The job of updating the Windham’s land use ordinances was handed over to the new Strategic Ordinance Steering Committee at last Tuesday’s town council meeting, replacing the disbanded PRIORITY Task Force.

“It is very specific in what it is going to be dealing with, and I want the public to know exactly what’s going on,” said Town Councilor Blaine Davis, who will be a non-voting liaison for the committee.

The five voting members are Windham town planner Brooks More, code enforcer Roger Timmons, former town councilor David Tobin, planning board chairman James Lauzier and planning board member David Nadeau.

The committee was given a six month deadline to update the land use ordinances to comply with the comprehensive master plan issued in 2003. This is the third attempt by the town to do so.

“It’s going to be a lot of hard work, but we have to bite the bullet and try something,” said Timmons. He said he thinks the committee will succeed, but warned the town council that the ordinances will never be perfect.

“Something will always come up,” he said. He also added that although the progress of the committee will be reported periodically, nothing will be set in stone until they are finished.

“The council has given us a well-defined focus,” said More. He said he thinks this will help make the committee successful.

“With a smaller committee of five people,” he added, “a well thought-out public outreach is going to be even more important,” because there will be fewer members of the town represented on the committee.

Councilor Kaile Warren passed the only vote against approving the committee.

“It lacks leadership; it lacks process,” said Warren. “We don’t know if they’re going to report back to us every 30 days, or every 60 days.” He said there is no command structure or organization within the group and its members will be working to fix problems, not the source of the problems.

Tobin disagreed with Warren, saying the committee plans to hammer out its structure and organization strategy in a week’s time. He said he believes it will be more successful than past attempts because the group is planning to tackle the issues in small chunks.

A focal point, he said, will be to update the definitions of terms. Tobin said he knows the men selected for the committee are right for the job.

“I know it’s a small group, but everyone in that group has quite a background in land use ordinances,” he said.

SOSC1: The members of the new Strategic Ordinance Steering Committee said they are ready to update the towns ordinances to comply with the comprehensive master plan issued in 2003. From left: David Nadeau, Roger Timmons, Brooks More, James Lauzier and David Tobin. The committee is replacing the disbanded Priority Task Force and had been given a six-month deadline.