The town of Windham has been faced with tough decisions as of late concerning town-owned property and rezoning requests by individual property owners.

The Town Council is currently considering one proposal to rezone an industrial area in South Windham in order to make it available for residential development and another proposal to sell a small piece of town land, also in South Windham, to an outreach program for troubled youth.

To spot or not

In the first proposal, Lydia Peters of River Road has asked the town to consider rezoning two pieces of her property – 27 acres and 7 acres – from Industrial to Residential. The Planning Board voted unanimously to approve the rezoning; however the board was split on whether to rezone the land as “Medium Residential” or “Farmzone Residential.” The difference is that “Medium Residential” would allow for more house lots.

Peters’ original request asked for “Medium Residential.” Rick Plummer, longtime neighbor of Peters who is helping her with the endeavor, said that she plans to give and/or sell some of the property as house lots.

The council on Tuesday night worried over whether the rezoning of such a small area would be considered “spot zoning” and would set a bad precedent. Questions also arose as to whether the rezoning was consistent with Windham’s new comprehensive plan. That plan, approved by the council but yet to be certified by the state, outlines goals and guidelines for future development in Windham.

“I think we got to be careful with what we do and we ought to be consistent (with the plan),” Community Development Director Roger Timmons said. “Because if we’re not consistent anyone can challenge (our decision).”

Scarborough had gotten into a legal “mess,” Councilor David Tobin reminded the council, because a town decision concerning development had differed from Scarborough’s comprehensive plan.

It was then decided that the council would meet with the Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee to ask whether rezoning would be consistent with the plan and, if so, what type of rezoning would be appropriate.

“They say it needs to be comprehensive with the comprehensive plan,” said Plummer after the decision was made, “but nobody seems to know what’s consistent with the plan.”

Plummer went on to say that the land is “worthless” zoned Industrial and serves no other purpose “except for paying taxes on it.”

A public hearing of Sept. 27 has been set to discuss the issue.

No man’s land

When Bruce Elder tried to gift six acres of his property off River Road in South Windham to next-door neighbor Crossroad Youth Outreach, he found out a curious thing: he didn’t own the land, even though he had paid taxes on it for years. As it turns out, the town has owned the land since 1948 when a resident defaulted on their taxes. The town then bought the acreage for $14, two dollars more than the taxes due.

Tuesday night, Tom Truscott who runs Crossroad Outreach – a non-profit outreach for juvenile offenders – asked the council if it would sell him the land. The goal of Outreach is to turn “troubled teenagers into assets of society” through Christian guidance. He hopes to build a cottage on the new property for his family to separate their living space from the juvenile offenders.

Selling him the property, Tobin reminded the council, would go against the council’s policy of selling town-owned land only by “open bid.”

Councilor Carol Waig proposed that the council deed the land over to Elder since he has been paying its taxes. She said that Elder has paid far more than the land’s worth, $7,500, in taxes. Then, she said, Elder could still give it to Truscott if he chose to.

“I think we should at least give him the opportunity and see if he’s interested,” Waig said.

Councilor John MacKinnon said that if the town were to deed the acreage to Elder, then they would indirectly be gifting the land to Truscott. He questioned whether this was appropriate.

A public hearing is tentatively scheduled for sometime earlier October to further discuss the issue.