SKOWHEGAN — Parking requirements. Too much trash. A brook that often floods. A 120-year-old former fire station. Readiness for a catastrophe.

Those were among the topics discussed by Skowhegan officials Tuesday, as the town’s Board of Selectmen and Planning Board met for their annual joint meeting to discuss goals and priorities for the next year.

The three-hour discussion touched on more than a dozen issues, many of which have been before town officials for years. Much of the meeting focused on how to manage Skowhegan’s ongoing economic revitalization efforts.

Downtown parking, for example, has been an ongoing concern for the Planning Board, especially as developers have sought to add more residential units to unoccupied floors at downtown buildings.

In March, the board received results from a consultant who studied downtown parking as part of an overall town-state transportation initiative.

The study’s finding: Skowhegan has no parking problem.

“Right now, I don’t think our town has a parking problem,” Planning Board Chairman Steve Conley said Tuesday. “I don’t think there’s any evidence that we have a real parking problem. Should we get a whole lot of new things, especially large volume, that might create some issues.”

Several Planning Board members said they are skeptical of the study’s small sample size: two days.

Road Commissioner Jason Finley said Tuesday he helped the consultant with the study on a day that followed a snowstorm, suggesting the results might not be representative of normal parking occupancy levels.

But the issue about parking, most of the town officials agreed, is how requirements for parking spaces are affecting potential residential and commercial development in the downtown area, where space is limited.

The town’s site plan review ordinance specifies parking requirements that vary according to development. For example, multifamily residences must provide 1.5 parking spaces per room or dwelling unit.

There is potential downtown for more housing, and some developers have eyed converting upper floors of buildings into apartments. Code Enforcement Officer Bryan Belliveau estimated occupancy of upper floors is at about 30%.

“We’re not seeing development in this town, a lot of times, because of the strict parking requirements,” Belliveau said at Tuesday’s meeting.

Proposed solutions varied. Selectman Elijah Soll suggested revisiting the 1.5-space requirement, while Planning Board member Andrew Thorpe suggested looking at allowing required parking to be farther away from the development site. Belliveau suggested standardizing the town’s “in lieu of” fee system for developments that cannot provide parking.

The existing ordinance allows the Planning Board to reach an agreement with a developer about a fee should the development not meet parking requirements.

“If we’re going to keep that in the ordinance,” Belliveau said, “we really should have a structure of what that looks like.”

The money could be put into an account to address future parking issues, Belliveau said, including acquiring new lots.

How the Planning Board would factor the fee into its review process has yet to be determined.

“If the project has room for the parking, they should make parking,” Conley, the Planning Board chairman, said. “If they don’t have room for it, then let’s not stop the project. Let’s give them the opportunity for the fee at that point.”

Alongside parking, town officials considered solid waste disposal as an issue to handle with future developments.

Cynthia Kirk, solid waste supervisor, told members of the two boards that larger developments and businesses need stricter requirements for recycling, which would save the town on disposal fees.

Skowhegan sells its recycled materials, offsetting trash disposal costs. Skowhegan is one of few municipalities in Maine that pays for trash disposal from taxation, instead of using a “pay as you throw” system or another fee-based method, according to Kirk.

In this year’s budget, about $606,000 is allocated for disposal costs of a total $1.16 million budget for sanitation/solid waste and recycling, according to budget documents.

The town’s solid waste ordinance specifies that 16 kinds of materials “will be source separated for recycling purposes.”

“Yet, we have large developments, we have large businesses that are not being required to do this,” Kirk said. “I was told by a large business owner the other day: ‘I don’t have time. It’s not my problem.’ Well, it is a problem when all those recyclables could be making money for the town, versus all the local taxpayers having to pay for these large developments and large businesses just to throw it all away.”

Other communities similar in size to Skowhegan have ordinances requiring recycling dumpsters on site at certain developments, Kirk said, offering that as a possible solution.

Kirk also asked the two boards to consider adding her position to the staff committee that reviews site plans to ensure recycling rules are enforced.

Some members of the two boards debated if more recycling would really be a financial benefit or would cost taxpayers more. Planning Board member Harvey Austin said the town should close its transfer station altogether.

At Tuesday’s meeting, town officials also discussed the following topics, which are to be revisited in the coming months:

• Considering options for the former fire station on Island Avenue, given that Brookfield Renewable owns a small part of property on which the building sits and has told town officials it will not give an easement that would allow the town to sell it.

• Dealing with the potential removal or sale of the Weston Dam and other Kennebec River dams undergoing a federal relicensing process.

• Restarting conversations with Canaan officials to determine what to do with the compromised Hilton Bridge on Red Bridge Road.

• Mitigating flooding issues associated with the Currier Brook watershed, with the culvert under the Skowhegan Plaza parking lot off Waterville Road (U.S. Route 201) believed to be the biggest problem.

• Revising the town’s sign ordinance to align closer with state standards and to clarify enforcement system, in response to complaints this summer.

• Addressing a growing homeless population and illegal encampments in Skowhegan.

• Filling open seats on the Heritage Council, which now has four members and needs five for a quorum.

• Creating a better system among town departments for how the town approves the moving of mobile homes within Skowhegan.

• Moving forward with sidewalk projects, including on Norridgewock Avenue and near Redington-Fairview General Hospital.

• Improving the water supply infrastructure at the Southgate Industrial Park, off U.S. Route 201, to better serve potential occupants.

• Planning better for large-scale emergencies in collaboration with other agencies.

• Implementing an emergency notification system to better communicate with residents.

Copy the Story Link