The Damariscotta Board of Selectmen and Planning Board met June 7 to discuss a format for changing the outdated land use ordinances, as well as planning a community discussion about form-based codes, a planning model rejected overwhelmingly by voters in 2011.

Form-based code separates a town into areas such as “natural landscape,” “downtown” and “neighborhoods.” The code states the kind of structures and amenities that can be built and what their heights and dimensions should be, based on their location. 

Beginning in 2008, Damariscotta began an intensive design workshop process known as a charrette. The goal was a simple system of land use ordinances that could fit on a single sheet of paper. The process took three years, during which a subdivision developer, Piper Village LLC, asked for and got changes to the code. Piper Village was never built, and the form-based code the town had worked on was not approved by voters.

A small group of townspeople, who revived a group called “Our Town Damariscotta,” said they are convinced a watered-down version of the code was what voters were rejecting, not the idea of form-based code. The group met at Skidompha Library on May 3. Jenny Mayher and Peter Drum brought up reviving form-based code at that meeting.

Mayher, at the June 7 joint meeting, said she thinks voters should be given a chance to vote on the original charrette plan, as it was before the developer asked for changes to it.

Robin Mayer, chair of the select board, said the Piper Village subdivision would have been approved under the charrette’s original form-based code. Town Planner Anthony Dater said the comprehensive plan might have to be amended to incorporate form-based code.

It was decided to create a committee to review the 2011 charrette report and determine what parts may be out of date and what might need to be added.  Mayer said she is hopeful the work could be done in a few months, and that public input would then be sought as part of straw polls or a public hearing before proceeding to a vote on the code.

Another issue, that of marijuana ordinances, was decided to be brought before the public as part of a hearing, probably in August.

The joint meeting happened at the end of a selectmen’s meeting in which more ideas about seasonal parking were floated, including the possibility of having employers in the downtown area purchase a number of parking spaces for employees from the town. Selectmen said Damariscotta, a service town, is footing the entire bill for having those services, in terms of law enforcement, traffic, parking issues and more. For a number of years, selectmen have been looking for ways to encourage visitors from outlying areas to help pay for some of the costs without discouraging business.

Town Manager Matt Lutkus said a kiosk being replaced at the waterfront will provide the town with a place to display some sort of art. He recommended providing a welcome sign to the Twin Villages, with perhaps a tag line reading “Home to the Damariscotta River Oyster,” and encouraging the shellfish fisheries to help with funds to maintain the sign.

Lutkus said the county assessment to the town is one half of one percent higher than last year’s.

Lutkus also presented a work of art by Jake Day which had recently been found at the Historical Society and was restored by Day’s grandson Dan. It was a carving of a gavel, a scroll and feather quill pen with the date of Damariscotta’s incorporation, 1848. The work was carved at Day’s “Whittle Shop” not far from the present site of Town Hall. Lutkus said the work would be displayed somewhere in the town office building.

The second board of selectmen meeting will take place next Wednesday, just before the reception for the Riverfront Park cleanup committee and the Town Meeting. The selectmen will meet at 5:30 p.m. at Great Salt Bay School, followed by the reception, and then Town Meeting at 6 p.m., on Wednesday, June 14.

On June 30, the town office will close early – at noon – to give workers a chance to finish the closeout of the fiscal year.