SACO — The Biddeford city manager would like to see changes made so that riverfront property in the downtown areas of Saco and Biddeford is regulated differently by the Saco River Corridor Commission than other areas along the Saco River.

The Saco River Corridor Commission administers the Saco River Corridor Act, which was established by the state Legislature in 1973. The commission meets monthly and helps oversee land use development within 500 to 1,000 feet of the Saco, Ossipee, Little Ossipee Rivers, the Little Ossipee Flowage, and Balch Lake. The commission is comprised of two members — one regular and one alternate — from each of the 20 municipalities along these waters.

Much has changed along the river in the twin cities’ downtowns since 1973, when the act was established. However, the Saco River Corridor Commission regulations have not changed much since then, and the commission treats Saco and Biddeford downtowns the same as the more rural communities along the river, said Biddeford City Manager Jim Bennett at a Saco City Council meeting on Monday night.

Since 1973, Bennett said, heavy textile manufacturing in the mills along the river have ceased. Now there are multiple owners of former mill buildings along the river, there has been new investment along the river, more public access to the river and redeveloped areas meet today’s environmental standards.

The regulations required by the Saco River Corridor Commission have prevented some development in the downtown, Bennett said.

For instance, he said rules under the Saco River Corridor Commission would restrict the RiverWalk project because they do not allow such walks within 100 feet of the river. The Saco River Corridor Act also prohibits multi- residential units from being more than two stories or 35-feet high. All parking must be 50 horizontal feet from the high water mark and no buildings within 100 feet of the normal or mean high water line.

Bennett has suggested legislation that would change the Saco River Corridor Act to create a City Redevelopment District, or CRD, within the Saco River Corridor that would cover the downtowns of Saco and Biddeford along the Saco River.

The proposed legislation would allow riverwalks as defined by state law in the CRD. If the proposal increased the amount of non-vegetated area in the CRD, projects would have to go before the Saco River Corridor Commission  If a project in the CRD decreased the amount of non-vegetated area, then no permit from the corridor commission would be required.

“We’re not proposing this because we think the Saco River Corridor Commission is evil or bad or any of that stuff. There are just some issues that haven’t been addressed in the downtown area that needed to be addressed,” said Bennett.

He did not want to have to go to the Legislature to make proposed changes, Bennett said, but he hadn’t been able to negotiate effectively with the commission, and officials were under a time crunch to propose legislation to get the desired changes made.

Saco River Corridor Commission Dalyn Houser said the commission felt rushed when asked to propose changes, and that legislation was being proposed without the commission’s approval.

The commission understood that there were some aspects of the act that were incongruent to state law, Houser said.

“We certainly did not want to pose as a stumbling block for development,” he said.

Some changes could be made on the local level, Houser said, and the commission could change certain provisions of the act to allow for the RiverWalk and implement standards that would allow the replacement of a structure within 100 feet of water that as long as it meets setbacks to the greatest extent possible and it is on the original footprint.

“We have put the mechanisms in place to make the necessary updates to the act to make the provisions congruent with shoreland zoning and state standards where they didn’t exist before,” she said.

The proposed revisions could be completed by the corridor commission by April, and Bennett agreed that he would ask that the process for the proposed legislation be delayed to allow time to work with the commission on a possible solution.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be reached at 780-9015 or by email at egotthelf@journaltribune.com.