Selectmen took proposed ordinance changes to the public Oct. 3.

Voters passed the east side-related ordinances in May after nearly two years of deliberation.

Code Enforcement Officer Geoff Smith spoke on changes the town got from the Department of Environmental Protection. “They liked the amendments overall except for a couple things that were overlooked by both sides during the process,” said Smith.

The first change is in the town’s shoreland zoning definitions (§170-101.12). The definition voters passed in May for height of a structure shows where a structure’s measurement begins, but not where it is supposed to end. The second and third changes are to the land use table: #18 allows conversion of a seasonal home to a year round home in the Working Waterfront District via the CEO, even though none exist or are allowed in the district; and land use table #22 should list “other essential services” as requiring planning board approval rather than a CEO permit.

The first proposed change reads: “The height of a structure shall be measured from the mean original grade or the mean finish grade, whichever is lower in height, (to the highest point of the structure, excluding chimneys, steeples, antennas and similar appurtenances that have no floor area) ...”

The land use table changes would change “yes” to “no” for changing seasonal homes to year round homes and would change “CEO” to “PB” (planning board) for “other essential services.”

“(Other essential services) was unknown to me, but that means 'utility-related stuff' – line spikes, water lines, sewer lines, etc.” Smith said. He added,  these requests would never come before the town since all utilities already have permission for essential operations.

Selectman Wendy Wolf asked, “These are basically technical cleanups?”

“Very much so,” said Smith. “... We were never in danger of having a building built anywhere higher than 30 feet. We had some backup definitions in our regular land use definitions we could have fallen back on as being more restrictive than the open-ended definition.”

Selectmen approved the warrant. Next steps are to add the items to absentee ballots and have sample ballots ready Oct. 7. Town Clerk Michelle Farnham said there will be three ballots to fill out Nov. 5: state, local and sewer.

Packets explaining the changes are available at the town office.