Bangor Council approves rezoning for 870 Broadway, passes consent agenda

[0:26] David Szewczyk: It's 7pm on Monday, March 17 2025. This is a regular meeting of the Bangor City Council, the counselor chair is not able to attend tonight so I'm David subject the city solicitor, and I will call for a motion to elect a chair pro 10 to act as chair for the, for the rest of this meeting. [0:47] Daniel Carson: i nominate dan tremble second [0:53] Carolyn Fish: motion [0:56] David Szewczyk: the second with no objection mr tremble you are the chair for time great i hope i can read this we start all the meetings with the i can thank you for the pledge of allegiance and see tim if you'd like to lead us in the pledge of allegiance I [1:21] Public commenter: pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [1:37] David Szewczyk: This is the portion of the meeting set aside for public comment for concerns related to city business. Public comment, whether in person or via Zoom, requires a person to state your name and whether you are a resident of Angola. The general public comment will be limited to three minutes per speaker. The general comment period will be for 15 minutes at the beginning of the meeting. The general comment period may be suspended after the 15-minute period to allow the Council to conduct its business out of courtesy for those attending for a specific agenda item. The Council Chair has the discretion to reopen the general public comment period at the collusion of the regular business for up to 45 additional minutes. The Council Chair has the discretion to alter any of the time limits. Comments should be limited to issues or concerns directly related to City business. Individuals are restricted to speaking once during the general public period and comments will be ruled out of order relating to specific situations in litigation, individual employees and or employee groups discussing matters for which complaint or grievance procedures are in place. personal disputes between the speaker and other private residents not germane the city business support or opposition to a candidate political office and personnel complaints pertaining to alleged misconduct of individual employees which are handled through a different confidential process per main law obscene threatening and overly repetitive remarks will be interrupted as well disruption and disorderly behavior that interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting all statements should Respect the dignity and seriousness of the proceedings and be directed to the chair. The public comment period is for city council members to listen. It is the council's practice to not respond or debate with persons during the public comment period. If a comment requires additional action will it be taken up by a city council committee or followed up on by the appropriate city staff? If you do not live in Bangor own property in Bangor please allow those are due to have the opportunity to speak. First if you'd like to have a comment on any item related city business not appearing on the regular agenda you may approach the podium and or on zoom. The public can be recognized by utilizing the hand rate function on the phone by pressing star nine. So we're not did you say we're not on zoom we're not on facebook so whatever that considering still tell yeah I was for that okay so anybody in the room that like to speak in a public comment Emily I'm [4:06] Public commenter: Emily Ellis I'm a resident a realtor a landlord and a developer. One hundred eighty two thousand four hundred dollars spent by the city on six building plans from an architectural firm out of Scarborough. Why would we ever do that? We have building plans to code at the code department for every single home built here, a requirement for a permit. Last year, our crew built 81% of all new construction sold in Bangor, 27 of 33 single family homes. I assure you I'd have happily provided the city with any building plans desired in one afternoon at Hammond Lumber for free. Most builders purchase land and have in mind what they think best suits the topography. They choose not to have an architect because of cost and plans are more difficult to read and they don't always work on the site. Many builders have made the move from Bangor Or to more receptive towns, nicer to work in towns where permits cost you a 3rd of what you pay here and they appreciate what you do paying architects to ensure the designs blend into existing housing. Bangor is a complete mosaic of styles when the city takes a lead on something that should be done in the private sector money gets wasted 2 years ago. we spent $75,000 on a report to tell us we need housing. Please stop. We are a small city. We need to operate that way. Utilize those of us already in the game with a proven track record. This costs nothing and it's the smartest way forward. Our biggest triumphs have occurred when local business leaders stepped up. The