BELFAST - The City Council will hold a public hearing Wednesday night on a slate of proposed zoning changes that would apply to all properties inside the bypass. The hearing, to be held at the Belfast Boathouse is scheduled to be the last in a series of hearings by city officials dating back to June.

The Council will have the option to adopt the amended ordinances at the end of the meeting, however on Tuesday night at least at least one councilor voiced reservations about taking action then.

The total number of zoning districts would be reduced in the new plan from eight to five, including three nominally residential districts a downtown commercial district and a waterfront district.

Major changes in the residential areas would include scrapping the city’s uniform-but-loosely-enforced 25-foot setback in favor of variable setbacks on a street-by-street basis. Minimum lot sizes would reduced from 15,000 square feet to 7,500 square feet, and back lots larger than 7,500 square feet would be recognized as potential locations for new housing.

Specific residential properties with footprints larger than 5,000 square feet would considered for contract rezoning, which would allow a wider range of uses and give the city more control over the outcome of historic buildings in some cases.

Since the original proposal, an area at the fork of Northport Avenue and Route 1 was moved out of the proposed Residential 3 district (R3), which is slated for expansion of medical offices around Waldo County General Hospital and added to the more strictly residential R1 district.

In addition to the three residential districts, the Council will be considering redrawn Downtown Commercial and Waterfront districts.

The public hearing will be held at 6 p.m. at the Boathouse, 34 Commercial Street. 

Details of the changes and maps can be viewed on the city’s website, here. 

[Editor’s note: an earlier version of this article incorrectly listed the proposed minimum lot size in residential zones as 10,000 square feet. The size recommended by the Planning Board and given a first reading by the City Council in September would be 7,500 square feet]

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com