Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-03-15 Planning Board Minutes PLANNING BOARD TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2022, 7:00 P.M. CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS, 3RD FLOOR CITY HALL ALSO; ATTENDANCE VIA ZOOM MEETING MINUTES Board Members Present: Ken Huhn, Chair Reese Perkins, Vice Chair Michael Bazinet (Zoom) Ted Brush Alison Coladarci (Zoom) Don Meagher Lisa Shaw (Zoom) City Staff Present: Tanya Emery, Director of Community & Economic Development Anne Krieg, Planning Officer Anja Collette, Planning Analyst David Szewczyk, City Solicitor Brittanie Thomas, Asst. City Solicitor Chair Huhn called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M. LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE AND MAP AMENDMENT PUBLIC HEARINGS 1. Amending Chapter 165, Land Development Code, by defining and regulating the uses known as Boarding House and Bed & Breakfast - These changes include revisions to definitions, parking, and the Land Development Permit. Affected districts are: Urban Residence 1 District (URD-1), Urban Residence 2 District (URD-2), Multifamily and Service District (M&SD), Neighborhood Service District (NSD), Downtown Development District (DDD), Low Density Residential District (LDR), High Density Residential District (HDR), and Rural Residence and Agricultural District (RR&A). Planning Officer Krieg reviewed the power point presentation on the Explanation of Code Change Proposal. Explained what’s being proposed in the various zones Explained why boarding houses and bed & breakfasts are being addressed at the same time Common themes on concerns received: Onsite management for Boarding Houses 73 HARLOW STREET, BANGOR, ME 04401 TELEPHONE: (207) 992-4280 FAX: (207) 945-4447 WWW.BANGORMAINE.GOV City of Bangor Planning Division Planning Board Meeting Minutes – March 15, 2022 Off street parking requirements No boarding houses in historic districts Licensing processes require both to have local & state licensing, inspections Other applicable codes o Property Maintenance Code o Disruptive House code Boarding Houses are not transitional housing with services nor are they shelters – they are homes renting out rooms This proposal does not address short term rentals o Working on this separately City Solicitor Szewczyk explained the rules surrounding public comment and the new lighting device to allow time for public to speak. Public Comment was opened. Dominick Rizzo; 57 Leighton Street – thanked City Staff and Planning Board for the opportunity to speak and for continuing the public forum. Staff are hard workers, need to be commended for their work. Thanked those for participating in the meetings. In 2018-2019, participated in the Housing Group as member of the invited public. Housing Group goal was to prioritize topics that the City needed to address and diverse housing was one of those concerns. Feels that Bed and Breakfasts should be approved as a use in historic districts and historic homes, but does not agree with definition of Boarding Houses as being proposed, where dwelling may or may not be occupied by the owner. Bangor is mostly owner occupied, single family neighborhoods. Whatever changes are made to the zoning need to support those. In regard to parking, doesn’t think front lawns should be used. Miles Theeman; 45 Grove Street – zoning amendment represents City Planning at it’s very worst. Boarding Homes and B&Bs can’t be separated in a single amendment due to differences of opinions that go with each. City has a Comprehensive Plan in place. Historically, the Plan and Planning Board do not use a one size fits all approach. Amendment causes problems. Boarding Homes & Bed and Breakfasts can be in every district. Real possibility of a Boarding Home or B&B next door or near-by. Terrible disservice to Bangor homeowners. City staff cannot keep up with inspections. City presented zero data to support this decision. Consider impact on property value. On Grove Street alone, properties sold for $900,000 collectively. Reject this Amendment, send back to City to get it right. Provide two distinct amendments, each written clearly that Bangor residents can clearly understand. Nancy Nicholson; 126 Maple Street – member of Facebook Group, Saving Bangor’s Old Houses. There are a variety of people in the group with one thing in common- they hate seeing treasured historical homes trashed and demolished. Many in the group do not think creating Page 2 | 8 City of Bangor Planning Division Planning Board Meeting Minutes – March 15, 2022 boarding houses will help with property values. There are all kinds of 2-family houses and multi-units in her area. Boarding houses will be snuck in all over the place. If this is to be recommended, it should be added as a referendum on ballot in November to let the citizens speak. A lot of people on the block had an immediate reaction of, “oh dear, I better sell while I still have a property value.” Is not unsympathetic to need for affordable housing. Bill Crawford; 5 Wingate Court – Wife came 2 weeks ago but wasn’t allowed to speak due to time. Thanked the Board for their time. In opposition to proposed changes. Roch Le Blanc; 64 West Broadway – lives in a historic district and was at the last meeting. Asked about