WATERVILLE — The City Council on Tuesday voted 7-0 to approve a recommendation by the Planning Board to rezone an upper Main Street property from residential to commercial, making way for KV Federal Credit Union to build a branch there and move from its current location on Quarry Road.
The credit union plans to buy the properties, at 299 Main St. and 70 Oak St., which are the sites of a four-unit apartment building and a duplex, respectively. The properties, just north of Beth Israel Congregation synagogue at 291 Main St., are owned by Brown House Properties and bounded by Kelsey, Main and Oak streets.
Councilors on Sept. 5 took the first of two votes needed to approve the Planning Board’s recommendation to rezone the properties from Residential-C to Contract Zoned District/Commercial-A. No one has openly objected to the zoning change, including on Tuesday, and the council held no discussion before the vote.
Lindsey Burrill, one of the owners of Brown House, said earlier Tuesday that demolition of the apartment building and the duplex are scheduled for late spring 2018, so there will be plenty of time for tenants to find new homes. She said Brown House officials have not told tenants of the possible sale yet, as they did not want to cause them undue stress if the rezoning, and thus, the property sale, did not happen.
“We’re going to work together, along with the institution (KV Credit Union) to find good homes for our people who live there,” Burrill said Tuesday. “We’ll be working with them very closely. The institution is being very generous and accommodating with notice to tenants.”
Kimberlee Barnett, who lives on the corner of Main and Oak streets near the properties, said earlier Tuesday that she does not object to the property being rezoned and the credit union being built.
“I think with the way Colby College is doing all their construction and everything, I’m OK with having a bank as a neighbor — and it might also help me down the road,” Barnett said.
She said her home is in a residential zone that allows a business such as a hair salon as long as its owner lives there as well. Barnett’s home, which includes a three-bay garage with an entrance on Oak Street, is on the market, she said.
Her neighbor to the north on Main Street, Leone Donovan, said she is not opposed to new business but is somewhat concerned about increased street traffic if a credit union is built there.
“I just worry that we have one of the busiest intersections. I can’t understand how that wouldn’t make it much, much worse,” Donovan said. “I am a little concerned about that. I think it’s going to impact the traffic patterns.”
She said if the traffic is managed better, she would not be so concerned; but as it is, she sees drivers go through red lights at the intersection and often, there are traffic accidents at the site.
In other matters Tuesday, the council voted 7-0 to table voting on a proposed ethics ordinance until the council’s second meeting in January. Councilors also voted to form a committee to include Council Chairman Steve Soule, D-Ward 1, Nick Champagne, R-Ward 5, and Winifred Tate, D-Ward 6, to look at the proposed ethics ordinance; meet with City Solicitor Bill Lee and Peter Lyford, chairman of the Ethics Committee that worked on the proposal; and refine some of the language in it to address some concerns Champagne and other people have about it.
City Manager Michael Roy said Friday that the city charter contains a section on ethics that stays in effect until a separate ordinance in enacted.
Mayor Nick Isgro asked for a moment of silence to remember Jibryne Karter III, who died last week. Karter, who was in his early 30s, was a frequent attendee and speaker at council meetings and was a self-described community organizer.
Resident Julian Payne also acknowledged Karter’s passing, saying he was a colorful individual who was “larger than life.”
“He was a father and somebody’s son, and we can all identify with that,” Payne said.
He quoted from the poet John Donne in describing Karter: “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”
Amy Calder — 861-9247
Twitter: @AmyCalder17
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