Topsham Planning Board Approves Union Park Amendment and Towing Site Plan

The Topsham Planning Board approved a minor subdivision amendment for Union Park, accepted a bond as a performance guarantee for the ML3 Street extension, and gave final site plan approval to a towing and vehicle storage expansion at 26 Union Park Road. The board also held a workshop on possible 2027 town meeting ordinance changes, including shoreland mapping corrections and stream definitions.

Key points

• The board unanimously approved a subdivision amendment for Union Associates LLC at 4 Union Park, described as a clerical change adding condominium and common element lines with no new lots or physical changes.
• The board approved a bond as an acceptable performance guarantee for Next Generation Developers' ML3 Street extension subdivision, with one member recusing.
• The board granted final site plan approval for Mid-Main Towing and Recovery at 26 Union Park Road to expand vehicle storage and add a second access, with conditions including a 10-foot landscape buffer.
• The board approved waivers for a perimeter survey, lighting plan, drainage maintenance agreement, and chloride management plan, but denied waivers for a performance guarantee and a landscape plan.
• Property owner Drew spoke against the landscape requirement, saying he had already spent about $28,000 on engineering and preferred privacy slats over shrubs; the board kept the landscape condition.
• In workshop discussion, staff said shoreland map changes are corrections to an out-of-scale map, and the board leaned toward using the state minimum for stream regulation.

Next steps

• Staff will add bond acceptance as a fourth performance guarantee option to the ordinance workshop list, with safeguards on bonding company ratings.
• Staff will prepare a before-and-after shoreland map comparison and work with the town's GIS consultant on the files.
• Staff will bring forward possible May 2027 town meeting items, including the battery energy storage ordinance, use table blank spaces, batch plant definitions, and a possible data center use.
• Staff will notify the assessor about a missing R2 tax map on the town website.

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