the presentation provided last week and about whether comments were sent to the Board. When this goes in, anyone who has a home in a historic district, no matter the condition or value, if they sell to a landlord, they’ll get 17% on a place they’ve not been maintaining, while neighbors’ values go down. Karen Campbell; 38 Leighton Street – lives in an old historic home; has lived in Bangor since 2018. Member of Bangor Livable Communities, which has been in existence since 2015. Committee based on 8 domains of liability – primarily affordable housing. This issue has been at the forefront a number of years. Appreciates work done to address needs of affordable housing. Supports changes, attended all housing workgroup meetings. Well done process, provided a lot of opportunities for community to participate. Encouraged Planning Board to stick to process that City developed, housing workgroup was a thorough process. Supports those results and what Planning office is doing to see more affordable housing. As far as home share options, Vermont and New Hampshire are way ahead of Maine. Will send comments along separately. Boarding housing is for students and intergenerational families, and to allow for older adults who live in the community to be able to remain here and in their homes. Christopher Fazel; 34 Garland Street - all properties along State Street would potentially be available for these changes. His property would abut many of these residences. City missing important factor of urban redevelopment and funding. Private family housing going to create more revenue for city. As people move away from undesirable/unsafe places, it’s important to consider that this could drive increased flight from developing areas of Bangor. Moved here due to growth in City center. Purchased home 2 years ago, constantly improving property. Neighbors recently bought properties in neighborhood, young families with children looking to improve and maintain houses. Speaking in objection to the proposed measure, effort and funding needs to be resourced to those who need help without jeopardizing future of community. Page 3 | 8 City of Bangor Planning Division Planning Board Meeting Minutes – March 15, 2022 James Brochu; 466 State Street - Moved back to Bangor to bring family into a historic home; is renovating and updating home. Brought business. What’s proposed destroys character. Boarding houses are not going to solve the problem, they’ll be used to support medical professionals and short-term rentals. It’ll exacerbate issue. We’ll be destroying historic character and making it harder for people to move here, harder to bring families and businesses here. Supports affordable housing idea, but thinks there are different ways to address it. Chopping up historic homes is not the way to go about it. Kael Mikesell; 38 Summit Avenue - this isn’t an easy night, appreciates all the work that’s been done. Questions that wanted to hear comments on: o According to the national low-income housing coalition, 4% of all housing in US and 12% of all rentals obtain federal assistance; inquired about Bangor’s numbers. o Impact study available to public? Planning Officer Krieg stated that there’s no impact study, but there’s background research on city’s website - www.bangormaine.gov/zoning o How will infrastructure problems in Bangor be addressed by bringing more population? Planning Officer Krieg stated that the Comprehensive Plan will address this in different ways o Lost recycling, roads terrible, sewage problems, water problems. Will that be addressed in this? Planning Officer Krieg stated that that’s not currently part of this proposal o Bangor needs to get healthy first, isn’t healthy right now. We can’t bring in more people until that infrastructure is healthy. rd Anne Marie Quin; 11 Chatham Street – 3generation in Bangor residence, her children are th the 4. Have a lot of investment in Bangor. Strength in city historically is in distinctive neighborhoods- Tree Streets, Fairmount. These areas are safe for children as they know and trust one another. Enhance and restore these neighborhoods. Reinvigorate one neighborhood at a time with various means of support. Proposal could destroy all of the above. Witnessed this happen in Bar Harbor where she lived/worked for 15 years. Appalling what happened there, the town may never come back. Parking requirements were reduced or eliminated, similar to this proposal. Do not put boarding houses in every neighborhood, will not work. Terrible detriment to City. Bed and breakfasts are great, but Boarding Houses must have live- in manger or be owner occupied. Boarding Houses have many out of state owners who have never been to the properties. Kay Surpless; 53 Court Street; endorses and echoes remarks by Anne Marie. Her neighborhood is Court Street/Inner Ohio Street area, which is an interesting mix of short-term residents and long term. There are apartments and single-family homes, assisted living, Page 4 | 8 City of Bangor Planning Division Planning Board Meeting Minutes – March 15, 2022 transitional houses, private businesses, a convenience store, a day care, a social service office, a park, a stream. Believes such neighborhoods need a place between short- & long- term residence. Think about how this could