folk festival, waterfront concerts, arena, yes, completely reinvigorated our city. Homes are needed for all those who wish to contribute their talents for the next generations while many of us age out. Incentivize those in the arena providing successful solutions. We know who they are. Trisha Quirk, Louie Morrison, Luke McConnell, Courtney and Nick Mullins, Dwayne Williams, Zach Gilpin. They've done it all without spending $30,000 for a But home plan, all these teams, these team players together for a powwow, they have a vested interest and can offer a very actionable game plan moving forward based on real experience to the city. Stay in your lane, please stay away from infrastructure and housing. It will end up costing taxpayers more and take longer to accomplish than if you allow the experts to do what they do. When I quit yelling from the sidelines it means I'm no longer hopeful. Come on Bangor you can do better than this. Thank you 10th. Annual Main Science Festival coming up this month. My name is Michael Norton, 83 on the street department. C Lunar Computation Systems is the name of the company I founded in 2020. I got my first accounts receivable last week. I'm happy about that, 17.43. It's a start. I have been censored. I'm a writer and filmmaker for 29 years of my life, that's more than half my lifetime, just by the world. So I'm wondering if the city has any resources to draw attention to the censorship problem, perhaps with the media. Local media, local television decision, they don't have to pay liquor licenses for example, but they have, they should have to pay some kind of license to do what they're doing as professionals, because people like me shouldn't be dragged into courtrooms because of what they are doing and admonished for their behavior and censorship. I've developed a keen ear for it in 29 years of being censored in America, and tonight's earlier meeting I didn't hear any talk about censorship or what can be done by the city, but it would be great if the city could produce some kind of natural human resource to address that problem. Physicians today don't even know the relationship between the earth and the moon and the daily water cycle, and we're composed, all of us, of 70 to 80 percent, 77, water. Whatever that disability or disease or problem or injury, a lot of it has to do with getting the water in the right place. And I should be having 10 semesters already taught myself at any university as a professor by now if I weren't censored for 29 years. I should have it on my resume already, but I don't. So maybe 10 semesters from now I will have 10 semesters of teaching earth science and magnetism, because engineers too are looking to mitigate system problems, whatever their applications. Thank you Michael. Thank you. Hello my name is Connor Winchenbach and I am a real estate investor that owns property in Bangor. My business model revolves around buying destitute vacant properties, improving them to a higher-end code compliant product where I will either rent or sell them, thus improving the neighborhood it is in and the city of Bangor as a whole. I would imagine everyone here in the council is familiar with the vacant property ordinance. I completely understand why this ordinance was voted in and is currently being enforced, as everyone can agree vacant properties owned by financial institutions are an issue in the city. Just like any legislation that is being pushed through to create positive change, there can be key factors that get overlooked. What I'm about to bring up will show that this ordinance has a large negative effect to the community as a whole. Citing current verbiage from the ordinance in section 223-7, this article do not apply to primary residences of members of the armed forces on active duty, vacation or resort facilities, or residents of persons on extended vacations or alternative living arrangements, snowbirds. They are required to have a property manager as a form of contact if anything happens, along with their own contact information. These are the only individuals where this ordinance does not apply after Talking to David on the phone a couple weeks ago and multiple code enforcement officers, property owners are required to fill out the application and pay the initial 500 fee within 60 days of vacancy on the property. The fee then continues to grow every six months until the building is no longer vacant. That fee is capped at four thousand dollars every six months. Based on the current ordinance, this applies to all single-family homes that are currently listed for sale, assuming the property owners are not living in them. Even if the listed single-family home, vacant home, goes under contract the same day, the 60-day leeway period to get the $500 permit most likely ends up applying unless it is a fast cash closing. Most closings, like most people know, take anywhere from 45 to 90 days and there can always be delays. Upon discussion with the city