at that workshop, a public hearing will be held on the ordinance at the regularly scheduled March 7 Planning Board meeting.

Responding to the Wiscasset Newspaper’s request for comment on his changes, Lutkus said that he had four main concerns about the draft ordinance, as written by the Planning Board. The first was that Damariscotta does not have the staff to enforce signage issues. “We only have a code enforcement officer about eight hours a week,” he said.

His second concern was that the regulations would be overly burdensome to existing businesses that were trying to change or update signage in the C-2 commercial district, which covers Business Route One outside of the immediate downtown area. “A business that wants to change its name or anything like that would have to go through this regulatory process,” he said. “It would be very time-consuming.”

A third issue related to economic development for businesses considering locating in Damariscotta. “If we make it too difficult for them to come here, they’ll go somewhere else,” he said. “We want to protect the character of our downtown area, but we need to keep the rules a little looser in the C-2 area.”

Lutkus also referenced last year’s Supreme Court ruling, Reed v. Town of Gilbert, in which that town’s sign ordinances were ruled an unconstitutional limit to free speech. “We have to live within the scope of the Supreme Court decision,” he said.

At the Feb. 3 board of selectmen’s meeting, Lutkus polled the selectmen to see if his assessment was the direction in which the board wished to go. The members who were there concurred.