CARRABASSETT VALLEY – The town has hired an attorney to assist with pursuing legal action in relation to zoning ordinance violations on Route 27 in Carrabassett Valley, Town Manager Dave Cota reported in the select board meeting Monday night.
This issue was brought to the board in August. An unpermitted accessory building was placed on a property on Route 27 on Bigelow Hill, north of the Sugarloaf Access Road. In addition to the lack of permitting for the accessory building, there are setback violations and square footage violations where the square footage of buildings on the property exceeds the ordinances.
Previously, Code Enforcement Officer Chris Parks had made contact with one of the three property owners. The current occupants are not the owners, and the accessory building is apparently not owned by any of the three property owners.
The town has continued to receive complaints about the property and the zoning ordinance violations.
Cota said that the code enforcement officer has attempted to make contact with the property owners and has not ‘gained traction’ on the issue. As such, the town sought legal services; they consulted with Don Fowler and with an attorney in Farmington, and ended up retaining the services of Kenneth Lexier of Mills, Shay, Lexier & Talbot P.A. of Skowhegan to seek corrective action for the zoning ordinance issues.
In other business, the Western Maine Mountain Housing coalition requested that the town withdraw a piece of legislation that would allow the town to consider allowing a workforce housing development on the Town Lot, where the Outdoor Center and the Adaptive Outdoor Education Center is located.
WMMH Executive Director Mark Green said he wanted to be cautious to not prohibit a future opportunity. He said that it would be a long time before the coalition would look for a lot like the Outdoor Center and they may want to revisit it in the future, but for now they believed that withdrawing the legislation would be the best thing.
“In reality, most of our focus is on Kingfield,” Green said. “It will be a while before we start looking at other land.”
He added that WMMH and Sugarloaf Mountain are having conversations about property on the mountain.
Resident Dave Smith approached the board to discuss short term rentals. He suggested that it may be time for the town to look at short term rentals and to consider licensing or registering rentals. Smith cited safety concerns, such as increased public safety calls and overload on septic and utilities. He asked if the town had any idea how many short term rental units there are in the town.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we have a hundred little Holiday Inns in the town,” Smith said.
In his own research into short term rentals, he found one town that charges $20 for two years for a short term rental license. The purpose of that licensing is just to know where the rentals are and what units are being rented.
He also speculated that short term rentals may be contributing to the workforce housing issue in the community.
“I’m not for it, I’m not really against it, but we’re going to have to do something about it sooner than later,” Smith said.
Selectperson Lloyd Cuttler said that most of the town’s residences are in an association, and that the town tries not to ‘step on’ the associations. He suggested the associations should look into the issue.
Board chair Bob Luce suggested that the topic may be a good discussion item for the town’s Comprehensive Planning Committee. The committee would not create a policy or ordinance on short term rentals, but would provide a recommendation for whether or not the town should look into some form of regulation.
