CHINA — Residents looking for a chance to vote on the complicated ordinance additions and revisions proposed by the Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee will have to wait.

Instead, they might get a crack at definitions related to floodplains on a November ballot.

Planning Board members agreed Tuesday night they cannot review the implementation committee’s work in time for a vote this November. It may be possible in November 2012, Chairman Ronald Breton said.

The implementation committee has drafted major changes to the town’s Land Development Code, plus a new ordinance for reviewing applications for commercial projects and multi-family houses.

In addition, co-chairman Frederic Hayden has revised the Architectural Standards Ordinance voters rejected in June. The rest of the committee has not reviewed his work.

The implementation committee is carrying out recommendations in China’s 2008 comprehensive plan. The next step, Breton said, is for the Planning Board to review the committee’s documents for appropriateness, applicability and consistency with other ordinance sections.

Having rescheduled their next meeting from Aug. 23 to Aug. 30, Planning Board members decided not to hold a special meeting Aug. 23 just to consider the draft ordinances.

Meanwhile, Code Enforcement Officer Scott Pierz said, the State Planning Office sent a list of definitions to be added to the section of the town ordinance dealing with floodplain management. Planning Board members intend to review them Aug. 30.

Ordinances recommended by the Planning Board go to selectmen, who decide whether to put them on a ballot.

Hayden said the implementation committee has scheduled a second public hearing on its drafts, 6:30 p.m. Sept. 1 at China Middle School.

An Aug. 12 hearing focusing on the proposed Route 3 commercial district drew about 60 interested residents, crowding the Town Office meeting room, Pierz said.

In addition to talking with Hayden and others about ordinance revisions, Planning Board members discussed two business applications Tuesday evening.

As a result, they scheduled two Aug. 30 public hearings: one on Nanci Rodrigue’s application to open Green Bean Coffee Shop at 11 Old Windsor Road in South China; the other on Russell Coston’s application for a metal recycling and salvage business at his home at 281 Dirigo Road.

The Aug. 30 meeting will be preceded by a 6 p.m. site visit to Coston’s property.

Mary Grow is a Kennebec Journal correspondent who lives in China.

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