letter to the editor

Boothbay Harbor is still your town, please vote

Mon, 04/22/2019 - 3:45pm

Dear Editor:

Before you vote on article #3 understand that the information contained in the Chapter 170 Land Use Amendments needed over 60 minutes of clarification at the town informational meeting Monday, April 8 (Watch BRCTV online or channel 1301). There is a lot of information that you will not see on the ballot. Read everything in the article 3 warrant question, including the fine print at the bottom before voting. Increased height would be the same as the General Business District. Note that the General Business District is not the Downtown Business District as you might expect. It’s the Meadow Mall area, which is nowhere near the waterfront.

The proposed warrant includes 20-foot view corridors on lots with at least 100 feet of Atlantic Avenue frontage. Currently the Lobster Dock property is the only available parcel of land required to have a 20-foot clear view corridor. The former Rocktide Inn with 375 feet of frontage does not presently have a clear view corridor and will not need to provide one unless buildings are torn down on the waterfront. The Corporation would be allowed a 35-foot building height. This property is quite flat, using the new “shoreland measurement” taken on the downhill side has the potential for a building 300 feet long, 35 feet high, being built parallel to Atlantic Avenue.

The view corridor “trade off” offered by the development Corporation PGC8LLC was to allow increased building height to 35 feet to compensate them for view corridor land unavailable for development.

Why is the increased height being proposed on all 17 parcels when only 5% of the property in the new district (one, 100-foot lot) will be required to provide a 20-foot clear view corridor? What is the justification for allowing the entire new district (totaling over 2000 feet of Atlantic Avenue frontage) to build 35-foot structures as “compensation?”

Footnote: The warrant will also allow vehicles up to 6’6” high to park for up to 30 days in the “Clear View Corridor.”

Please vote “No” on Article 3 and “Yes” on 4 and 5. You, the voters, still own this town.

Lynne Seitzer

Boothbay Harbor