Planning Board Meeting ~ August 6, 2025

2025-08-06 · Planning Board · 2:08:26 · watch on YouTube →

The Planning Board met on August 6, 2025, mainly to give town planner George Thebarge direction on the last eight policy issues in the ongoing codification of the land use ordinance. Brian Stickney was welcomed as a new member, and the room's microphones were not working, so members were asked to speak up for the recording. The board worked through campgrounds, buffers between subdivision access roads and abutting property, buffers around the town's designated historic properties, noise standards and cannabis, and in each case told the planner what to draft for public review in the autumn. No formal votes were taken on the policy items; the board reached agreement in discussion and left the drafting to the planner. It also went through a set of administrative amendments, including a three-week packet deadline, fewer printed copies, board of appeals notice requirements and select board authority to correct ordinance errors, and heard that codification decisions must be with the codifier by the end of the year.

What was discussed

1. 0:07
   Roll call, new member, minutes of July 2

   John Talbot (?) opened the meeting, welcomed Brian Stickney as the newest member, and led the pledge of allegiance. Members noted the microphones were not working and agreed to speak louder for the camera. The minutes of July 2, 2025 were moved and seconded, with one member abstaining as they had not been present.

2. 0:07
   Town planner's update on land use priorities and grants

   George Thebarge reported on the July 22 select board meeting, the annual check-in at which land use boards and committees set priorities for the next town meeting. Since then the Greater Portland Council of Governments has helped the town apply for a $20,000 grant to begin work on the energy part of the programme, and a second community resilience grant opportunity has been identified that could cover economic development districts for energy and natural resource based industries.

3. 5:13
   Economic development committee

   A member asked why no economic development committee had been formed. Juliet Caplinger read from page 2.15 of the comprehensive plan, where strategy 1.1 is to form an economic development committee, with the board of selectmen as responsible party and a short-term timeframe. Thebarge said the plan's economic development focus was home-based business and agriculture, that the agriculture and forestry committee had been formed, and that staff capacity is the limit on creating another committee. John Talbot said he would raise it with the select board and town manager.

4. 10:29
   LD 1829 affordable housing rewrite postponed

   Thebarge said the select board agreed the focus should be applications and codification, and that work on LD 1829, the state's rewrite of the affordable housing law, should be delayed. His view was that the town had rewritten its rules once already and the state has since changed the law, so it should be taken up as a 2026 issue and the state rule followed in the meantime.

5. 15:48
   Codification timetable and public presentation

   Thebarge described the 139 technical and legal responses returned on July 25 and said the codifier will embed them in a draft ordinance of about 350 pages. Board decisions must be in by the end of the year for that draft to be ready for public review at the start of next year. Members discussed presenting the substance to the public starting after Labor Day, separating the changes the state mandates, such as tiny homes and mobile home parks, from the items where the town has a choice.

6. 20:49
   Campgrounds: background

   Thebarge said Durham's campground regulations date from the 1970s, run to about eight sections in less than a page, and were not adequate when the Durham Leisure campground applied to expand. The application began at roughly 200 additional sites and was scaled back to about doubling the existing campground, and involved semi-public water and sewer service and year-round occupancy for some units.

7. 26:04
   Campgrounds: two policy options

   Thebarge set out the choice: merge Durham's zoning provisions with the state site plan standards into the local ordinance, or keep only Durham's zoning parameters, such as the 20-acre minimum and 100-foot setbacks, and leave health, sanitation and site review to the state. He noted the state has few inspectors, so relying on state licensing means little inspection on the ground.

8. 31:32
   Year-round campground occupancy

   Members discussed year-round occupancy at campgrounds, with objections raised about tax revenue relative to houses, the effect on schools and rural character, and support voiced for not using recreation land to solve the housing shortage. Thebarge explained that Durham Leisure obtained conditional use approval for a limited number of year-round units under the ordinance's catch-all for other commercial uses not listed, and cautioned that schoolchildren are not among the conditional use criteria and that fair housing law limits what the town may say.

