How many cities and towns throughout Maine have seen increased local government intervention into their residents’ lives?

Is new emphasis in the city of Augusta on restrictive measures regarding people’s personal use of their property an example of burgeoning rules limiting what we can do with our own property?

The capital city soon will add a new ordinance governing the use and appearance of personal property, initially in a new district created for Augusta’s west side. A politically appointed Historic District Review Board will be named.

Historic preservation is certainly an admirable goal, but a thin line can develop between personal property rights and the need for preservation, especially if government should decide to place overly restrictive regulations on private property.

Seven Historic District Review Board members will be selected by the mayor with council approval. The purpose of the board, as stated in the ordinance, is “to permit the designation of lands, buildings and structures within the city as historic sites, historic districts or individual historic properties or historic landmarks.”

The city already has an Historic Preservation Commission, a Planning Board, plentiful zoning ordinances and an existing demolition ordinance. All of these have specific rules for the use of property, so the new Historic District Review Board seems somewhat duplicative.

As Augusta Councilor Jeff Bilodeau said at a recent council meeting, “I don’t want to be told when I must paint my house. What if I can’t afford it?”

Bilodeau was joined by outgoing Councilor Dan Emery on the short end of a 6-2 vote related to this issue. Kudos to them for representing the point of view they heard from constituents at a public hearing. It is the same point of view that I hear when I walk the dog. People are not happy with increased numbers of mandates being created by their elected representatives.

Knowing both Bilodeau and Emery, I suspect that in addition to listening to their constituents, they are acting on their own beliefs gained from life experiences. Bilodeau is a helicopter pilot veteran who fought for our freedoms, and Emery is a libertarian concerned about over-burdensome regulations on homeowners and businesses.

The Augusta council’s action instructing corporation counsel to draft special language to effectively block plans for the use of a property on Green Street by a nonprofit group was extraordinary.

The council suddenly slapped a 180-day moratorium on demolition for certain buildings within a newly proposed historic district in order to provide time to pass a new ordinance.

The intent is to declare the relatively insignificant property in question on Augusta’s west side as historic, thus preventing its demolition, despite testimony that rehabilitation of the building is economically unfeasible.

All of this could be considered somewhat ominous for the next attempt by any developer to purchase and demolish a building as part of a business plan to create new jobs.

The creation of an Historic District Review Board already has caused a schism within the council.

The more progressively liberal members of the council, such as Dale McCormick and her ally, Linda Conti, who joined the council from her less-than-business-friendly tenure on the Planning Board, may now be leading the council agenda.

While historic preservation has its place in every community, and when used properly can make a city more desirable as it has in Augusta, caution still must be exercised.

The council should not use the new board for political purposes in promoting an agenda that some think will balance neighborhood and business interests.

And the council should not impose unusual moratoriums on necessary demolitions, should not name to the board people who have personal political agendas, and should be extremely careful not to make any personal property restrictions unreasonable, difficult or expensive to comply with.

In the capital city, we have a so-called “slob law,” and many of us believe lack of its enforcement has been responsible for causing several unattractive properties.

For some time now, councilors have complained to the city manager, without results, about lack of enforcement.

Emphasis on enforcement of existing rules should be a first step, before establishing demolition moratoriums and creating a duplicative new board to develop more regulations about what people can with their own property. Do we really need another board or commission ?

Too much regulation can produce unintended consequences.

Property owners pay enough in municipal taxes to deserve some relief from increased government intervention and potentially costly mandates on what we personally own and have worked so hard for.

Don Roberts, a former city councilor and former vice chairman of the Charter Commission in Augusta, is a trustee of the Greater Augusta Utility District.

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