AUGUSTA — City staff recommend the Planning Board make zoning ordinance definition changes regarding group homes, rooming houses, homeless shelters and religious uses, prompted by concerns about what could happen to the prominent St. Mark’s Church property that is for sale.

The proposed changes, according to Matt Nazar, development director for the city, would not impact existing uses, which would be grandfathered and allowed to continue where they are now.

But still left unresolved, and likely to be the focus of a Planning Board public hearing Tuesday, is where those types of uses will be allowed to take place in the city and the impact of the proposed changes on the sale and future use of the St. Mark’s property.

Last month city councilors approved a moratorium temporarily banning consideration of any new group, boarding or rooming houses for 180 days in two major zoning districts in the city, including the district encompassing the St. Mark’s property.

City leaders said the moratorium was needed to give the city time to clarify zoning rules, but St. Mark’s leaders said the moratorium would interfere with their efforts to sell the property and prolong the financial burden of maintaining the property, money they said would be better spent on the church’s mission of helping people in need.

The Planning Board was directed by the City Council to study the issue and make recommendations back to the council.

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Board members met Sept. 13 to hear staff recommendations for potential changes to clarify definitions in the city’s zoning ordinance, including potential new definitions of group homes, rooming houses, religious uses and homeless shelters. The city does not currently have a definition of a homeless shelter in its zoning ordinance. Bread of Life’s Hospital Street shelter was located there before zoning rules were in place in Augusta, Nazar said.

The staff recommendation didn’t delve into where those uses should be allowed in the city. While Planning Board members made a few suggestions on which zones some of those uses should be allowed in, at least for discussion purposes, they reserved their final judgment for Tuesday’s hearing or a future meeting if the matter isn’t settled Tuesday.

“I want time to look through all these zoning districts and what the impact (of proposed changes) would be,” said Corey Vose, vice-chairman of the board. “I want to make sure we’re not going from one (not in my backyard) situation to another one.”

The Planning Board meeting on the issue is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers at Augusta City Center.

St. Mark’s is looking to sell the church, adjacent rectory, and its parish hall, which is currently home to the Augusta Food Bank and church-organized operations providing those in need with free clothing and other essential items.

It is simultaneously seeking proposals from organizations to which it could give the former St. Mark’s Home with an endowment of about $340,000 to continue its mission of helping area people in need.

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City officials including Mayor David Rollins and Ward 1 City Councilor Linda Conti have expressed concern about how the property could be used, saying they heard Bread of Life Ministries has submitted a proposal for the property, and if it acquires some or all of the St. Mark’s site, it could move its homeless shelter from Hospital Street, its soup kitchen from Water Street, or both, to the site. Rollins said previously he thinks a homeless shelter and soup kitchen would not be allowed there under the current zoning nor be compatible with the largely residential neighborhood or Lithgow Public Library, both of which the church property abuts. He said neighborhood residents have approached him with concerns about what could take place at the St. Mark’s site.

Bread of Life officials have declined to confirm whether they have interest in the property, or, if so, how they would use it.

Board members reacted favorably to a recommendation to split the existing definition of religious activities in the ordinance into two definitions, one for smaller churches, temples, synagogues, mosques or other nonprofit religious facilities, which Nazar said could be allowed within neighborhoods, and another for large such facilities with worship space for 200 or more people, recommended to be allowed only in the city’s rural or commercial areas, not in residential neighborhoods.

Social services, under the draft definition discussed Sept. 13, would not be allowed to be provided in new smaller religious facilities permitted in neighborhoods.

While Nazar said current uses of properties would be grandfathered and still allowed even if they changed hands to another entity doing the same thing with the property, that doesn’t necessarily mean a new owner of the St. Mark’s property would be free to use the property, as it is now, to provide social services such as the food, clothing and essential items banks there now. Those uses are allowed at the site now only because they are considered to be accessory uses to the site’s main use as a religious facility.

Among the other recommended changes would be clarification to city ordinance to reflect state law that defines a group home as, in part, a residential care facility licensed by the state where more than eight people live. Housing facilities for eight or fewer people with disabilities would be considered community living arrangements, which Nazar said state law requires to be allowed in any zone where single-family residences are allowed.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @kedwardskj


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