9. 47:16
   Campground standards reviewed item by item

   The board went through the comparison chart and the current ordinance line by line: occupancy limits, minimum lot size of 20 acres, setbacks, screening, water body setback and resource protection. Members found duplicated paragraphs, a season end date of September 15 in the ordinance against October 15 in the chart, and a 250-foot water body setback against the state's 100 feet from the normal high water mark.

10. 52:32
    Sanitary facilities, primitive and temporary campgrounds

    Members agreed Durham's sanitary facility and primitive site standards should be dropped and the state's rules referred to instead, with the local plumbing inspector doing inspections. On temporary campgrounds, which the state ties to agricultural fairs, the board leaned toward writing the state's 12-days-a-year rule into Durham's own ordinance rather than only referring to it.

11. 57:38
    Campgrounds and site plan review

    Thebarge said Article 8 triggers site plan review for non-residential parking and access drives over 2,500 square feet, which is what brought the Leisure campground in. The board agreed campgrounds should come out of site plan review, which has no standards suited to campgrounds, and be handled through conditional use review, which can address road access, circulation and fire department concerns.

12. 1:02:44
    Buffers between subdivision roads and abutting property

    The subdivision ordinance requires a 50-foot buffer between a subdivision and the road, but nothing stops a developer putting the access road along a side property line next to an existing house, as came up at Deer Creek Crossing and Dave Road. Members weighed a fixed buffer against its effect on back lots, which need 350 feet of frontage, and on 50-foot rights of way that would then need to be roughly 100 feet. Alternatives discussed included fencing, buffering only where the adjoining land is already developed, and leaving it to the board's judgement.

13. 1:18:22
    Buffer authority and historic property buffers

    Thebarge said the board cannot delegate the buffer decision to the abutting neighbour, and offered to look at the site plan review buffering language used for commercial and solar projects, which lets the board require buffering where a visual impact analysis shows it is needed. He then raised the previous historic standard of a 25-foot buffer around designated historic property, which the select board had debated and split on, and listed the town's eight designated properties, including the Shiloh Temple, the Friends meeting house and the Union Church.

14. 1:28:25
    Noise standards

    Thebarge said the current 55 dB day and 45 dB night limits are a quiet residential neighbourhood standard, that he doubts they are enforceable as drafted, and that they could block commercial activity such as gravel pits, agriculture, sawmills and battery storage. An analysis in the packet, which Thebarge said was produced with AI, recommends updating measurement standards, differentiating by zoning or use, adding impulsive and intermittent noise standards, and adding enforcement provisions. Members noted the town has no industrial zone, so a gravel pit can sit next to housing.

15. 1:49:13
    Cannabis greenhouse loophole

    Thebarge said the town has opted out of marijuana businesses, but state exemptions still allow individuals and medical caregivers a limited number of plants, and a local greenhouse operation, named as Renova (?), is believed to be renting greenhouse space for that purpose without any town permit. The town attorney recommended closing the loophole by setting a plant limit per property, above which a conditional use approval would be needed as a commercial operation.

16. 1:54:13
    Administrative and procedural amendments

    Thebarge proposed lengthening the packet deadline from two weeks to three, cutting printed copies from ten to five while keeping copies available for the public, and bringing board of appeals notification requirements into line with the planning board's, which he said meet the legal requirements. Juliet Caplinger raised the requirement for a mylar on final plan submissions, which is no longer accepted and is already on the list to change.

17. 1:59:21
    Select board authority to correct ordinance errors; tax compliance

    A proposal would let the select board correct typographical and non-substantive errors in the ordinance without a town meeting. John Talbot said he was not comfortable with that and asked that consultation with and approval by the planning board be written in, which was agreed. Members also discussed requiring applicants to be current on their taxes, with Thebarge noting financial capacity is already a criterion for conditional use and subdivision review, and that building permits and appeals are a separate ordinance.