solicitor and multiple code enforcement officers, they are not actively pursuing this example because it is being sold presumably with a real estate agent. There is no verbiage in the ordinance that states that listed homes are exempt from this ordinance. This also applies to individuals that are actively renovating a property, which in turn makes the city of Bangor a better place to live for all. If working with the real estate professionals helping make these properties exempt from this ordinance, why can't working with a contractor that's actively renovating the property make that exempt as well? Upon the same discussion with the city solicitor and multiple code enforcement officers, if a vacant building has met the cap of 4,000 dollars every 6 months and a person purchases the property, it is from my understanding based on that conversation that the new owner picks up where the previous owner left off in the fee structure. There's no verbiage. [12:54] David Szewczyk: Thank you. Only got a short little bit left. 10 seconds. All right, well, I'll give this to somebody else. Okay. Yeah, we can, you can, we all get distributed dollars. Yeah, that would be great. Okay. I can do that. And we actually just so, you know, we did discuss this issue with the committee meeting 2 weeks ago. So, it's, it's being looked into, but thank you for bringing it to the attention. Anybody else in the public comment in person and on the phone is, Doug Denver. Go ahead. Yeah. Can you hear me Dan? Okay. [13:35] Public commenter: Thank you. Just wanted to talk about homelessness, and as some of you know, I oversee a small non-profit organization called Penobscot County Cares, and we've we've been working with many other agencies and organizations. [13:53] David Szewczyk: We have people that are online that are residents of Bangor that shouldn't be speaking first. Oh, sure, he hasn't recognized, just nobody else had their hands up, right? He was the only one in the handout. Okay, yeah, thank you. Yeah, is it okay to continue, please? Yeah, oh, okay, so anyway. [14:14] Public commenter: Penobsco County Care is small non-profit I oversee it and been working in the encampment and elsewhere with individuals who are homeless, and we've been fortunate to partner with Penquist on one of our initiatives to get phones into the hands of caseworkers and agencies who then provide them to their clients, and it makes connections a lot easier, and it's led to some people becoming housed. But what I really want us to think about is the idea of criminalizing homelessness, and I'll explain very briefly what I mean. You know, with shelters in Penobscot Scott County, which is essentially Bangor and nearby regions, regularly full, and overnight warming centers set to close, which serve roughly 75 to 100 individuals on a regular basis, the crisis of homelessness in Greater Bangor and will almost certainly worsen in the coming days, and adding to the crisis, the city of Bangor prohibits people who are homeless from sleeping at night in public spaces, so with no shelter beds, no night warming centers, and no sleeping in. Public spaces, where should individuals and families experiencing homelessness go? Where should they sleep? In effect, homelessness is being criminalized in Bangor and other municipalities. This is not just a banger issue, and despite heroic efforts by caring outreach workers and determined non-profits, including Penobscot County Cares, to house individuals or to get them toward housing from the encampment and elsewhere, you know, woefully insufficient planning and resource allocation on the part of the. City of Bangor, Penobscot County, the state, federal government, recent years has contributed significantly to this deep tragic crisis, and again it's going to get worse in the coming days because as I said we have no shelter beds, generally our night warming centers are closing, it's against the ordinances in Bangor to sleep in public spaces, and so we've essentially criminalized homelessness, and we have hundreds of people who are unhoused, so I'll I'll keep I guess, beating the drum and hope, you know, hope that we'll, we'll make more. Thank you. Dan. Thank you. Doc. Consent agenda, please. [16:45] Lisa Goodwin: Minister city council meeting of February 24th, 2025, business and economic development meetings of February 19th, 2025 and March 3rd, 2025. Finance Committee Meetings of February 19th, 2025 and March 3rd, 2025. Government Operations Committee Meeting of March 3rd, 2025 and Infrastructure Committee Meeting of February 19th, 2025. 25-084, Order authorizing the City Manager to accept $500 grant award from the Rotary Club of Bangor Breakfast for the purchase of supplies for Bangor's post-partum and breastfeeding support group called Milk and Cookies. 