2020.01.13 Council Agenda 3

Reviewing notification requirements for larger development projects was one of the higher priority items on this year’s Council Work Plan assigned to the Community Development Committee (CDC). As part of its research, the CDC reviewed the Town of Falmouth’s notification requirements for different types of development projects and also reviewed the notification requirements of certain surrounding municipalities. 

The CDC is recommending that abutter notification requirements be increased for Planning Board subdivision applications and Planning Board site plan review applications. These types of applications currently require abutter notifications to be provided to direct abutters only. The CDC is recommending that these requirements be expanded to include notification to all properties within 250 feet of a minor subdivision, 500 feet of a major subdivision, and 500 feet of any project requiring site plan review.  A minor subdivision is defined as: 1. A subdivision with five or fewer lots in which all of the lots front on a public way; or  2. A subdivision with three or fewer lots served by a private way. Any subdivision exceeding either of these two thresholds is considered a major subdivision. 

The CDC believes that these expanded requirements are appropriate given the potential scale of these development types and believes that these expanded requirements are more consistent with abutter notification requirements utilized by the surrounding municipalities surveyed.

Attachments:

• Ordinance 77-2020
• Introduction letter
• Proposed ordinance amendment language
• Summary of the Planning Board’s MRA public hearing held on 12/10/2019.