Town likely to delay vote on comprehensive plan

Harpswell will likely delay a vote on its new comprehensive plan after encountering pushback to parts of the plan during a hearing on April 10.

“If we have to work on this plan more to make it right, we’ll do it,” Al LeGrow, chair of the Harpswell Comprehensive Plan Task Force, said at the end of the hearing. “We’re not going to force-feed anything down the town’s throat without the town being supportive. We have a lot of work to do, obviously.”

On Tuesday, April 16, Town Administrator Kristi Eiane confirmed that she expected the vote, which had been planned for a special Town Meeting in May, to be delayed. She said the Harpswell Select Board would discuss the matter April 25.

The public hearing at Harpswell Community School attracted several dozen residents. Concerns focused on the plan’s proposals for zoning changes and affordable housing, as well as the sufficiency of public outreach about the plan.

The residents expressing those concerns included the vice chair and two other members of the Comprehensive Plan Task Force. One member said the task force approved the draft 7-3, with one member absent.

LeGrow opened the hearing with an introduction to the plan. He explained that it is not an ordinance and has no regulatory authority, but that it makes recommendations for ordinance changes.

“It is a guideline,” LeGrow said. “It’s an expression of where the town thinks it is, what the priorities of the town are, and where they would like the town to go in the future.”

The town first developed a plan 50 years ago and has completed four updates, the last in 2005. A comprehensive plan can guide future growth and investment, coordinate planning and policy decisions, and qualify the town for certain state funding opportunities, according to the new plan’s introduction.

Judy Colby-George, a consultant to the task force, explained the key focus areas and recommendations in the new plan.

The plan identifies eight focus areas, with three of those being particularly important: housing, the working waterfront, and protecting the environment.

It contains a “future land use plan” that would allow for denser development in certain “controlled growth areas” on Great Island and Harpswell Neck. The plan also identifies town properties at Doughty Point and George J. Mitchell Field as potential locations for “attainable housing projects.”

Harpswell’s existing zoning requires a minimum lot size of 40,000 square feet per dwelling unit outside of a subdivision, just shy of an acre; or 80,000 square feet per unit in a subdivision.

“What we heard from people was that having a variety of types of housing was really important, and in order for that to happen, you have to have smaller lot sizes, because on 80,000 square feet, there’s no affordable way to build housing that’s affordable and attainable,” Colby-George said.

LeGrow said the plan’s proposals seek to “allow a little bit more diversity in what you can do in various areas.” He said the task force included those proposals “in order to address a number of different needs” that residents conveyed in surveys.

Courtenay Snellings, a resident of Orr’s Island and member of the Harpswell Affordable Housing Working Group, spoke about her conversations with residents affected by high costs for housing.

They include a small-business owner who struggles to find workers because applicants cannot find housing, a fisherman who fears his daughter will never be able to live in Harpswell, and older residents who want to downsize.

Snellings read a letter from an older resident who wants to create a fund for affordable housing and gave $100 to start the fund.

Gordon Weil, a former member of the Select Board, raised multiple concerns with the plan and urged the task force to conduct more outreach, especially to residents who would be affected by proposed zoning changes.

“I know there’s been a good deal of outreach,” Weil said. “In my view, there’s no such thing as too much outreach.”

Amy Haible, the vice chair of the Comprehensive Plan Task Force, also listed several objections. Haible said the plan does not adequately address protection of groundwater resources or the preservation of rural character — two issues that residents raised repeatedly when she talked to them about the plan.

“Harpswell is one breath away from Brunswick, which is developing like gangbusters, and that push is right on our doorstep, and we have to be really careful or it will come here,” Haible said.

George Prince, another member of the task force, encouraged the town to delay a vote while it continues to work on the plan and gather feedback from residents.

“We could do it at the June Town Meeting, we could do it next March, we could never do it,” Prince said.

Matt Gilley, the youngest member of the task force, agreed that the plan is not ready and lamented the lack of participation from his generation.

“There is next to no input on this plan from younger people in this town,” he said. “It is not comprehensive, in my opinion.”

Bruce Davis, owner of the Engel & Volkers Casco Bay real estate agency on Orr’s Island, said the plan should look at potential locations of a future “town center” with amenities such as a bank and small grocery store.

Tim Tear objected to the choice of town land on Doughty Point as a potential location for affordable housing, citing environmental concerns related to wetlands.

Tear, an ecologist who lives near the property, said the proposal “unnecessarily pits one of the priorities for the town, which is housing, against another priority of the town, which is the environment.”

Some residents questioned the need for affordable housing altogether.

“We all would love attainable housing. I think people would love attainable housing everywhere. But I don’t know why we’re so fixated on it in Harpswell,” said Alison Hawkes, of Cundy’s Harbor. “We can’t make more land, and we can’t make land affordable.”

Hawkes, owner of Hawkes’ Lobster, said her employees live out of town and “have no problem” commuting to Cundy’s Harbor.

“Commercial fishing isn’t going to go away because we don’t have affordable housing for them to live here. But you know what will make it go away? Not having access to it,” Hawkes said. She said the task force should place more emphasis on protecting the working waterfront.

Hawkes also criticized outreach efforts as insufficient and said the town should come to fishermen, rather than expect them to attend meetings. “If you want to get commercial fishermen to engage, you’re going to have to leave the building,” she said.

The Comprehensive Plan Task Force met the day after the hearing. After the meeting, LeGrow said it intends to step up outreach. It will reschedule informational sessions that were canceled because of weather. It also may look for a way to break up the 281-page plan into “bite-size pieces” and distribute it to residents.

“It’s clear to us that we’re not going to be able to vote on it in May,” LeGrow said. Alternatives could include a vote coinciding with the November election, or the annual Town Meeting in March 2025.

A rescheduled informational meeting about the draft plan will take place at the Elijah Kellogg Church at 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 23. The draft is available at tinyurl.com/harpswellcp.

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