Greenville Select Board approves comprehensive plan

GREENVILLE — An updated Greenville comprehensive plan will be brought before residents, such as at the annual town meeting in early June or a special town meeting pending state review, as the select board gave its approval to the revised document during a Feb. 19 meeting.

Planning Board Chair John Contreni said an 11-member committee worked on updating the comprehensive plan that was last revised in 2013. He said the select board was given a final draft the week prior to look over.

Town Manager Mike Roy said once the select board has OKed the comprehensive plan it will go to the the Department of Agriculture, Conservation, & Forestry’s Municipal Planning Assistance Program for review and approval.

Select Chair Geno Murray said the comprehensive plan will be available for the public to look over. The document can be inspected at the town office during regular business hours from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Friday. Listing the criteria he said a comprehensive plan needs to include items such as a vision statement and summary of public participation demonstrating compliance with future land use plans.

“We had extensive public comment,” Contrenti said. He said over 200 people responded to a questionnaire. 

Contreni said the comprehensive plan committee met close to a dozen times and went through four drafts during the process.

“This comprehensive plan, or any comprehensive plan for a municipal town or government, is key to getting federal grants and state grants,” Roy said. He said it is imperative to have an updated plan in place before the expiration of the previous document. The current plan is valid through June 26 of this year.

The town worked with Eastern Maine Development Corporation during the process.

In other business, Contreni told the select board how the planning board is working to adjust property line setbacks in certain sections of town via an update to the land use ordinance. A setback is the minimum distance a structure can be from the property line.

He said, per the suggestion of Code Enforcement Officer Ron Sarol after he heard comments from the public, reduced setbacks are being considered in both the residential and the village districts with the length being reduced from 15 to 5 feet where applicable. A detailed list of pertinent streets will be presented to the select board at an upcoming meeting.

Some older lots in town are very narrow.

“They could not be built on today because our setback in all the zones is 15 feet,” Contreni said. He said if a lot is 50 feet wide, there is only a 20-foot space in the middle to build on.

An existing 30-foot house on a 50-foot lot could not be extended at the present time, if the setback was amended to then an extension could be added on.

The property owner would need to meet some criteria in order for the code enforcement officer to grant a variance.  These are: 

1. Properties that were created prior to the land use ordinance being established; 

2. Properties that are .4 acres or less; 

3. Setbacks can be reduced to 5 feet for accessory dwellings and/or accessory buildings; 

4. Setbacks can be reduced to 10 feet for primary dwellings; 

5. Setbacks can be reduced to zero for buildings that have a shared wall for example duplexes; 

6. Reduced setback must demonstrate no harm to neighbors or public interest; and

7. These setbacks should not be confused with the minimum shoreland setbacks.

“This adds to our effort to increase housing density in town,” Contreni said.

He said the planning board gave its approval to the proposal at the regular meeting held earlier in the evening. The formal proposal will be brought to the next select board meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, March 5. If approved it would later go to a town meeting vote.