Vassalboro scouts hold Blue & Gold banquet

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Tiger Cubs Declan McLaughlin, Lux Reynolds, Samuel Madison, and John Gray are awarded completed adventures and their Tiger Rank by their Den Leader Christopher Reynolds (yellow shirt) and Cubmaster Christopher Santiago. (photo courtesy of Chuck Mahaleris)

On Sunday, June 11, Vassalboro Pack #410 held its Annual Blue & Gold Banquet along with their Charter Organization, American Legion Post #126, at St. Bridget’s Center. The camping themed banquet saw the recognition of the 17 scouts within the unit as they advance in rank. It was a family celebration that discussed many of the highlights from the year and featured an Arrow of Light Ceremony, a Crossover Ceremony, and a Flag Day Ceremony.

Bear Cubs Maxsim LaCroix, Eli Richmond, Tucker Lizzotte, and Henry Gray are awarded their completed adventures and their Bear Rank by their Den Leader Lindsay Lizzotte. (photo courtesy of Chuck Mahaleris)

Webelos Scouts Christopher Santiago, Hunter Brown, and William Vincent are recognized for having completed their Webelos rank and the beginning of their journey towards the Arrow of Light along with Cubmaster Christopher Santiago. Photos courtesy of Chuck Mahaleris (photo courtesy of Chuck Mahaleris)

Vassalboro appraiser explains property tax scenarios

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by Mary Grow

If I raise everyone’s property valuation by 20 percent, most Vassalboro taxpayers will see little if any tax increase, assessor Ellery Bane, of RJD Appraisal, told select board members and an interested audience at the June 22 select board meeting.

If I do not raise everyone’s property valuation as planned, many, probably most, taxpayers will see a tax increase, he continued.

Bane went on to explain the state standards and regulations that govern his work as assessor in Vassalboro and other Maine towns.

State assessors also value property state-wide, he said, and have a state valuation for each municipality. By law, the local assessor’s valuation must be within certain limits compared to the state’s, neither too much higher nor too much lower.

Because of steadily increasing home prices, property values are rising faster than he has ever seen before. Assessments need to keep pace.

The state already has a 2024 valuation for the Town of Vassalboro, Bane said. It is significantly higher than the valuation he will have, unless he implements the 20 percent increase – enough higher to trigger financial penalties for the town. For example, homestead and veterans’ exemptions will be lowered; Vassalboro’s taxes on the Summit gas pipeline and Central Maine Power Company’s electric line will be reduced; annual state school funding will be cut.

Bane estimated if he leaves valuations unchanged, Vassalboro stands to lose about $100,000 in revenue.

Tax bills are primarily determined by the amount needed to fund expenditures, as approved at the annual town meeting. Each individual property value is multiplied by the tax rate to determine how much each property-owner is asked to contribute.

Therefore if the valuation goes up, the tax rate can go down and still raise the needed total.

People whose properties are unchanged should see only the small increase corresponding to the overall 2023-24 budget increase – select board member Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr, estimated it at about four percent. People who have improved their properties may see a larger increase, just as they would have without a town-wide change.

Bane plans to give select board members a set of recommended tax rates in August, as usual, and select board members will set the rate. Tax bills usually go out late in August. By town meeting vote, the first quarterly payment is due Monday, Sept. 25.

The topic that drew most of the June 22 audience was also financial: the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s lack of money.

District officials Raymond Breton and Becky Goodrich explained that VSD has more than $3 million in loans it is repaying, mostly for the cost of hooking Vassalboro’s system into Waterville’s via Winslow. Two pump stations need repairs that could cost another million dollars or more. Winslow is increasing the rate it charges Vassalboro by 25 percent.

Also mentioned were the manhole cover changes, needed as the state Department of Transportation repaves Route 32, that were discussed earlier. Town Manager Aaron Miller said the estimated cost is $4,500 this year and more next year (see the June 1 issue of The Town Line, p. 3).

VSD expenses are being shared among about 200 North Vassalboro and East Vassalboro customers. Audience members quoted quarterly sewer bills ranging from $270 to $500; some people, they said, paid higher sewer bills than tax bills.

Miller, who met previously with VSD officials and customers, said the trustees had postponed a planned rate increase to October. He and Goodrich said other funding sources are being explored.

Residents’ proposal is that some of the money VSD needs come from Vassalboro property taxes. They do not expect taxpayers town-wide to foot their entire bills, just to reduce them.

The comparison, one man said, is school funding: people without children in local schools still support education funding. Granted, educating children benefits everyone; but the sewer system that helps protect water quality in Outlet Stream also benefits residents all over town, he said.

