A Wiscasset woman is a step closer to opening a day care in her home. Amber Underwood of 90 Alna Road told the Planning Board Monday night, she wants to serve six to 10 children in the approximately 900-square-foot, first-floor facility that would use two bedrooms, the kitchen, dining room and a fenced-in back yard.

The back yard is not fenced in, but will be, Underwood said. Husband Joshua Underwood owns the property, according to the application to the town. He joined her for the meeting.

The board agreed she did not need to file a survey. Member Deb Pooler asked why Underwood even needed to apply. It’s a change from residential to mixed use, Town Planner Ben Averill said.

“I want to help these people,” Pooler said.

“We all do, I’m sure,” Chairman Ray Soule said.

“So I say we do whatever we need to do to help them establish what they want to do,” Pooler said. “It sounds like a wonderful idea. We need more child care in this town.”

Underwood said she is working on getting state approval. She will need that and Code Enforcement Officer Stan Waltz’ certification on the fence, Soule told her. The board approved her request with those two provisions.

Also Monday, the board set a 3:30 p.m. Thursday, June 29 site walk for six condominiums at Maine Heritage Village. The proposal is to change the buildings from residential to business units, Olson said. He was representing applicant Lady Marion’s Trust in a pre-application review. The units will be sold, not rented, he said. 

The meeting was Averill’s last one with the board before funding was set to run out on his job, Friday, June 30. “It’s been a pleasure to work this board,” he said. Members expressed their appreciation to him and commented on voters’ decision. It was a mistake, Pooler said. “I’ve been on the planning board without a planner, and it’s not good.”

Soule said the vote kind of surprised him. “I’m sure it had nothing to do with you,” he told Averill. The town was tired of taxes that keep going up, he said.

“We’ve got a lot of places this town could save money, and the planner shouldn’t be one of them,” Pooler said. She spoke of other challenges the town faces in getting students and businesses. “We need to start thinking better in this town ... If we don’t change and do something to bring people into the community, we won’t need a planning board ...”

The board discussed possibly rotating some duties so they would not all fall on the chair.

Earlier Monday night, the Ordinance Review Committee lacked a quorum so members could not meet formally. Averill gave them a draft of a no-smoking ordinance. He said he included the town’s temporary business sites, as the panel discussed in May. From the audience, resident Bill Sutter said Falmouth, Massachusetts has a very strong no-smoking ordinance. That one might be a good one to look at, he said. Averill said November would probably be the earliest a proposal would go to a town vote.

The committee has been down a member for a year, Averill said. Anyone interested in volunteering can contact the town office, he said.