By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

CASCO — It is not just individuals who declare goals for the New Year. The Casco Planning Board outlined and discussed what it would like to accomplish in 2020. To top if off, there is a four-month deadline in order for the items to appear as warrant articles at the annual town meeting in June.

The planning board will embark on three major goals in the coming year: 1.) Updating the Shoreland Zoning Ordinance; 2.) Creating an ordinance that will require land surveys for non-conforming structures; and 3.) Drafting an ordinance amendment to reduce the footage required for roads entrances on commercial lots.

The proposed ordinance amendments were discussed during the Dec. 9 planning board meeting. The following evening, Dec. 10, Casco Town Manager Courtney O’Donnell put forward a timeline for these objectives during the Casco Board of Selectmen meeting.

Code Enforcement Officer (CEO) Alex Sirois introduced the topic of ordinances for the Board of Selectmen to work on during the planning board’s December meeting. There was no question that the Shoreland Zone Ordinance (SZO) will be addressed in its entirety, he said, adding that 75 percent of his work involves the SZO. “It is something that pretty much everyone around us has done. It is not mandated but it is coming.”

Casco Town Planner Jim Seymour commented on the new version of SZO. “I have found the new version to be clearer than some of the old volume measurements for structures. It is much more clear for everyday users and architects. The good thing is: There’s a template that the state has.”

Sirois agreed, saying the templates were helpful and the new language is clearer. In the future, the town will hire a consultant to take on the majority of the SZO update project. “We reached out to a few people to get quotes. There is a lot of stuff that needs to be fixed. We would like to get it done this year. We would really like to do that; and the clock is ticking.”

The other ordinance that was discussed in length and will be presented as an ordinance amended in 2020, deals with commercial zones and how much road frontage is required per entrance. Some board members surmised that the current 300-feet-rule prohibits some commercial zones from being developed. In January, the planning board will hear about this detail —the required frontage for entrances — as it stands in commercial zone ordinances of other towns.

One proposed ordinance was brought up by the town’s selectmen. “The third thing is the select-board’s request to adopt language that requires surveys for nonconforming structures, replacement of a nonconforming structure,” Sirois said, asking the board members what they thought.

Planning board member Ray Grant stated, “It needs to be done. If you don’t have a survey, you don’t know where it is.”

CEO Sirois explained why the planning board is being asked to look at this. “We are running into a lot of consent agreements, where people have structures that are rebuilt. When it is surveyed, it is ‘Whoops, it is six inches too close,’” to the shoreland zone."

Selectman Grant Plummer, who was in the audience, commented that most often there was a much bigger error than six inches. Seymour agreed the board could get into a sticky situation. “Then it becomes a precedent. Once you issue one [a consent agreement] for six inches, and then two feet, and then five feet, and then it is out of control,” Seymour said.

Selectman Holly Hancock, who was also at the meeting, said, “It’s getting to be a regular agenda item.”

Seymour said, “I am guessing that most of these consent agreements are on lakefront properties.”

Sirois confirmed that most of the consent pacts are lakefront and are for private properties. There have not been any for commercial properties.

Plummer testified that this ordinance was important, given how frequently the board was doing consent agreements for nonconforming structures in the shoreland zone. “This one step will alleviate all of the problems. This one step should set us in the right track, moving forward,” he said.

Seymour wrapped up the agenda item, stating that people need to hire a surveyor instead of using online applications. “The difficulty is there are a lot of online tools that people think they can use to qualify as surveys. They could be 10 feet off or a foot off. All these are great tools, but it still requires a field survey.”