18. 2:04:22
    Strategic planning chart and next comprehensive plan

    Thebarge went through the strategic planning chart the select board has endorsed, said he has been asked to pursue an economic development district with the Greater Portland Council of Governments, and described the funding plan for the next comprehensive plan. The board then moved to adjourn; members also discussed absences around the September meeting.

What was decided

• 0:07
  Motion to accept the minutes of the July 2, 2025 meeting, moved and seconded, with one member abstaining as they had not been present. The hand vote was stated as "three zero or four zero"; the transcript does not state the result plainly.outcome unclear
• 47:16
  Consensus direction, with no formal vote: keep Durham's campground zoning standards, being the 20-acre minimum lot, the setbacks, screening and the resource protection restriction, and oppose year-round occupancy, with the town planner to look into whether year-round occupancy can be prohibited rather than granted as a conditional use.passed
• 47:16
  Proposal to run the camping season from May 15 to October 15 rather than ending September 15, and to resolve the duplicated paragraphs in the current section; the transcript records no explicit agreement on the dates.outcome unclear
• 52:32
  Consensus direction, with no formal vote: drop Durham's sanitary facility and primitive site standards and refer to the state rules instead, and write the state's temporary campground rule of a maximum 12 days a year into Durham's ordinance.passed
• 57:38
  Consensus direction, with no formal vote: take campgrounds out of site plan review by amending Article 8, and review them instead as a conditional use covering road access, circulation and fire department concerns.passed
• 1:18:22
  Consensus direction, with no formal vote: the town planner to look at the site plan review buffering language and draft something giving the planning board discretion to require buffering or fencing along a subdivision access road, rather than a fixed buffer width.passed
• 1:28:25
  Direction to draft a buffer requirement around the eight designated historic properties, applying to all development rather than commercial only, for public discussion. Members differed on whether single-family houses should be covered and on how existing vegetation would count.passed
• 1:43:59
  Direction to the town planner to redraft the noise standards for enforceability and to add higher limits for industrial, commercial and agricultural uses, suggested as 65 dB day and 55 dB night, with 55 and 45 remaining the residential standard. One member said they did not fully agree.passed
• 1:54:13
  Direction to follow the town attorney's guidance on cannabis: set a per-property limit of three mature plants, 12 immature plants and unlimited seedlings, above which a conditional use approval would be required.passed
• 1:54:13
  Agreement to draft the administrative amendments: packet deadline from two weeks to three, printed copies from ten to five, board of appeals notification brought into line with the planning board's, and the mylar requirement for final plans removed.passed
• 1:59:21
  Agreement that the proposed select board authority to correct non-substantive ordinance errors be drafted to require consultation with and approval by the planning board.passed
• 2:04:22
  Motion to adjourn, moved and seconded, with a hand vote taken; the transcript does not state the result.outcome unclear

An outcome reads "unclear" where the recording does not state it plainly. The recogniser drops short words, and "the motion does not carry" is one missing word from its opposite.

Worth knowing

• 0:07
  The Greater Portland Council of Governments has helped the town apply for a $20,000 grant for the energy part of the land use programme, and a second grant under the same community resilience programme could fund economic development districts for energy and natural resource based industries.
• 15:48
  The codification returned 139 technical and legal responses and will produce a draft ordinance of about 350 pages. Board decisions must be in by the end of the year for the codifier to prepare that draft, with public review starting early next year and presentations planned from after Labor Day.
• 31:32
  Members disagreed over year-round occupancy at campgrounds. The objection raised was that campground units house families without paying anything like the taxes an equivalent house would, adding to school costs, with a figure of about 40 potential living units mentioned; against that, the housing shortage and fair housing law were raised.
• 2:04:22
  The next comprehensive plan is planned to be funded roughly half in the 2026 budget and half in 2027, written in 2028, with adoption in 2029.

Motion language found in the transcript

Located by pattern matching, with no model involved: "I move that", "I'll second", "all those in favour". This is an independent check on the summary above: 1 passage of motion language, against 12 decisions summarised.

Elsewhere

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