impact mixed neighborhoods, which have a delicate balance. It wouldn’t take too much to tip neighborhood one way or another. Have respect for all the other long-established neighborhoods in Bangor with their own unique characteristics and history. Asks and encourages Planning Board to take as much time as needed to carefully reflect on and consider proposed changes which potentially will have a big impact on neighborhoods. Goal is great, but unintended side effects can happen. Michael; Lincoln Street – wanted to start bed & breakfast 30 years ago but was not allowed due to zoning. Zoning allowed bed and breakfasts to become flop houses. Visited one on Union Street where a guy urinated his name on the carpet. May be an unintended consequence of going into this capriciously. Have had over 30 foreign exchange students; nd they are the 2 owners of their home and have restored it. Home is over 100 years old; has been passed down from one family to another. However, there’s an apartment building next to them and a therapy house across street. Can’t sleep with windows open, as there’s a guy that screams in the middle of the night in the therapy house. Not the quality of life expected. House in question was put there due to private sale. Out of state ownership – in one block, there are 17 single family houses and 13 apartment houses with 41 units. They are owned by people from Michigan, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. One apartment house sold through a limited partnership in Bar Harbor for 1.9 million dollars. Bed and breakfasts and boarding houses need to be separate and treated like separate entities. Steve Brough; 76 Shepard Drive – Planning Board needs to go back to drawing board and separate out these two types of housing. Loud and clear concerns of others in neighborhood. Believe that City and Planning Board need to be listening. Doug Soloman; 75 West Broadway – Unjust to families and residents who purchased residences on current zoning rules. Purchased home in single family residence area. Families invested in homes and communities, wouldn’t have done so if they knew the city was proposing this. Appreciates the safety and security that a single-family neighborhood personifies. City should have more consideration. Bangor should seek developers to solve this problem. Obsolete property can be made into affordable housing. Instead of infringing on those that own, live, and reside in single family neighborhoods, seek resolution for all. Ariel Silver; 27 Bellevue Avenue – has lived in house 4 years now, originally from Presque Isle. Echoes sentiments from neighbors. Boarding houses will change the nature of our communities. Need to have an owner/manager living on site, more guidelines as to where these can be located. Has concerns about how a boarding house would affect property values. Property taxes are a way to fund affordable housing or housing for those in need of Page 5 | 8 City of Bangor Planning Division Planning Board Meeting Minutes – March 15, 2022 transitional housing. This is in need of further thought and guidancebefore moving forward. Oppose idea of opening up neighborhoods to both boarding houses and bed and breakfasts. Public comment closed 7:48 P.M. All members in favor. Member Shaw motioned to recommend to the Bangor City Council that the current proposal to amend Chapter 165 of the Land Development Code by defining and regulating the uses known as Boarding House and Bed & Breakfast ought not to pass in its present iteration. Seconded by Member Bazinet. Member Shaw explained her reasoning as follows: The question before us is one of land use and the text of the code that regulates it. The current proposal combines significant land use changes that are residential and commercial, respectively, combined into one action. Supporting data is excellent for the residential aspect but does not address the commercial aspect included in this action. Eased parking restrictions- while important for increasing affordable housing, they’re recommended for areas of Bangor that are still “car first” on the spectrum of automobile reliance. Member Shaw provided the following suggestions: 1. Tackle the land code definitions text on its own first to clear up the conflation with tourist homes. 2. Present the proposed use changes as separate residential and commercial proposals. These items could be addressed at one meeting but as separate agenda items. 3. Provide comparison data collected from walk audit to areas proposed for eased parking space requirements. If we base our logic for reduced parking spaces in part on less need for vehicles, these areas should in turn be deemed “walkable” by the survey taken or by action coming from that survey. This last recommendation is based on suggested integration of “walkability” addressed in the Bangor Housing Work Group Recommendations \[pp. 10,12\]. The Planning Board had further discussion as follows: Member Brush appreciates the thought Member Shaw put into motion, suggested residency requirements for boarding houses or in-house staff that must reside at the property Member Meagher agrees that the two uses should be taken up separately; feels that Staff did a good job of separating them out because they’re combined in the current code, but really