Board of Selectmen
PUBLIC HEARING
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 6:30 PM
Portland Public Library - Mary Flood Room

First Selectwoman Susan Bransfield called the public hearing to order at 6:00 p.m. Mrs. Bransfield read the call for public hearing concerning the proposed revisions to Ordinance Chapter 14 Planning, Article I "General" Section 14-1(a) "Fee for land use applications."

Mrs. Bransfield read into record a memorandum written by Assistant Town Planner Deanna Rhodes to the Board of Selectmen:

"Recently, I submitted a revised fee ordinance for your review and approval. It should be noted that the land use fees being proposed reflect the actual fees in effect and charged and collected by the Town. The request to update the fee ordinance is merely a housekeeping measure to update the current land use fee Ordinance in Chapter 14 to reflect the fees adopted by the Board of Selectmen on January 22, 2003, and in effect since February 10, 2003.

If there are any questions regarding how the fees were derived, I can supply you with copies of memos from the former Planning Director, Susan Decina. In 2002, Ms. Decina collected and compared fee schedules from 17 other municipalities, and reviewed the actual cost of processing development applications. As you can imagine, the costs borne by the Town for development applications has not decreased since that time, and any consideration for reducing the fee schedule should be weighed heavily for the fiscal impact. Services such as Town Engineer review, legal notice publication and Town Attorney review have been built-into the fees structure to absorb these costs.

I hope the Board will move forward to resolve the discrepancies between the printed fees as per Ordinance Section 14-1, and the actual fees being collected by the Town since 2003."

With no further public comment, Mrs. Bransfield closed the public hearing at 6:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Susan S. Bransfield, First Selectwoman