GORHAM – Frustrated by Gorham land use codes, a town councilor this week threatened to resign after withdrawing a request related to his business that was under review by the town.

Matt Mattingly, who was elected to the Town Council in November, owns PineCrest Bed & Breakfast. Mattingly and his wife, Amy, have operated PineCrest for four years.

He had proposed discontinuing its private club dining and asked the Planning Board on Monday to allow public dining as an accessory use at his bed and breakfast at 91 South St., which is in the urban residential zone.

But, code requirements about parking for the public dining became an issue. While Mattingly’s parking lot has spaces for 11 cars, five of those spots could not be used under a public dining plan, due to zoning rules. After conferring with his lawyer, Sarah McDaniel, Mattingly, fearing that he would lose the five parking spots if the plan were approved, withdrew his application shortly after 11 p.m.

“They were about to eliminate half of the parking that is used primarily by overnight guests,” a frustrated Mattingly said this week after the meeting.

Mattingly said the town’s code has gone in the wrong direction for 25 years.

“The entire land use code needs to be shredded,” he said.

Less than a year after being elected, he said might step down from the Town Council.

“I’m considering resigning from the council. I don’t have a specific date to make that decision,” he said, adding that a decision date could hinge on whether the code issues escalate.

“It makes it difficult sitting on the council and fighting for your business. I have to protect my family and business first,” said Mattingly, who has two children in Gorham schools.

Mattingly said he campaigned for the council on issues he had heard from small businesses. Now, he said, he has encountered the same problems he had heard about from others over the past five years.

Mattingly’s proposal for public dining would have eliminated a $1 lifetime membership fee he now charges private club dining guests. The club designation has kept some people away, he said.

However, the town’s attorney said the request to allow public dining represented a change in use. The town claimed the change in use would have impacted his existing parking configuration and that five spaces nearest the street would have to be removed from the plan.

Under the request for public dining, 29 parking spaces would be needed, though some on-street parking could count toward that total. Town parking requirements would be two spaces for the residence, two spaces for staff, seven for guest rooms; and 18 for public dining.

Tom Poirier, the town planner, said Tuesday that a previous owner of the property had been granted approval by a site plan review committee in 1993 for eight parking spaces. In 1995, a code enforcement officer approved a 50-foot-by-60-foot, paved parking area.

The 11 spaces in the bed-and-breakfast parking lot are on that paved area.

The town says that for the change in use, Mattingly’s five parking spaces nearest the street would not be allowed, but Mattingly believes his parking is grandfathered. McDaniel said in Monday’s Planning Board meeting that the parking permitted in 1995 was not appealed.

On Wednesday, Mattingly said he would be meeting with an engineer and is considering resubmitting his current plan to the Planning Board. He believes the parking is a code issue.

“I have to believe town employees do not hate small business,” Mattingly said.

He said the current code forces people to hire an attorney to do the smallest project.

“We have legislated beyond common sense,” he said.

At Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, Mattingly asked rhetorical questions about the town’s code and suggested discarding it.

Another councilor said that is unlikely to happen.

Throwing out the zoning “is a pipe dream,” said Mike Phinney, chairman of the Town Council.

Gorham Town Councilor Matt Mattingly is threatening to resign over town parking issues that emerged this week with his request to allow public dining at his PineCrest Bed & Breakfast. (Staff photo by Robert Lowell)