Select Board Meetings

The purpose of the Special Town Meeting is to address four issues:

(1) The Town has an opportunity to purchase approximately 15 acres of land abutting the Transfer Station property.  The Town has an obligation to perfom water testing and provide treatment systems for some properties on Townsend Way due to groundwater contamination believed to caused by the former landfill.  The purchase would would mitigate risk of needing to test and possibly provide water treatment systems for additional properties as the purchase would keep the land from being sold as residential lots. A side benefit is that the transfer station property has become a popular recreational area and this land could provide some additional recreational opportunities.    

(2) Reducing the area of the 25 Hackmatack Road Affordable Housing Municipal Development and Tax Increment Financing District.  Please see below description in connection with the public hearing which will be held at 6:30 PM, immediately prior to the Town Meeting.

(3) A zoning amendment to the sign ordinance to increase the maximium signage allowed a business in the Commercial Sign District with a building footprint of 60,000 sq. ft., or greater from the current 200 sq. ft. to 400 sq. feet.   

(4) A zoning amendment to make the fee paid in lieu of dedicating open space easier to calulate and more equitable by simply imposing a flat fee per bedroom, whether the property is an apartment building or a single family home. 

In 2021, the Town Meeting approved a tax increment financing district ("TIF") to assist with the funding of a proposed workforce affordable housing project off Hackmatack Road.  The TIF district conisisted of the 8.93 acre lot upon which the affordable housing would be built. 

Approximately 2.71 acres of the lot will not be needed for the proposed affordable housing project so the Topsham Housing Authortiy has asked to remove this acreage from the TIF to preserve the possibility the excess acreage could be incorporated into a future affordable housing TIF. This amendment removes the 2.71 acres from the district if it is approved by the Town Meeting and the Maine State Housing Authority.