Wiscasset selectmen agreed Dec. 16 to recommend the planning board proceed as if a potential change involving surveys is already in the site plan review ordinance. 

In a next-day memo to longtime planning board and ordinance review committee chair Karl Olson, Selectboard Chair Sarah Whitfield, on the selectboard’s behalf, explained what it worked out regarding the planning board and ORC.

This follows recent weeks’ talks over a proposed policy Olson and the rest of the planning board tabled, that related to a part of the ordinance that calls for a survey to be "recent." The policy, as proposed, would have defined a "recent" survey as one within the last six months. 

Public comment has largely criticized a six-month timeframe as arbitrary, and costly in applicants’ time and money.

Allen Cohen of the planning board told selectmen Dec. 16, "There has to be some kind of definition of what we accept, and some kind of timeframe ... It's become an issue because of the timeframe, 'cause there's no definition of what the timeframe is."

Selectman Allisa Eason said many local properties' boundaries haven't changed in 200 years, a survey from 75 years ago is "just as valid" as one from a year ago or three days ago; and the burden is on the applicant to provide the information. 

"And for us to try and start slicing and dicing for imaginary problems, we are actually going to create a problem," Eason said. 

Whitfield’s Dec. 17 memo noted town counsel said the planning board can’t adopt a policy defining “recent.”

“Therefore, we have voted to instruct the Ordinance Review Committee to consider a revision of the site plan review ordinance that puts in the following (about surveys): The bearings and length of all property lines of the property to be developed, and the source of this information. The Planning Board may waive this requirement of a boundary survey when sufficient information is available to establish, on the ground, all property boundaries.”

Selectmen are asking the ORC to make this a top priority and to get them a proposal by March 1. 

“We also recommend that the Planning Board move forward as if the revision is in place until the town can vote on the revision at the June election, therefore allowing surveys that may be older than six months or 2-3 years as long as they show sufficient information to establish all boundaries.  

“Thank you for your patience and your work on this. In the coming year we will plan to take a much broader look at our ordinances but hope this small change will make things better for both applicants and the Planning Board,” the memo read.

Contacted Dec. 19, Olson declined comment on any items in the memo, because neither the ORC nor planning board has met. The ORC meets next at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 22 at the town office; a same-night planning board meeting was canceled for lack of business.

Also Dec. 16, selectmen kept Cohen and Allison Henderson on the planning board and Jackie Lowell on the ORC; and nodded the latest animal control services contract with Lincoln County and $20,000 and technical help from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory Energy Technology Innovation Partnership Project, to write a strategic energy plan.

The board applauded and rose when Belfast Police Chief Robert Cormier presented a plaque to Wiscasset Police Officer Jonathan Barnes. Sept. 8, Barnes administered Narcan to Wiscasset Police Chief Lawrence Hesseltine after Hesseltine's accidental exposure to possible fentanyl. The plaque read in part: "In honor of heroic service ... In recognition of your quick thinking and life-saving actions ... Your decisive response and use of Narcan saved the life of a brother officer during a critical moment ... Your dedication to duty and the well-being of your fellow officers exemplifies the highest standards of law enforcement ..."

Hesseltine said Cormier is a district representative for Maine police chiefs. Cormier recalled he and Hesseltine met about 14 years ago in Indianapolis, Indiana at a Special Olympics torch run conference, and when Hesseltine recently asked him to come present the award to Barnes, "I couldn't say no ..." He said he was honored and proud to do it.