CARIBOU, Maine — The Aroostook County Community Guided Planning and Zoning Steering Committee met last Wednesday night to hear input from the public on their plan to create a new development subdistrict in the unorganized and deorganized areas of Aroostook County.
In the Northern Maine Development Commission (NMDC) chambers steering committee members used Powerpoint to lay out their plans for the new subdistrict to a small audience Wednesday night.
The new development subdistrict would encourage a range of small commercial, light manufacturing and support services in rural parts of Aroostook County near major transportation routes and organized towns that provide some level of services, according to the steering committee.
“I think the LUPC has done an outstanding job at protecting resources be it wetlands, deer wintering areas scenic areas and those kind of things it’s been a little more difficult to get businesses and development in the unorganized townships especially from a small business standpoint,” Jay Kamm, NMDC senior planner, said in an interview after his presentation. “The importance of the project is this will make it easier if someone has something that’s bigger than a home-based business they don’t have to go through a costly and time consuming rezoning effort and permitting effort. This will streamline that.”
The businesses would typically be larger than a permissible home-based business, but are not large-scale commercial or industrial developments, the committee wrote in a handout.
The idea of a large-scale development moving into someone’s backyard was the topic of discussion during public comment, and fears were quickly quelled when committee members assured the public that large-scale operations don’t fit their business model.
The committee did note that some facilities may generate some traffic, noise, odor and visual impacts so long as impacts do not exceed levels that are generally compatible with surrounding uses.
The new subdistrict would also encourage the commercial expansion of facilities that are suitable for growth because of their location.
The steering committee defines a small business in The County as a facility that includes a building or group of buildings that are either compatible with, and complementary to, natural resource-based land uses such as agriculture, forestry, small-scale natural resource processing and manufacturing, and outdoor recreation; or of a scale and intensity appropriate to rural areas that are lightly developed but proximate to services and transportation infrastructure.
The committee breaks down the small business facilities into three categories depending on their activities and potential impacts associated with the business.
Category one: would include businesses that are natural resource-based, and may need to locate more remotely in order to be close to the resource. Category two: would include small-scale retails, office and similar businesses. Category three: would include construction, light manufacturing and similar types of businesses.
According to the steering committee, each category would have their own limits on how big a business can get where it may be located based on size, exterior effects, expected traffic generation and use of vehicles or heavy equipment.
The new subdistrict would be available in 32 towns, townships and plantations in Aroostook County. These 32 candidate municipal civil divisions (MCDs) were identified by the steering committee as appropriate locations to encourage small business development in the County. However, according to the committee, not every category would be allowed in each MCD. Some locations are more remote from organized towns that provide services and may only be appropriate for category one. 21 of the candidate MCDs contain public roads and are closer to organized towns that provide some level of services. Therefore, they may be appropriate for all three categories.
Within each candidate MCD the new subdistrict would be available only within certain distances of a public road. Category one businesses could be located within one mile of a public road, category two businesses could be located within a quarter mile of a public road, and category three businesses could be located within half mile of a public road.
Existing category one and two small businesses that meet the applicable requirements would be able to expand in place when site conditions allow. In order to take advantage of this incentive, a business would have to exist at the time the rule becomes effective. New small businesses would be able to utilize existing, habitable buildings of any size so long as they can demonstrate that the proposed development would meet all other requirements.
The proposed small business development subdistrict is the product of two years of effort by the steering committee. The new zone is anticipated to become available in early 2016, the committee said.
“We’re going to finalize and draft the product and that’s going to go to NMDC’s executive board in September for their consideration,” Kamm said. If NMDC gives the go ahead they will send the plan to the Land Use Planning Commission where the committee may not hear back until early 2016.
