BELFAST - In the future, smaller lot sizes and backlot flexibility could allow more houses to spring up in the dense residential areas of the city located within the bypass. Setback rules could come to more accurately reflect existing conditions, and a handful of the city’s white elephant properties could be considered for more flexible contract rezoning agreements.

In broad strokes, these are some of the recommendations that will be up for discussion in June and July when city officials hold public hearings on enacting The Future Land Use plan, part of the city’s 2009 Comprehensive Plan.

On Tuesday, City Planner Wayne Marshall showed the city councilors a two-inch-thick binder of proposed zoning changes he hopes to address over the next year-and-a-quarter, starting with areas inside the bypass and working out to the rural parts of the city.

“We’re trying to take a policy document,” he said, putting the binder down and picking up a much thicker binder bearing the city’s code of ordinances, “and we’re trying to make it law.”

The first two hearings will focus on three mostly-residential zones inside the bypass. A third hearing will be center on the downtown commercial and waterfront zones. All meetings will be held at Troy Howard Middle School.

June 25 - Residential 1
July 2 - Residential 2 and 3
July 8 - Downtown Commercial and Waterfront (An additional meeting will be held on July 10 if necessary)

Major changes proposed inside the bypass:

• Minimum lot sizes reduced from 15,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet.

• Back lots larger than 7,500 square feet recognized to allow additional housing to be built.

• Variable setback standard in residential areas that would make the distance a new building must be from the road consistent with that of other buildings in the immediate area. This would replace the uniform 25-foot setback.

• Contract rezoning applied to a short list of “special properties” with a footprint with greater than 5,000 square feet of habitable space, including: Bradbury Manor, Harbor View House, National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped/Crosby School and the former church located directly behind it, Peirce School/Belfast Academy of Music, James P. White House/White House Inn, the former Waldo County Sheriff’s Office and two apartment buildings on Main Street. Marshall said contract rezoning could open up these properties, many of which are no longer suited to their original purpose, to a wider range of future uses.

Each of these items would come back to the City Council for consideration, then be sent for another round of public hearings before they could become law.

Marshall and City Manager Joe Slocum stressed that city officials want public input. The city will be notifying residents by mail, making copies of the land use plan available on the city’s website and for viewing in person at City Hall. A dedicated email address will be set up for public comment, and residents may also submit comments by regular mail.

“It’s a lot of work that’s been coming for a long time, and it sounds like it’s going to whisk through like a jet,” Slocum said. “But it going to go through time. It’s going to go through a lot of public discussion and people will have plenty of opportunity to participate.”

Download a map of proposed and current zones here.

Related: Belfast Planning Board divided on splitting small properties, big houses

In other business, the Council:

• Approved a request from the Police Chief Michael McFadden to appoint Gregory Jones and Lewis Dyer III as part time patrol officers.

• Approved the composition of a Project Advisory Committee for Phase 2 of the Belfast Municipal Airport Master Plan update as requested by Airport Manager (and Economic Development Director) Thomas Kittredge.

• Authorized Economic Development Director Thomas Kittredge to apply for a $250,000 federal grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission to help pay for the conversion of the former B&ML rail corridor to a recreational trail. The grant would require a match of $62,500, Kittredge said, which would be paid for through private donations already collected.

• Considered requests to remove trees at: 6 Court Street (approved); 7 Swan Lake Avenue (city manager to talk to property owners about rerouting the sidewalk around the tree); and 100 Miller Street (tabled based on a feeling among some councilors that the tree may not need to be removed). 

• Authorized the city manager to request that Maine DOT drop the speed limit on Swan Lake Avenue near the new Goose River Apartments senior housing. Councilor Nancy Hamilton raised the issue on behalf of residents of the apartment building who have crossing the 45 mph roadway to get to Goose River Grocery.

• Held two closed door sessions: on a legal enforcement matter; and on a personnel matter.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com