The Gorham Times, Gorham, Maine's Community Newspaper

Staff Writer

The June 6 Town Council (TC) minutes were amended to include Councilor Hager stating that his son works for the School Department and asking if it would be a conflict of interest for him to vote. The TC voted to allow Councilor Hager to stay and participate in the vote.

David Cole reminded citizens that the bridge in Little Falls on Rte. 202 will be closed for repairs until October.

The TC discussed the Town’s open space impact fee which helps to preserve open space in the community. In 2003, the Town passed the Recreational Facilities and Open Space Impact Fee and, in 2006, the Town adopted the Development Transfer Overlay District. Both the Development Transfer Overlay District and the Open Space portion of the impact fee identifies the conservation of land by either acquiring the land or conservation easement to protect significant natural resources, conserve scenic values, preserve the community’s agricultural heritage, conserve the remaining supply of viable farmland and working forest, provide for low intensity recreational activities such as walking, bird-watching, fishing, biking, cross country skiing, hunting, and similar activities that are consistent with the primary use of the property as open space or farmland.

The Overlay District Ordinance was set up to promote higher density growth in areas of Town supported with public infrastructure (public water and sewer) and protect developable land currently being used as agricultural land, forest land, and wildlife habitat in the rural areas of Town from ever being developed. Parcels located within the Development Transfer Overlay District are allowed greater density if developments are approved under the overlay district’s standards and pay the required Development Transfer Fee.

The applicant pays the fee to the Town for each dwelling unit allowed above the number of maximum dwelling units that could be developed on the site based on the underlying zoning. The Development Transfer Fees are required to be used to acquire fee interest in land or conservation easements on potentially developable land in areas where the Town desires to discourage growth.

The open space provisions of the Recreational Facilities and Open Space Impact Fee is designed to allow the Town to maintain a ratio of 0.0438 acres of community open space per capita. Any residential development activity that creates new dwelling units shall pay this impact fee based upon the expected population of the project. The fee applies to the construction of any new dwelling unit whether or not such a unit is part of a subdivision.

The purpose of this policy is to rank properties on developable and natural resource attributes to ensure the Town is purchasing the land with the highest preservation value to benefit all citizens of Gorham.

Applications for land to be considered for preservation will be accepted on a continuous basis throughout the year. Applications will be reviewed for completeness by Town Staff and when deemed complete will be evaluated, scored, and ranked based on the Land Ranking System. For more details on the Land Ranking System, please visit the town website.

The Town Council renewed a liquor license for Southern Maine Community Recreation Center, DBA Gorham Sports Center, located at 215 Narragansett Street.

The Town Council approved an employment contract and appointed Ephrem Paraschak as the Town Manager for the Town of Gorham. Paraschak will start September 1.

Murray Drive, located in Sanborn Meadows Subdivision, off of Mighty Street, is now a public road, and will be locally classified as a Rural Access Road.

$42,888.28 was appropriated to the County Road Project from the completed New Portland Road Project.

The Town Council appropriated funds to be placed in a reserve account to pay towards the Town’s $500,000 local share of a road project on South Street, which was approved by the voters on June 13, 2017. The following amounts were approved to be moved: $230,000 from the Road Project Account; $8,437.39 of unallocated Capital Part 2 Funds from FY 2014, 2015, and 2016; $12,037.65 from Rt. 25/114 Sidewalks; $4,002.65 from New Portland Road Account; $50,000 from Bond Cost in FY 2018.

A proposal to amend the Land Use & Development Code’s definition of Day Care Home and Day Care Centers, to allow adult day care, was sent to the Planning Board for a Public Hearing and its recommendation.

Marla Stelk was appointed as the Council’s Representative to the Gorham Village Alliance, which is a Committee to assist the Gorham Economic Development Corporation’s efforts to join and implement the Maine Downtown Network Program.

The Town Council partially abated taxes in the amount of $1,196.86 for property at 14 Woodside Drive and in the amount of $817.07 for property at 16 Woodside Drive for the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 fiscal years as detailed by the Assessor in his memo dated June 6, 2017, to correct an error in the assessment.

The following people were appointed to a Steering Committee to assist and advise METRO Bus develop their new bus route to Gorham: Councilor Benner, Michelle Belhumeur, David Galbraith, and Tom Ellsworth.

The Town Council will ask the Ordinance Committee to consider developing an amendment to the Land Use & Development Code, to make it easier for Food Trucks and Food Carts to operate in Gorham.

The Town Council rescheduled its next meeting to August 8.

Complete minutes are available on the town’s website.