feels that it necessitates voting separately on them. Discussed conditional use as a review process and what the threshold should be on boarding house sizing. Member Meager wants to see the City’s comprehensive policy on all rental options across the board – long term rentals, short term rentals, a distinction between residential and commercial. Would like to see all rental uses defined, areas allowed, permitted or conditional, the City’s Page 6 | 8 City of Bangor Planning Division Planning Board Meeting Minutes – March 15, 2022 policy on regulatingall rental uses, even outside of the development code. There should be consistency and uniformity between uses when the same problem is a possible factor for all of those uses. Vice Chair Perkins stated that he keeps hearing that the “city should do something.” Housing group from 2018 provided recommendations and so far the City hasn’t done much of what was suggested. Feels like it’s kicking the can down the road one more time. Boarding houses are here now. They’re not regulated because we don’t have regulations to govern them. Planning Officer Krieg has done a great job, doesn’t matter that she lives in Bar Harbor. She’s a good planner, she’s done a good job, and the plan could be improved upon. We have multi-units illegally all over the city. The problem isn’t the code, it’s the ownership. Boarding house downtown (goes to parking issue as well) has 20 units, 6 parking spaces and it’s been adequate; many don’t have cars. Owner does not live there. Not sure that he agrees on the parking issue. Through process of approval permitting & conditional use, parking concerns can be handled. Parking and traffic are crazy in Bangor, not just because of homeless problem or a housing problem; it’s a problem with traffic- people love Bangor. Disabled rooming house down the street from his home, been there 10 years with no issues. There are more problems with the multi-units in the same area – no problems with rooming house. It’s not owner occupied and it’s been fine. Member Bazinet is not in favor of this passing in any form; doesn’t feel it’s in the best interest of the citizens of Bangor. Member Coladarci agrees with Member Bazinet. States that the city hasn’t addressed issues with current properties not being up to code and that it’s not responsible for the city to expand boarding house zoning to other areas when we have lots of homes in URD-2 that need to be rehabilitated. In terms of increasing population density with bringing in people to boarding houses, it’s still going to create traffic in neighborhoods. There are current traffic enforcement issues in neighborhoods and sidewalks need to be repaired. Having more people coming in on a short-term basis is concerning in family-oriented neighborhoods. City should mandate current boarding houses have live-in owner, live-in manager to ensure house is well-kept and residents are held accountable for their actions. Indicated that owner should be a Maine resident. Has difficulty with parking requirements for Boarding Houses, code shouldn’t be changed. Disruptive House code isn’t an insurance policy for the boarding houses to adhere to general practice. Chair Huhn applauded planning department for hard work and courage to bring forth a proposal like this. Staff is also working on a brand-new comprehensive plan. There are already 13 boarding houses in the city and there will be more. Proposal should separate boarding houses and bed and breakfasts; perhaps use Conditional Use as a tool moving Page 7 | 8 City of Bangor Planning Division Planning Board Meeting Minutes – March 15, 2022 forward. In favor of the motion to recommendit oughtnot to be passed so Planning Board can take comments back, look at proposal again, rework it and return with a better proposal. Planning Officer Krieg asked clarification questions and received the following answers from Planning Board Members: Member Meagher -City imposed license and inspections on regular basis. Rationale for requiring license and inspection in some rental situations and not others. Health and safety – every rental occupant in every dwelling unit is entitled to public safety. Member Shaw – easing of required number of parking spaces, would like to see information from the walk audit incorporated to ensure that we’re not taking away parking ability, or vehicle access ability without a good, walkable space in place for that. Member Brush – Requirement of owner/manager to live at property All members with the exception of Vice Chair Perkins in favor. OTHER BUSINESS 2. Comprehensive Plan Check-in A. Lecture Series – Beginning with Habitat – Natural resource research from State for th municipalities – Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at 7pm. Video will be available for viewing at a later date time. City’s website under Comprehensive Plan has all the videos from the lecture series. 3. Meeting Minutes – March 1, 2022 – Member Meager moves approval of the March 1, 2022 meeting minutes with no changes, seconded by Vice Chair Perkins. Member Shaw appreciates the work on the minutes by Mel; it’s deeply appreciated. All members in favor, none opposed. 4. Adjournment – 8:29 P.M. Respectfully submitted, Melissa L. Bickford Development Assistant Planning Division Page 8 | 8