Greenville special town meeting on housing density ordinances

GREENVILLE — For most of 2024, the Greenville Planning Board has been working on an affordable housing density ordinance to be in compliance with state regulations — LD 2003 “An Act To Implement the Recommendations of the Commission To Increase Housing Opportunities in Maine by Studying Zoning and Land Use Restrictions.”

During a July 17 select board meeting the board gave approval to a pair of related amendments to the Greenville Land Use Ordinance. By doing so, these have been moved to a special town meeting which will start at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 7 (inbetween the next regular meetings of the planning board and select board).

Planning Board Chair John Contreni said in 2022 Maine Legislature addressed the issue of housing shortages with LD 2003 to increase housing density, which was signed by Gov. Janet Mills in April of that year. “It required all towns and cities and municipal entities in the whole state to adjust their land use ordinances to accommodate several initiatives that would increase housing density in those communities,” Contreni said.

He said towns governed by a mayor or council had until January to implement LD 2003 and those with a select board had until July 1.

“We were laboring under the assumption that since this was state law we didn’t have to go through the regular process of having a special town meeting or presenting it to you but we learned at the 11th hour — (Code Enforcement Officer Ron Sarol) and the planning board has been working on this for about six months – that indeed we do have to present these changes to our land use ordinance both to the (select) board and the voters of the town in a special town meeting,” Contreni said.

The planning board chair said two proposals would be added to the land use ordinance if approved next month.

Contreni said the first concerns accessory dwelling units. “Basically these are things that are sometimes called granny flats or these would be accessory units that one could put on one’s property or you could turn your house into an accessory dwelling unit by having a separate entrance for it and another family could use it or another person could use it, part of your house as an accessory plan,” he said.

The second proposal is “We have to have provisions for affordable housing developments,” Contreni said. “The purpose of this ordinance is to promote the development of affordable housing within our community ensuring that residents have access to safe, decent, and reasonably priced housing options. This ordinance applies to affordable housing developments approved on or after July 1, 2024 and which are located in a designated growth area of the town of Greenville and in a district with single-family and muliti-family dwellings are permitted.”

“It’s something we cannot say no to because it’s state law,” the chair added. He said Sarol put the documents together after consulting what towns have done.

Contrenti previously said that while the state required municipalities to be in LD 2003 compliance by July 1, there most likely would be no consequences for missing the deadline.

In April 2022, the Maine Legislature enacted and Mills signed Public Law 2021, ch. 672. Legislative Document 2003, as it is commonly known, is intended to address the shortage of housing in Maine by removing regulatory barriers to creating additional housing.

The main provisions of LD 2003 address three specific housing issues. First, the legislation allows for additional density for affordable housing developments. Second, it allows for between two and four dwelling units per lot where residential uses are permitted. And third, it allows accessory dwelling units on the same lot as a single family home.

Decreasing the minimum lot size to from 10,000 to 7,500 square feet in the residential, downtown 1 and 2, village, and village commercial districts enables Greenville to increase the density of homes on properties which will help with the density compliance requirements of LD 2003.

Per guidance on the act from the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, the law is designed to remove unnecessary regulatory barriers to housing production in Maine, while preserving local ability to create land use plans and protect sensitive environmental resources.

The act guidance has sections relevant to municipalities, identifying amended sections of state law. Amendments include allowing for additional density for affordable housing developments in certain areas; generally requiring that municipalities allow between two and four housing units per lot where housing is permitted; requiring that municipalities allow accessory dwelling units to be located on the same lot as a single-family home under certain conditions; and requiring that the state establish statewide and regional housing production goals and set forth ways in which local governments can coordinate with that goal.

In other business, the select board met with Fire Chief Sawyer Murray for a department update. 

Murray said the board likely remembered funds from the Assistance to Firefighters Grants covering new airpacks. He said older models were donated to the northern Penobscot County department after the station, three fire trucks and engines, and gear were damaged in a May fire.

“They were down here Monday to pick those up so that’s going to help them out quite a bit,” Murray said. “Most of their airpacks burnt up in one of their trucks that responds to calls regularly.”

The chief said the Greenville Fire Department will need a boat sometime in the future. He said recently there was a medical call on a Moosehead Lake island in which the patient needed to be loaded on a civilian boat and transported to the mainland to meet firefighters.

Town Manager Mike Roy said the call came in at about 9 p.m. so the department could not have responded safely using its jet skis. Murray said patient transport cannot be done via jet ski.

He said previous grant applications have not been approved and used inventory is less than ideal.

In his report, Roy mentioned the Maine Department of Transportation gives money to towns through its local road assistance program. Last five years funds coming into Greenville have been banked and now these will be used to pave sidewalks from Pleasant Street to Foss Street and up to Lily Bay Road and from Oliver Road down to Greenville Junction.

Roy said he reached out to several paving companies, with bids of $70,065 and $111,000 coming in. He said the low bidder will pave next month.

“So the sidewalks will be a bit smoother for our tourists and our local people to walk on and enjoy and maybe it will be even better for snow clean up, I’m hoping, and this will be at no local cost for taxpayers,” Roy said.