Subject: Attn: Tim Fanning, PB Chairman

Tim, in our telephone conversation this morning you asked me to send this email to you regarding the town’s failure to adopt the required shoreland zoning changes at its Town Meeting this past weekend.  Namely, you had inquired about the ramifications. As I stated this morning, the State’s actions to ensure the town is compliant with the minimum SLZ requirements should not be misconstrued in any way as a disciplinary or enforcement action against the town. We do understand these situations occur on occasion, yet we must ensure that every municipal ordinance is compliant with the minimum requirements. 

Therefore, at some point after the July 1, 2009 deadline, the State will impose the minimum requirements on the town through a rule-making process. The imposition will include both the text provisions and any required mapping changes related to the moderate/high value freshwater wetland ratings. Considering a number of variables I anticipate that we will initiate this process in the late summer or early fall of this year.  It will result in the minimum requirements (the 5/1/06 version of the State SLZ guidelines) being imposed on the Town. The Town will retain its existing ordinance(s), however, the Town must also administer and enforce the imposed provisions as it would any other locally adopted ordinance provision. This generally can be confusing and an inconvenience for municipal officials and property owners as they must consider the requirements of multiple ordinances and conflicting provisions. Ultimately, the most restrictive provision in any local ordinance, whether locally adopted or State imposed, will prevail.

Once the Town eventually adopts the minimum requirements and the Department approves them, we will also repeal the State imposed ordinance. Please let me know if you have any further questions regarding this process.

Thank you,

Mike Morse
MDEP
Asst. Shoreland Zoning Coordinator
312 Canco Rd, Portland, ME 04103
822-6328 822-6303 (fax)