25-085 order authorizing the city manager to accept a two thousand dollar donation from the Walmart community grant program for the purchase of training equipment for the police department patrol canine unit. 25-086 order authorizing the city manager to execute a memorandum of understanding with Wabanaki public health and community services for a syringe waste program. 25-087 order appointing constable for the year 2025. 25-088 order acknowledging receipt of the official results of the February 25th 2025 special election district 24. 25-089 order authorizing the city manager to apply for grant funding from maine health access foundation grant to plan a program to assist individuals without immediate access to primary care 25-090 order authorizing an application to the john t gorman foundation for grant funding to help address the immediate basic needs of people experiencing the adverse effects of poverty 25-091 order amending the city of bank or remote meeting participation policy 25-092 resolved authorizing the city manager to file applications with the federal transit administration for federal transportation assistance authorized by 49 usc chapter 53 title 23 united states code or other federal statutes administered by the federal transit administration thank you as a motion on the consent agenda So moved 2nd, and without any objection to consent agenda passage referrals to committee and 1st, reading 25 dash 093 ordinance, many chapter 165 land development code district map to resell the property located at 44 Center Street from urban residents to district downtown development district, 1st reading and referral to plan a board meeting on March 18th, 2025. [19:22] Public commenter: 25 motion [19:26] David Szewczyk: to refer to committee 2nd,, and without any objection, this item has referral new unfinished business 25 dashes. [19:37] Lisa Goodwin: 079 ordinance and then in chapter 165 land development code district map to resort property, located at 870 Broadway from high density residential district to shopping service. Service District at SPS, Housley Fish. [19:53] Carolyn Fish: Thank you, Madam Clerk. I'd like to move item number 25-079. This ordinance would amend the Land Development Code district map to rezone the property at map blot R41-001-C located at 870 Broadway from High Density Residential District hdr to shopping and personal service district smps the total area requested to be changed is approximately 7.93 acres. The applicant and owner of record is 850 broadway llc care of Nate Friedman. This area is within the growth boundary shown in the 2,022 comprehensive plan, and the future land use map in the plan shows the property in the neighborhood residential area which consists of medium density residential development with limited commercial and institutional uses that are complimentary to the surrounding residential land uses. This item was reviewed and unanimously approved at the planning board meeting on March 4th, 2025. [21:05] David Szewczyk: Any discussion on this item? This has been moved and seconded. Seeing no objection, this item has passage And that concludes tonight's meeting. Oh, I'm sorry. It's an ordinance requires a roll call. Thank you very much has not been approved yet [21:21] Lisa Goodwin: Council of that. Yes Council of Dean. Yes. That's what this yes. That's what for me. Yes. That's what Leonard. Yes [21:30] David Szewczyk: That unanimous has approval. Thank you. And that concludes the meeting any final comments from city staff Council back. [21:40] Daniel Carson: Good night. Council Dean. Good night, Bangor. Council Lennon. Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody. Have a good evening. Council Fornia. I just want to say a couple words. We lost an incredible individual last week, Cliff Eames, a person of the highest integrity, a person that's held the leadership position within not only businesses but nonprofits throughout the city of Bangor. Cliff is going to be missed and he had always lived in Bangor and he just [22:27] David Szewczyk: represented what Bangor was all about. Councilman Allen. Good evening. [22:35] Carolyn Fish: Council Fisch. Council Fisch. I thought you were going to forget me there. No,. That's all right. I just want to thank the developers and investors in the real estate, people that we have that come in here tonight to speak to us, and you're investing in Bangor, you're our future, and I welcome you to come in and speak up. I know we still need to work to improve our relationship, and I know for myself as one, I look forward to that. Whatever I can do to help the communication between our department code and planning and the betterment of Bangor's future, I welcome that. So thank you for coming in. Let us know what we can do to help improve that relationship. So thank you. Good night. I did [23:19] David Szewczyk: I was just going to say good night, but I will add that at our previous meeting we did have an item where we're going to lower development fees substantially, so that was one great thing to the square development, so I just want to pass that along. With that, good night, everyone.