In early April, the Camden Select Board held a much anticipated public hearing on proposed short term rental regulations (STRs).  That evening, the French Conference Room was packed with citizens, business owners, and townspeople from all walks—it was standing room only with folks even streaming outside onto the sidewalk and on Zoom. 

This should have been a Select Board’s dream come true with an opportunity to dialog with an interested and engaged group of townsfolk, regarding an issue important to them, in an open and transparent way.  Isn’t this is why you’re on the Select Board?

Unfortunately, this was less of a public hearing and more of an exercise in patience and frustration with a meager three-minute allotted opportunity for the public to speak (timed) and without a secondary public hearing option during the meeting for clarification or further discussion, which is common practice in the public hearing process. After the public spoke for approximately one hour, the Planning Board Chair and Planning and Development Director took to the microphone and podium and proceeded to advocate for their position and interests for an additional 3.5 hours along with the Select Board members chiming in without any further public input—none.  By 10:30 p.m., at the conclusion of the public hearing, the conference room had already emptied with just a handful of diehard townsfolk enduring.  So much for a public hearing... if there is no “public“ in attendance. I think the Select Board missed an opportunity that night. They missed an opportunity to engage and dialog with their town about an issue that was important to those in attendance.  following this issue for many months, the opportunity for a public hearing is the public’s first (and only in this case) mechanism to really engage in open discourse and communication with their elected officials about the issue before them.   Unfortunately, as I watched the meeting unfold, it was clear there was a firm desire to push forward the agenda of the Planning Board’s proposed zoning ordinance restrictions regarding Short Term Rentals (STRs) at all costs and without an earnest desire to be open to public input and really listen.  And with the June Ballot vote looming in the not-too-distant future, this was the last opportunity to conduct a public hearing and get the ballot articles finalized and off to the printer.  Literally, there were no more dates available on the schedule—time had run out.  No chance for an additional, follow-up public hearing process to be scheduled as is commonplace when there are complex or controversial issues before the Board.  Why was this so rushed after the Planning Board had apparently been working on this for over a year? Although perhaps this meeting “checked the box” in terms of satisfying the governmental process to allow for a Public Hearing to have the Select Board “approve” ballot articles recommended by the Planning Board, certainly the spirit of the public hearing process was neither followed nor achieved.  And that’s a shame.  As we look forward to June 11 and voting on the various ballot articles before us, I encourage all townspeople to be very skeptical of the process by which these warrant articles were approved for the town ballot and not just regarding STRs (articles 5, 6, & 7).  I urge you to be informed and thoughtfully consider articles 3 through 10 and consider whether our town has been adequately informed via a fair and open public hearing process to thoroughly weigh the merits and / or potential consequences of all these significant new zoning ordinance regulations and zoning changes.   I am voting No.  Alex Cohen lives in Camden