KINGFIELD — Voters approved a 180-day moratorium on transient overnight recreational developments by a 41-3 vote on July 13, after hearing Town Attorney Amanda Meader’s conclusions about the ordinance’s scope and its potential impact on Bowdoin College’s proposed educational campsite.
Town Manager Leanna Targett read aloud a three-page memo drafted by Meader during the special town meeting, which concluded that the proposed moratorium would not apply to existing short-term rentals, including Airbnbs, bed-and-breakfasts, or other fully permitted businesses. Instead, Meader wrote that the proposed ordinance was drafted to address large-scale organized camping developments, and aimed directly at Bowdoin’s proposed campsite.
The memo also cautioned that the ordinance’s language could present legal challenges if Bowdoin resubmits its application.
Earlier this year, Bowdoin proposed putting a campsite at the Finnegan McCoul Woodruff Mountain Center on property the college in Brunswick purchased last year.
Bowdoin’s proposal calls for year-round access to seven gravel campsites that would allow up to 28 tents, or 84 students plus staff members, at full capacity. The campsites would occupy 1.8 acres of the 20.7‑acre property and include a 950‑square‑foot picnic area and a 600‑square‑foot sanitary building with a vault toilet and septic system. The plan also calls for staggering vehicle departures to ease traffic on the access road to the property and across the single-lane Iron Road Bridge.
In early May, residents and members of road associations abutting the property voiced opposition to the project and later submitted a petition for moratorium, after which Bowdoin College withdrew its application to give the town time to update its ordinances, with the understanding it would refile at a later date.
In her memo, Meader noted that the town’s zoning ordinance contains overlapping definitions for campgrounds, commercial recreational developments and the newly created transient overnight recreational development, or TORD, category. Because those definitions overlap and are not clearly reconciled, a future applicant could argue that a project should be classified under a different category and therefore not be subject to the moratorium.
Meader noted that if Bowdoin modifies elements of its proposal, such as whether campers are charged a fee, the college could have a stronger argument that the project falls outside the scope of the ordinance, potentially allowing it to move forward without approval. She recommended the town closely review any refiled application and use the 180-day moratorium period to clarify the ordinance’s language and reduce the risk of legal challenges.
Bowdoin could argue, Meader wrote, that tuition counts as an embedded institutional “fee” for student use of the campground. The college could also potentially charge a small fee to Outing Club members that would cover campsite use, allowing the college to proceed with the project.
Meader advised “the town’s strongest enforcement exists only if Bowdoin refiles with no fee attached to the camping stay. Even then, the ordinance’s overlapping definitions mean enforcement is not free from litigation risk.”
She also advised that, before voters consider the moratorium at the special town meeting, selectmen state clearly that existing, fully permitted businesses are grandfathered and that any application Bowdoin refiles would “most naturally before evaluated as a TORD.”
State law requires the proposed moratorium and ordinance to be voted on as presented by petitioners, so more specific language to address Meader’s concerns could not be added by the board before this week’s vote.
Though the moratorium passed, Targett commented it “probably will go to a vote in November, because it’s not the only hole that we are trying to fix within our ordinance. There are more things that need to be fixed.”
Similar towns have reported taking closer to two years to fully rewrite their zoning ordinances.
In an email following Tuesday’s Planning Board meeting, Board member Rob Woodhouse wrote that “the ultimate goal is to update our zoning ordinances with recent legislative changes.” It must be done, he said, “in concert with the comprehensive plan work that is being done, which may include redistricting.”
An ad hoc committee has been formed to review and propose updates to the town’s land use regulations, zoning ordinances, and subdivision regulations to ensure they align with the goals outlined in Kingfield’s comprehensive plan. Committee membership calls for up to 9 members, including representatives from the Planning Board and Comprehensive Planning Committee, the town manager and code enforcement officer, and at least 2 members of the public.
The committee’s role includes researching issues, evaluating information, and developing recommendations for consideration and formal action by the Planning Board, Select Board and, when required, by voters.
Five members of the public were invited to join the committee and all declined, leaving committee membership as: Planning Board Chairman Richard Hawke and Woodhouse, Targett, Code Enforcement Officer Ben Hitchcock and Comprehensive Planning Committee member Kristine LeBlanc.
When contacted for comment on the moratorium’s passage, Doug Cook, Bowdoin’s director of communications, reiterated a previously issued statement that: “Bowdoin remains fully committed to this project and to the opportunities it will provide for our students. We respect the town’s process and look forward to working constructively with the town as that process continues.”
