For the last several years, Rabbi Moshe Wilansky has been hosting religious gatherings at the Jewish community space attached to his home on Pomeroy Street in Portland. Wilansky, director of the Chabad Lubavitch of Maine, says the events don’t typically draw more than 20 people and don’t generate much noise.

“We try to be very good neighbors,” Wilansky said. “We are good neighbors. We’re quiet people. We don’t make noise at night. We’re nice to everyone.”

Some of Wilansky’s neighbors, however, say noise is a problem. They oppose a request Chabad has made to the city for a permit allowing for religious gatherings of more than 15 people to be held at the space at 11 Pomeroy St., which is currently considered a single-family home but is seeking conditional approval as a “place of assembly.”

“We all moved to a residential area that’s zoned for residential use and now they’re trying to change it after the fact and expand,” said Matt Steege, president of the Capisic Meadows Homeowners Association in the neighboring subdivision and a neighbor whose property abuts Wilansky’s. Steege said the space routinely hosts large gatherings and noisy outdoor camps in summer.

“I’m sure they’re great people but it’s hard to be tolerant of a neighbor that doesn’t go out of their way to let you know they’re going to be disturbing the peace of a residential neighborhood,” Steege said. “I think that’s how a lot of people here feel.”

The planning board will hold a public hearing and is expected to vote Tuesday on the request for conditional approval as a place of assembly. City staff are recommending the board approve the permit with conditions including that any future expansion require additional review and approval by the board.

INCREASE IN WORSHIPPERS

The hearing before the board is the latest effort by the city to try to bring the space, which Wilansky likened to a small synagogue, into compliance with city code. The city granted a site plan approval to pave Pomeroy Street, a short dead-end street, and construct the existing single-family home at the site in 2013. It also granted a building permit in 2017 for a two-story addition.

Since 2018, the number of worshipers attending services at the site has increased to more than 15 people, prompting a need for the conditional use as a place of assembly, according to a report from city staff to the board. A similar permit was applied for in 2018, but the application expired after staff concerns were unresolved.

In 2020, city attorney Anne Torregrossa sent Wilansky a letter stating that the space was in violation of city code. The letter said Wilansky needed to register short-term rental units on his property and submit a new site plan and conditional use application by October 2020, though he could continue limited use of the space for religious services as long as no more than 49 people were in attendance at any one time.

Kevin Kraft, deputy director of planning and urban development for the city, said in an email Monday that many of the issues in the letter have been addressed and that since October 2021, when the conditional use application was initially reviewed at a planning board workshop, Chabad Lubavitch has revised its application in response to concerns raised by the board and staff.

Some of the issues raised, such as the need for a food license, would be dealt with after a site plan and conditional use approval through the city’s permitting and inspections department, Kraft said.

The conditional use permit wouldn’t include any new structures and the place of assembly would be limited to an area of about 1,000 square feet. The permit also would require that the proposed use not have “substantially greater negative impacts than would normally occur from surrounding uses or other allowable uses in the same zone.”

Some neighbors, however, said they don’t think the permit is appropriate in a residential area and they worry that its approval would only worsen problems they’ve had with noise and traffic.

CONCERNS ABOUT NOISE AND TRAFFIC

“The amount of traffic and noise created by Chabad, including but not limited to Jewish holidays, is significant and a disruption to the quiet enjoyment of the neighborhood by its neighbors,” Jeff Emerson, a resident of Redlon Park Road, adjacent to the property, said in a letter to the board in October.

Emerson said Monday that he and other neighbors remain concerned. “It’s inappropriate to have basically a business operating in a residential community – and a business that has been expanding in size and services,” he said.

Douglas Dempsey and Laurel McCosham, who live on Benjamin Way in the Capisic Meadows subdivision, wrote to the board last week to oppose the permit. They said large gatherings and organized religious events have been held frequently at Chabad, especially during the summer.

“While we respect the right of anyone to practice their faith, many of these events were large and loud enough to easily be heard from our home across the street,” Dempsey and McCosham wrote. “The application to operate a place of assembly only stands to increase the volume and frequency of these gatherings. It will also further diminish our neighborhood’s residential character. We respectfully suggest that such gatherings would be more appropriately held in a non-residential or mixed-use area of the city.”

Asked about neighbors’ concerns, Wilansky said the gatherings on the property typically draw 15 to 20 people and he does not envision them growing much beyond that. He said many neighbors simply don’t want to see change. “If you want to live in the city, this is the city and there’s always going to be growth,” he said.

At the same time, Wilansky said he also wants to be a good neighbor.

“Unfortunately, there are one or two people that like to rouse people up,” he said.

 

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