WESTBROOK – In an unusually intense June election, Westbrook voters will decide two high-profile issues in addition to the school budget.

The June 10 ballot has big implications for the city thanks to controversial votes about the fate of new zoning for a 60-acre parcel between Stroudwater Street and the Westbrook Arterial, and a bond issue for upgrading Westbrook’s public works facility.

Voters will decide whether to revert the land parcel back to the “Stroudwater Place” contract zone, which was an ambitious development project spearheaded by Westbrook resident Jason Snyder.

The controversial and complex Stroudwater zoning vote was triggered by a petition by Snyder that called for reversal of a City Council decision to rezone the property. Complicating the issue are questions about the legality of the vote.

Snyder’s development failed to get off the ground in the five years following the implementation of the contract zone, and after foreclosure last year, the land was sold back to mortgage lender Kimco Capital.

A rezone of the 60 acres was approved in February, after which Portland developer J.B. Brown & Sons purchased the property with plans to establish housing lots off Stroudwater Street and retail stores, a hotel and multi-family dwellings off the arterial.

Following the council decision, Snyder and his brother gathered the necessary 1,216 signatures needed to add the question to the city’s June 10 ballot, but some legal opinions have stated that to force a contract zone on an unwilling landowner would be illegal.

While Snyder has said that his ultimate goal is looking out for “what’s best for Westbrook,” Vincent Veroneau, J.B. Brown president and CEO, said the question is “patently unfair” on top of being illegal.

“The biggest issue is that it is a property rights issue,” he said. “You can’t force a contract on a private property owner.”

Veroneau said that the public process of Planning Board and City Council vetting and public hearings “extinguished” the contract zone. He said that Snyder’s characterization that the contract zone could be implemented, via voter approval, on any property is inaccurate.

“It would require that property owner to do certain things that the owner didn’t bargain for,” he said.

The Stroudwater Place contract zone proposed a 1.6-million- square-foot space equivalent to the Maine Mall, with public amenities such as a skating rink and farmers market.

Veroneau said Tuesday that if Westbrook voters approve Snyder’s zone reversal, “the only redress” J.B. Brown has is to “seek a court’s opinion that the question posed to voters is an illegal question.”

He added that the Stroudwater Place contract zone “renders the property undevelopable.”

The Planning Board recently voted to publically recommend that residents vote no on the referendum.

Snyder, who has signs made stating, “Vote Yes on Stroudwater Zoning,” thinks that Stroudwater Place zoning would gain the best possible development for Westbrook, and has called J.B. Brown’s plan “short-sighted.”

Snyder said Wednesday that the zoning question is an important community decision that will “define the city of Westbrook for the decades to come.”

Veroneau said the idea of campaigning is foreign to the company.

“We’re a business, not a political organization,” he said Tuesday, adding that he may be buying signs to put up around the city. “We spent a lot of time talking to neighbors during the zone change process, and thought that it was well-vetted,” he said.

Attorneys representing the city, the Maine Municipal Association and J.B. Brown have all stated the opinion that it is illegal to force a contract zone on a private property owner who has not agreed. However, citing the lack of case law in Maine, the Westbrook City Council voted to respect the validated citizens’ initiative.

Veroneau said he believes the lack of case law comes from the fact that, most likely, no one has ever tried to use the initiative process for this purpose.

“I would submit it’s because no one has ever tried to undertake this,” he said. “No one has ever been so egregious in their perverted use of the citizens’ referendum.”

An argument from Snyder has also stemmed from questions about what a J.B. Brown development would look like on the property. During past meetings, Veroneau has described the project as consisting of roughly 18 house lots off Stroudwater, with various commercial projects stemming from the arterial.

However, Snyder has argued that the zoning also allows for projects not mentioned by Veroneau, including “big-box” stores such as Wal-Mart, and the possibility of car dealerships, which is currently being discussed at the Planning Board level.

Some on both sides of the issue see Stroudwater Place as too ambitious, with Veroneau and Snyder both stating that if residents want to see the land stay the way it is, the contract zone is the best option. However, Veroneau doesn’t see this is a legal or fair way of implementing that strategy.

“There are clearly people who would like this to pass so nothing happens, but I would say that that’s not a wise way to have land use decided, by taking someone else’s property,” he said. “I would argue that Snyder is doing this out of spite, and that if he can’t do anything there, no one can do anything.”

Veroneau has also said on multiple occasions that the contract zone is economically and environmentally unfeasible, with a recent study showing some 15 acres of wetlands on the property.

Snyder said the purpose of the contract zone was to ensure that any development would be held to a “higher standard,” and that if the project failed, it would still act as a protection from future development. He said many residents want to see the property stay the way it is.

“The legality of the question is absolute nonsense,” he said. “The contract states that the zoning runs with the land and makes no difference who the owner is.”

According to Jerre Bryant, city administrator, a citizens’ petition requires that a successful vote would place a five-year moratorium on the zoning issue, meaning that the Stroudwater Place zoning could not be changed until 2019.

When asked about his next steps following a potential no vote, Snyder said that he is “focused on the present. All we can do it work in the now, and I believe the community will make the right choice.”

Also on the June 10 ballot is an $8.7 million bond question, which, if approved, would overhaul the city’s Public Services garage into a consolidated public services, school transportation and fleet maintenance facility, where all of the city’s vehicles will be serviced.

The updated facility would consolidate municipal and school building maintenance, wastewater division maintenance, and public safety vehicle maintenance, which have separate buildings on Cumberland Mills and Mechanic Street.

The facility, which was built in 1969, has many features that are deemed outdated, including the school transportation maintenance garage, main public services facility, administrative offices, a fueling station and sand and salt storage.

According to information provided by Mayor Colleen Hilton in a city-issued pamphlet, the bond would represent a 35 cent increase to the property tax rate.

“The project plan is the culmination of years of planning, along with a frugal approach to the bare necessities,” she said. “We encourage you to learn more about this plan and decide for yourself.”