The Cape Elizabeth Town Council decided 5-2 Monday to hold the referendum vote on controversial zoning amendments next November.
Options included holding the referendum as early as March or June 2022, but the council decided on Nov. 8, the date of the state’s general election.
Gabrielson
The amendments, which would have permitted the construction of the Dunham Court affordable housing project, won council approval in October. A citizen petition successfully brought about the referendum in hopes of repealing the amendments. The Dunham Court developer, Szanton Company, then scrapped the project, saying they had no interest in fighting the referendum. The vote on the zoning amendments must still be held, however, because they impact any future housing developments in the town center.
Public arguments for holding a vote during the general election centered on voter turnout and the cost of a special election. Those favoring an earlier vote cited the need to more quickly resolve the divisive issue and said the sooner the zoning is in place, the sooner Cape Elizabeth can field proposals for other projects in the town center.
Mary Ann Lynch of Olde Colony Lane told the council Monday that voter turnout typical of general elections is vital for the referendum.
“The larger turnout in November will assure that this important issue will be decided by the most voters,” she said. “Voter participation (in June) is often less than half and frequently a third of voter participation in November in the same year.”
Only 5% of the town’s voters turned out for the school department budget this past June.
Her statistics swayed some councilors.
Gillis
“I was originally in favor of the June date,” said Council Chairperson Jeremy Gabrielson. “Having seen some of the numbers that Mary Ann pulled together, I’m leaning more heavily toward the November date, even though I recognize that is a very long time from now.”
Councilor Caitlin Jordan agreed.
“I didn’t realize how off the percentages really were between June and November,” she said. “If we’re really going to get the biggest take on what the town really thinks … we need to do this in November.”
The town will also be conducting a housing diversity study, and those for the November date argued it will give sufficient time for the study to be completed and reviewed ahead of a vote.
New councilors Susan Gillis and Tim Reiniger, both of whom were sworn in Monday, voted against the November date. In their election campaigns, both were critical of the affordable housing project and the zoning amendments.
Gillis favored a June date.
Reiniger
“There’ll be no developers even looking at it,” she said of the proposed location of the project at Monday’s meeting. “There will be no developers looking at anything because our zoning won’t be in place. So, I just think that the faster you get the zoning in place, the faster somebody else may come along.”
Reiniger urged the council to consider the earliest date possible, which would be in March.
“I’m very concerned of the tenor of the discussion in the media,” Reiniger said. “I think many of you have seen already articles of local media referring to Cape Elizabeth as ‘The town that everyone loves to hate, full of loudmouths,’ and so forth, and I think it’s going to get worse.”
He also referred to the divide the Dunham Court project and amendments have caused, and said future state legislation could potentially limit the town’s voice in affordable housing projects, furthering his stance that Cape Elizabeth should hold the election as soon as possible.
“When you’ve been sitting on the council a bit longer,” Jordan told Reiniger, “you’ll learn to have thicker skin for what the newspapers say.”
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