by Mary Grow

At their Oct. 22 meeting, China Tax Increment Finance (TIF) Committee members finally put to rest the question of whether to recommend that voters buy Susan Bailey’s property near the head of China Lake’s east basin. Their decision: no.

The property consists of a small parcel across Causeway Street from the boat landing, where landing users habitually park, and a larger piece across Routes 202 and 9. In November 2016 China voters appropriated up to $10,000 to buy the smaller piece to provide additional town-owned parking close to the boat launch.

Since then, TIF Committee members have learned that the two parcels are indivisible, and that the state would not approve using any part of the larger one for boat launch parking because users would have to cross the busy highway. Left with the alternatives of no purchase or asking voters to spend $120,000 for the entire property, committee members voted 7-2 to advise selectmen to abandon the idea (Tom Michaud and Jim Wilkens were opposed).

Wilkens said if Bailey were to sell the whole property to someone else and the new owner wanted to reopen negotiations with the town over the smaller piece, the question could be revived.

The unused $10,000 will go into China’s undesignated fund balance (also known as the general fund or surplus).

In other business Oct. 22, Michaud and Town Manager Dennis Heath updated the rest of the committee on replacement of the old causeway bridge just west of the boat landing. Arrival of the concrete culvert has been delayed to Oct. 26, Heath said, with installation now scheduled for Oct. 29.

The timber mat at the bottom of the old structure was in good shape, he said. Rocks were added to extend and slightly raise the base for the new culvert.

“All in all it looks like things are going pretty well,” he summarized.

Michaud said the second phase of the causeway project will consist of a walkway along the head of the lake. For the present, he recommended against the proposed floating “fishing bridge,” saying it would be one more thing to maintain; boaters and swimmers would be tempted to use it; and the walkway will offer ample room for fishermen.

Committee members heard two requests for TIF funds. They agreed to recommend that selectmen put a request for $52,000 for continued work in Thurston Park on the March 2019 town business meeting warrant. Thurston Park Committee Chairman Jeannette Smith said if voters approve, the money would be used to continue improving what is now Trail One and work on Trail Two, the former roads looping off the main road that runs north-south through the park. Smith said Aislinn Sarnacki intends to include Thurston Park in her new guide to dog-friendly hikes, scheduled to be published next spring. Already, Smith and TIF Committee members said, out-of-towners are using – and praising – the park.

The second request was from Landis Hudson of Maine Rivers, seeking funding for the Alewife Restoration Project (ARI) that is intended to let alewives swim from the Atlantic Ocean into China Lake. The money would be combined with other funding sources to install fishways at three dams on Outlet Stream in Vassalboro.

Committee members agreed that China’s TIF program and state law limit TIF expenditures to within town boundaries. They therefore rejected Hudson’s request and encouraged her to ask selectmen to ask voters in March 2019 for non-TIF town funds. By consensus, committee members accepted H. David Cotta’s suggestion that they send selectmen a letter of support for ARI funding. Chairman Frank Soares volunteered to write the letter.

They also agreed that the subcommittee overseeing the causeway project should have the additional responsibility of reviewing TIF-funded projects, like Thurston Park, during and after the work. Soares suggested a 30-day notice before a funding application is submitted would be useful, to give time for a pre-inspection if desired.

Heath gave committee members a financial update, showing a balance of more than $626,000 as of June 30, 2018. He estimated that incoming revenue of almost $348,000, less obligations during the 2018-19 fiscal year, would leave a little more than $311,000 in the TIF account as of June 30, 2019.

The next TIF Committee meeting is currently scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15.

by Mary Grow

Although only four of the six China Planning Board members were present at the Oct. 9 board meeting, they tackled multiple questions left undecided at their previous meeting because only three members were able to attend.

The longest discussion was over an essentially procedural issue: after the board reviews an application for a conditional use permit for a new business and votes that it meets all 15 criteria in China’s Land Use Ordinance, does the written document setting forth the reasons for the decision, known as findings of fact, need a second vote?

In April, according to board minutes Chairman Tom Miragliuolo cited, board members decided no second vote was needed. The codes officer would draft the document for the chairman’s review and signature.

In August, board member Ronald Breton, who had seconded the April motion not to require a second vote, moved a vote on a findings of fact document approving an application submitted at the previous meeting, reopening debate about whether two votes are needed.

The conclusion on Oct. 9 was that a second vote is not needed, because the written findings ought to accurately reproduce decisions already voted at the meeting, without change.

When there is no hurry about issuing the permit, the codes officer and chairman may share the written findings of fact with the rest of the board. If work is to start promptly, as with the causeway project at the head of China Lake approved in August, the findings of fact should be prepared and signed and circulated afterward for board members’ information.

In a related matter, board members unanimously settled another question: the 30-day period to appeal a conditional use permit begins when the project is approved as meeting ordinance requirements, not after the written supporting document is signed.

The third issue that has been pending since spring and on which some progress was made Oct. 9 is Codes Officer Paul Mitnik’s proposals for ordinance amendments. He divided them into two categories, fairly simple ones that should be presented to voters soon – for example, elimination of contradictions in the Land Use Ordinance – and more complex ones.

Board members approved all but one of the suggested simpler changes and asked Mitnik to draft proposed revisions.

The next China Planning Board meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday evening, Oct. 23, if there is an application needing action or if Mitnik has had time to draft ordinance changes for review.