Willard Square building ban gains City Council extension

SOUTH PORTLAND — When the South Portland City Council first sat to consider a moratorium on development in the Willard Square neighborhood, more than 50 people attended that session.

By contrast, when the council moved Monday to extend that building ban an additional 30 days, the interested audience had dwindled to just one.

But Margaret Carmody has not dogged the process out of concern for a design standard that was the ostensible purpose of the moratorium. Instead, her beef has been that, under the proposed zoning change, her side-line setbacks, would grow from zero to half her building’s height, should she ever extend her home above 30 feet tall. That rule applies only to her lot and two others in the Square, because they are considered “buffers” between it and the adjoining residential zones.

Carmody has no redevelopment plans, but complains the change to a minimum 15.05-foot setback on either side would “cripple” her ability to ever add on a third floor, if she or a successive owner wanted to do so.

“I have 54 feet of frontage,” she told the council. “You can do the math. I really feel that’s kind of unfair.”

Councilors did not address Carmody’s concern. Their only purpose Monday was to extend the moratorium to Oct. 9, which they did by unanimous vote.

City Manager James Gailey said he expects the council to adopt zoning changes for Willard Square at its Sept. 19 meeting, following an Aug. 22 workshop and “first reading” Sept. 7, in addition to a Planning Board public hearing to be held Aug. 30. 

The reason for extending the moratorium into October, Gailey said, is that ordinance changes do not go into effect until 20 days after adopted by the council. Although Gailey left it unsaid, the upshot is that someone could swoop in with a building project before the zoning changes take effect, thus enjoying relaxed parking rules for a business, and few design restrictions for any building.

Although much of the public appears to have lost interest in design standards they demanded in early May, when Glenn Perry proposed putting an “upscale eatery” at the corner of Pillsbury and Preble streets, city officials have kept their noses to the grindstone, trying to complete work before the original 95-day moratorium expired Sept. 9.

After the council acquiesced to public demands and voted June 6 to install a temporary halt to any building in the square, the Planning Board met four times to debate design rules drafted by City Planner Tex Haeuser. During that process, some wondered at the propriety of spending so much effort to establish what facades should look like in a zoned area of just 12 lots. At a July 26 meeting, Planning Board members Paul McKee and Gerard Jalbert both suggested the city, for better or worse, may be “micromanaging” development.

That may be, said Haeuser, but “the lesson for Willard Square is that the devil is in the details.”

As councilors through May heard person after person complain about the impact of development in the Square, the prevailing wisdom was that the city had missed the boat by not codifying standards in 2006, when the Willard Square neighborhood was reclassified from a "Limited Business" area into a "Village Commercial" district.

Another chance was missed, councilors said, when a different construction project created a furor in 2009. Had the city ever adopted design standards similar to the ones created in the Knightville District, councilors said, the uproar over Perry’s proposal could not have happened. Moreover, Councilor Tom Blake suggested “developers will thank us,” for providing clear guidance on what is considered acceptable.

What does pass muster, under the proposed rules, are exterior finishes made of natural stone (dressed or cut, only) brick (red or brown, only), wood (in clapboard, shiplap or shingle styles, only) and vinyl or metal siding (so long as it looks like wooded clapboard, shiplap, or shingles).

Specifically banned are stucco-like finishes, concrete blocks (except in foundations and firewalls), precast concrete, corrugated metal, asphalt shingles, plywood and any “reflective materials.”

At an Aug. 8 workshop, Councilor James Hughes said the new standards might make South Portland look “just like suburban Maryland.” He was more prescient that he knew, because Haeuser said he actually based his work off similar rules from a suburban Maryland town.  

The major change, he said, was to tighten up some of the more vague language. However, he admits there is still much left to the interpretation of Planning Board members, who will have to rule on things like, what constitutes “attractive landscape transitions.”

Still, Haeuser said, the new rules may be the wave of the future, for more than just Willard Square.

“The majority of people in South Portland would have found them to have been excessive,” said Haeuser, in a recent interview, “but one argument for them is that they protect everybody’s investment.”

It’s no accident that the proposed zoning change once again reclassifies Willard Square, this time from a “Village Commercial” zone to a “Neighborhood Activity Center.”

“We’re working on this new comprehensive plan and there’s kind of this idea that there be these ‘neighborhood activity centers’ wherever there are limited business spots,” said Haeuser, describing these centers as, “any area like Willard Square, where there’s a sandwich shop or other businesses that people in the neighboring homes can walk to.

“Within five years, we could be talking about different design standards for each of areas,” predicted Haeuser.

That could be. And it could well be that any such work will generate great debate, as Willard Square has in recent months. Although the crowds have thinned recently, most councilors say they expect people to take an active interest again once they get ready to vote in any zoning change.

But, either way, there’s no denying Perry kicked a hornet’s nest when he suggested turning a vacant lot into the three-story home of “Mr. Delicious.”

“Who would ever think that this little area would require such time and effort from so many people, myself included,” said Margaret Carmody.