An aerial view of houses along Wells Beach in April 2020. Wells residents voted by more than a 10-to-1 margin Tuesday to enact a temporary moratorium on large developments, which some say will increase traffic congestion and disrupt daily life in the town of about 11,000. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Wells residents voted by more than a 10-to-1 margin Tuesday to enact a temporary moratorium on large developments, which some say will increase traffic congestion and disrupt daily life in the town of about 11,000.

At a special town meeting Tuesday night, attendees voted 980-82 in favor of adopting the 180-day moratorium, which prevents new construction of large projects and limits the expansion of existing developments.

With Tuesday’s vote, Wells became the latest community in Maine to put up barriers to new developments even as the state faces a worsening housing shortfall. The average sale price of a home in Wells was more than $450,000 last month, according to data collected by the online realtor Redfin.

The rule change does not impact projects already under review, but it prevents certain new developments from coming under consideration. The ban applies to proposals that include at least 45 units within one mile of each other and include shared management, common equipment, common labor or shared financing.

The moratorium will be retroactively applied to April 16 and run until October, with the option to be extended another 180 days. During that time, the town plans to study its ordinances and chart a plan for development moving forward, according to the moratorium.

John MacLeod III, chair of the town’s board of selectman and a Wells native, said residents have long been concerned about the pace and direction of growth. He called the moratorium “a chance to put the brakes on” and put together a clearer path forward.

“I don’t think that there’s anybody in the community who doesn’t recognize the need for housing. To me, the big issue here is planning,” MacLeod said during a phone call Wednesday evening. “The other large community concern is a cohesive town center.”

Wells residents first began discussing the moratorium earlier this year, after news began to circulate of a proposed 158-unit housing development along Route 1, which runs through town and also is called Post Road.

Richard Jorgensen, who owns that parcel at 502 Post Road, laughed when a reporter read him the tally of Tuesday’s vote. He said the result was “about what I thought.”

“In a way, it’s ignoring what the government of Maine has been saying for years,” Jorgensen said.

Jorgensen cited MaineHousing’s 2023 annual report, which found that housing in the state lags behind demand by about 38,000 units and suggested that Maine will need at least 84,000 homes by 2023.

Scott Thistle, communications director for MaineHousing, said that while the authority wants to see affordable housing flourish throughout Maine, it aims to stay out of local disputes, including Wells.

“We respect the rights of local elected officials to make decisions that they deem appropriate for their community,” Thistle said during a phone call Wednesday.

Jorgensen said the moratorium appeared to directly target his proposed development, adding that he hoped the project would fund his retirement. Town officials have denied, however, that the moratorium was aimed at Jorgensen’s proposal in particular.

Jorgensen said Wells already deals with traffic issues, especially during the summer, but bottlenecks are caused by tourists, not residents.

“If you’re here in the summertime, it’s jammed. If you’re here in the wintertime, there is no problem,” Jorgensen said. “One more development on the only large piece of land (still undeveloped) will change nothing.”

DEVELOPMENT HAS RAMPED UP

Development in town has ramped up in the last few years, according to the moratorium proposal. From 2009 to 2023, the town approved 76 residential subdivisions, which had an average of 14 dwelling units each. But recent development proposals have included some that are “substantially larger,” according to the moratorium.

State law allows municipalities to enact a moratorium if necessary to prevent the overburdening of public facilities or if existing local ordinances would fail to prevent significant public harm from residential developments. And other towns in southern Maine have put their own development pauses into place.

Brunswick enacted a similar 180-day moratorium in 2022, suspending the review of projects that would contain 30 or more units unless at least 15% are reserved for individuals making less than the area’s median income. Brunswick officials voted to extend the moratorium by another 180 days later that year.

Unlike in Brunswick, Wells’ moratorium does not contain any exceptions for affordable housing.

After the summer tourists begin to dwindle, MacLeod expects the town to host a series of listening and dialogue sessions with community members between now and October.

Meanwhile, the planning board will come up with a handful of possible new rules for subdivisions that would be put on the Nov. 5 ballot. Each proposal is slated to be listed as an individual question on the ballot – rather than being grouped into a single plan – giving voters a better chance to express their desires, MacLeod said.

“The community’s going to get their chance to speak on it,” MacLeod said. “We don’t want anybody to feel like their voice isn’t heard.”

MacLeod supports specific rules like requiring buffer zones for clustered subdivisions, rather than allowing developers to clear-cut swaths of trees, which he called a relatively common practice.

“When people drive by and they see that, it kind of really shocks them,” he said. “It’s their project, but we’re losing some natural resources there.”