WHAT’S NEXT

The asphalt plant issue comes back to the Gorham Town Council when it begins review of planning board ordinance recommendations.

The council meeting is at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 4, in the municipal center, 75 South St.

The fate of a proposed quarry and asphalt plant is back into Gorham Town Council hands after the planning board Monday recommended ordinance changes governing mineral excavation and noise levels.

Planners formulated the changes at the request of the town council, which in July sought the board’s advice for amendments. Since then, critics, in a series of public hearings, have charged that the amendments would pave the way for the controversial quarry and asphalt plant. They have also questioned the process of amending ordinances while the planning board is reviewing an asphalt plant application.

Gorham-based Shaw Brothers Construction Inc. is seeking permission for a stone quarry and an asphalt plant on a 125-acre site zoned industrial on Mosher Road.

The planning board doesn’t have authority to change town ordinances, but is offering recommendations to the council. Susan Robie, chairwoman of the planning board, said Monday the panel’s proposed amendments and a cover letter would be sent to the town council, which is not obligated to follow planning board recommendations.

“The business of the town council is to make the laws,” Robie said at Monday’s meeting.

The recommendations are expected to be on the Gorham Town Council agenda for its meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 4, in the municipal center, 75 South St.

“We’ll see what the council does with it,” Norm Justice, town council chairman, said Tuesday.

In proposed changes to ordinances regulating mineral excavation, the planning board Monday recommended amendments that include shifting where noise is measured from the source to property lines; allowing an easement by an abutter within an industrial zone for exceeding noise standards; extending hours of operation for a quarry to coincide with an abutting industry; and exempting quarry sides from having the same slopes as gravel pits.

The planning board approved the measure allowing additional hours by 4-2 (Robie and Mike Parker opposing with Doug Boyce absent). The other proposed amendment changes passed 6-0.

Justice, who watched Monday’s planning board proceedings on TV, said the public would have an opportunity to be heard at the council meeting. Justice also said the town council’s ordinance committee was to review the planning board recommendations on Wednesday.

Danny Shaw, co-owner of the construction company, has said local ordinances needed updating and clarifying. Shaw asked the board Monday to review its project the way it has looked at other projects in town. Shaw said sound hadn’t been measured at the source in the past and easements had been allowed in the industrial park. He also said the site, which once was used to manufacture bricks, is industrial land that had been allowed a 24-hour use since the 1950s.

Dave Kent of Fort Hill Road said at the meeting Monday the Shaws’ project has pointed out flaws in the ordinances. “I support the changes,” Kent said in a public hearing.

But Mike Goldman of Gateway Commons was one of several people objecting to the amendments. He asked planners to review the project under ordinances that applied when the board viewed the site last fall.

Besides needing town approval, the project proposed by Shaw would require state approval. Engineer Walter Stinson of Sebago Technics, representing Shaw Brothers Construction Inc., said the quarry and asphalt plant would be required to have four state permits that govern air emissions, storm water management, wetland alterations and mining.

“This will require a fairly extensive Department of Environmental Protection review,” Stinson said. “We’re getting a thorough shakedown by the state.”

The construction company is planning initially for a $3 million portable asphalt plant, which would be replaced at some point by a $10 million permanent facility.