FREEPORT — For the first time, the Town Council will hold a public hearing on whether it should even consider a zoning change.

On Tuesday, the council scheduled a Feb. 28 hearing on Seacoast United Maine’s request to create a completely new “recreation district” so it could build a controversial indoor-outdoor soccer complex in a rural residential zone.

The council set the hearing after getting the green light from the town’s attorneys, who advised that considering the soccer club’s request wouldn’t violate the town’s charter or comprehensive plan.

Council Chairman Jim Cassida said he wants to make sure residents have a chance to speak on Seacoast’s request before the council decides whether to forward it to the Planning Board for a recommendation.

“This is part of the deliberative process that we need to go through,” Cassida said.

If the council forwards the request to the Planning Board and receives a recommendation, the council would hold another public hearing before voting on the request, Cassida said.

The council has been under pressure lately to increase responsiveness to and communication with townspeople.

Seacoast representatives asked the council to create a recreation district last week, after the soccer club’s previous efforts to win zoning approval met with strong opposition.

The council decided last April to give the club 12 acres of town-owned land off Pownal Road to develop two outdoor artificial-turf fields and an indoor soccer arena. In exchange, the town would get some public use of the fields.

The pending land deal also required town officials to help the soccer club get needed zoning and environmental permits.

In November, the Planning Board issued a recommendation to the council opposing amendments to existing zoning language or designing an overlay district specifically to allow Seacoast’s project. Indoor recreation facilities, in particular, aren’t allowed in a rural residential zone.

The requested recreation district would encompass existing athletic fields on Hunter and Pownal roads, as well as the 12 acres in between, said Seacoast representative Mike Healy, a Freeport resident and retired lawyer affiliated with Verrill Dana in Portland.

Freeport currently has no recreation district and no language in its zoning regulations to allow one.

Before Tuesday’s meeting, Chairman Cassida sought legal opinions on whether considering the zoning change would violate the town charter or comprehensive plan, according to a letter written Tuesday to Town Manager Dale Olmstead.

The town’s attorneys at Bern-stein Shur in Portland determined that the zoning change could be “advanced” without establishing a growth area west of Interstate 295, which is prohibited by the town charter.

The lawyers left it to councilors to determine whether the zoning change is consistent with the comprehensive plan, which the council approved one year ago. However, the lawyers noted that a section of the plan makes the following points about open space and recreation:

• Land can be protected by encouraging a wide variety of outdoor recreation.

• Outdoor recreation that requires few buildings and minimal land disturbance can be less intense than housing.

• These uses often require large tracts of land and buildings such as sports complexes, classrooms and warming huts.

• These uses provide a business opportunity and additional recreational opportunities for residents.

The town’s lawyers also noted that there are numerous commercial uses allowed in rural residential districts, including outdoor recreation facilities, nursing homes, campgrounds, day-care centers and bed-and-breakfast inns.

 

Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at: kbouchard@pressherald.com

 

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