I am in a pissy mood this morning. I had a long phone conversation with the chair of the town's planning board last night. I had received notification of a hearing on a proposed subdivision on my road, and wanted to know the details.
A half mile stretch of my road had been owned by a lovely man from away. There was an old house and well over a hundred acres on both sides of the road. He died about a year and a half ago, and I knew that was that.
The house was sold with 9 acres. The other side of the road, 1700 feet of frontage, is going to be divided into 5 lots. What happens to the remaining 100 acres on the house/pond side of the road is yet to be seen, but it is on the market and has a lot of activity.
Frankly I am not too perturbed about the five lots. That section was basically clear cut ten years ago and is freqently used by coyote hunters as a place to park and shoot things from the road, which is allowed because there are no homes and it is a dirt road.
I am hoping to gain some nice neighbors-people who appreciate wildlife. There ae some deed restrictions associated with the subdivision that will apparently favor people who are richer rather than poorer, which may not be a good thing .
So why am I disgruntled? When I bought here this was a quiet little town, lots of older forest, people minding their own. Back in 2012 a couple moved here from away and basically took over the town. The woman bullied the former officals who didn't go along with her (an elected clerk quit because this woman criticized her work attire as "jeans were NOT appropriate") Then right after she made sure that the town voted on appointing rather than electing almost every position in town, giving her complete control over town officials
The town didn't have a subdivision ordinance, because it wasn't permitted, You had to have 300 feet of road frontage, 4 acres, and build within 1500 feet of a town maintained road. The subdivision ordinance changed all that. Now a person or company could build a road into the woods and cut up lots.,
I have argued twice with the person I spoke with on the phone about this, he insists it was voted and passed at a regular town meeting and told me last night to "look it up". Which I did, and it was passed at a "special town meeting" by 20 something residents in the middle of winter.
That is even below the amount of signatures you need to get on the ballot, but it completely changed the face of the town.
We also got into an argument about our Shoreland Ordinance, which was replaced about the same time. our new one is basically the state minimum guidelines. Our former one was a lot more restrictive. Yet this person who is on at least 5 town committees tried to tell me that the State was very restrictive so our newer ordinance was more restrictive than the former one. The State is the MINIMUM and any ordinance which diverges from the State would by it's very nature HAVE to be MORE restrictive. I have both ordinances and can prove this as fact, but what is the point, to make the guy admit he is wrong?
But that is how they sold changing the ordinance, by claiming the State was the best and better than the one we were using. Like having a subdivision ordinance-we didn't have one (gasp!) and needed one. However our former land use ordinance did not permit cutting up woodland with roads and lots.
The guy admitted on the phone last night they did it so people could sell off lots to make money. (So the rich people who own lots of land that was landlocked could now slice and dice to their hearts content, while those of use who live in the town because of its rural nature can just suck it up.)
He went on another tangent about how "accumulation of junk" is not permitted on one of the new ordinances. There was a piece on another road that had quite a collection and high weeds. It had been like that for as long as I can remember. But someone who was a friend of these persons taking over the town-another someone from away- bought a piece behind and put all kinds of money (hundred of thousands of dollars) into upgrading the property. Now she didn't like having to drive by the junky place everyday.
I told the guy-"It was like that when SHE bought her piece"
But that is basically what has happened to this little town. People moved in, bought cheap (for a reason) put money in, enacted ordinances intheir favor, cashed out, got the hell out of dodge, and left us torn and bleeding with our taxes doubled.
It's like living in a third world country and having the mining op come in promising how great your life is going to be, making millions of dollars and then leaving your with an open pit mine and pollution.
Yes, very disgruntled this morning.
A half mile stretch of my road had been owned by a lovely man from away. There was an old house and well over a hundred acres on both sides of the road. He died about a year and a half ago, and I knew that was that.
The house was sold with 9 acres. The other side of the road, 1700 feet of frontage, is going to be divided into 5 lots. What happens to the remaining 100 acres on the house/pond side of the road is yet to be seen, but it is on the market and has a lot of activity.
Frankly I am not too perturbed about the five lots. That section was basically clear cut ten years ago and is freqently used by coyote hunters as a place to park and shoot things from the road, which is allowed because there are no homes and it is a dirt road.
I am hoping to gain some nice neighbors-people who appreciate wildlife. There ae some deed restrictions associated with the subdivision that will apparently favor people who are richer rather than poorer, which may not be a good thing .
So why am I disgruntled? When I bought here this was a quiet little town, lots of older forest, people minding their own. Back in 2012 a couple moved here from away and basically took over the town. The woman bullied the former officals who didn't go along with her (an elected clerk quit because this woman criticized her work attire as "jeans were NOT appropriate") Then right after she made sure that the town voted on appointing rather than electing almost every position in town, giving her complete control over town officials
The town didn't have a subdivision ordinance, because it wasn't permitted, You had to have 300 feet of road frontage, 4 acres, and build within 1500 feet of a town maintained road. The subdivision ordinance changed all that. Now a person or company could build a road into the woods and cut up lots.,
I have argued twice with the person I spoke with on the phone about this, he insists it was voted and passed at a regular town meeting and told me last night to "look it up". Which I did, and it was passed at a "special town meeting" by 20 something residents in the middle of winter.
That is even below the amount of signatures you need to get on the ballot, but it completely changed the face of the town.
We also got into an argument about our Shoreland Ordinance, which was replaced about the same time. our new one is basically the state minimum guidelines. Our former one was a lot more restrictive. Yet this person who is on at least 5 town committees tried to tell me that the State was very restrictive so our newer ordinance was more restrictive than the former one. The State is the MINIMUM and any ordinance which diverges from the State would by it's very nature HAVE to be MORE restrictive. I have both ordinances and can prove this as fact, but what is the point, to make the guy admit he is wrong?
But that is how they sold changing the ordinance, by claiming the State was the best and better than the one we were using. Like having a subdivision ordinance-we didn't have one (gasp!) and needed one. However our former land use ordinance did not permit cutting up woodland with roads and lots.
The guy admitted on the phone last night they did it so people could sell off lots to make money. (So the rich people who own lots of land that was landlocked could now slice and dice to their hearts content, while those of use who live in the town because of its rural nature can just suck it up.)
He went on another tangent about how "accumulation of junk" is not permitted on one of the new ordinances. There was a piece on another road that had quite a collection and high weeds. It had been like that for as long as I can remember. But someone who was a friend of these persons taking over the town-another someone from away- bought a piece behind and put all kinds of money (hundred of thousands of dollars) into upgrading the property. Now she didn't like having to drive by the junky place everyday.
I told the guy-"It was like that when SHE bought her piece"
But that is basically what has happened to this little town. People moved in, bought cheap (for a reason) put money in, enacted ordinances intheir favor, cashed out, got the hell out of dodge, and left us torn and bleeding with our taxes doubled.
It's like living in a third world country and having the mining op come in promising how great your life is going to be, making millions of dollars and then leaving your with an open pit mine and pollution.
Yes, very disgruntled this morning.
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