Select board members expressed sympathy and said they will consider the problem. An early step is information-gathering, finding out things like how other municipal sewer systems are financed and how high other towns’ residents’ sewer bills are.

In other business June 22, select board members elected Chris French the new board chairman, succeeding Barbara Redmond, and welcomed new member Michael C. Poulin.

Miller explained what he is doing to apply for a grant through the state-wide community resilience program. Select board members unanimously approved a proclamation that is part of the process.

By another unanimous vote, they approved reappointment of town committee members whose appointments would otherwise end on June 30, the last day of fiscal year 2022-23. The exception was the recreation committee, with whom Miller intended to meet; board members therefore postponed action.

They signed a quit-claim deed to the South Stanley Hill Road property sold to Mark Grenier (see the June 15 issue of The Town Line, p. 2) and accepted a request from the East Vassalboro Water Company to reimburse it from the proceeds of the sale for unpaid bills.

Following their usual custom, board members scheduled only one July and one August meeting, for July 13 and Aug. 10.

New public park being constructed in Vassalboro

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Eagle Park as it looks today. (photo by Laura Jones)

by Laura Jones

The Town of Vassalboro is excited to announce a new park, tentatively name Eagle Park, is being developed on Rt 32 in East Vassalboro, just north of the village area. The park will include beautiful frontage on the China Lake outlet stream where Eagles and other wildlife can be viewed regularly. Once complete, there will be a parking lot, lawn area for playing and picnicking, as well as native trees and shrubs. To kickstart the parks installation, the Conservation Commission applied for, and was awarded a grant of $3,200.00 through the Project Canopy program for the “Restoration of this newly acquired park from invasive plants and replanting with native shade trees.” The Project Canopy Program is managed by the State of Maine Department of Agriculture.

Public works crew creating a parking lot. (photo by Laura Jones)

Eight Sugar Maples (Acer saccharum) were purchased with the grant funds. The Vassalboro Conservation Committee is coordinating on the project with Vassalboro Public Works department, Jobs for Maine Graduates (JMG) and Youth Conservation Corp (YCC). The Vassalboro Public Works department has completed the necessary grading and fill work to establish the parking lot. Future work to complete the park will be accomplished over the coming months.

Volunteers planting more trees. (photo by Laura Jones)

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Society of Friends in Vassalboro

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The Abel Jones House, on Jones Road, in South China Village, dates from 1815.

by Mary Grow

An address at the Vassalboro Historical Society

On Sunday afternoon, June 18, Joann Clark Austin, of South China, a semi-retired lawyer and self-described “fifth-generation China Quaker,” spoke on the local history of Quakerism at the Vassalboro Historical Society.

An Englishman named George Fox (July 1624 – Jan. 13, 1691) founded what became known as the Society of Friends, or Quakers, Austin said. Growing up in a multi-denominational society, Fox constantly questioned religious leaders, seeking a faith that was honest, non-commercial and peaceful.

He realized that the Bible, only recently available in English (the King James Bible was published in 1611), presented an image of Jesus as the exemplar of love, forgiveness, equality, cooperation and other traits he searched for. He felt Jesus talking directly to him, and “developed a personal relationship with a living, loving Jesus.”

Fox’s insight became the basis of the Society of Friends. He felt called to spread the news; Austin said his travels included visits to Rhode Island and Boston, where he confronted the Puritans.

Quakers were often persecuted, but persecution only made them more aggressive about preaching their doctrines, Austin said.

Their religious observances took the form of sitting together quietly, waiting to hear the inner voice. Sometimes, an on-line source says, “some participants would feel the presence of the Lord so strongly that they would begin to shake, or ‘quake'” – hence the name Quaker. It was intended as an insult, but Friends proudly claimed it.

Austin said that “Quakerism had a huge impact in Vassalboro and China,” more than in other parts of Maine. She explained that in 1771, British landowners, notably the Vassall family, had a surveyor named John Jones lay out lots in the wilderness that became Vassalboro.

Despite the difficulties of traveling to and in what was then a wilderness, and the further difficulties of clearing space to build a house, grow food crops and graze livestock, the lots sold, and there were Friends among the buyers.

Vassalboro and China Friends connected with Friends elsewhere. Doing title research for the Bristol Historical Society, Austin was amazed to find that a cemetery in Bristol with unmarked graves (typical of early Friends graveyards) had been deeded to Vassalboro Friends meeting.

By the 1750s and 1760s, Austin said, Friends were numerous enough in the American colonies to control governments in Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania (founded as a haven for the group) and North Carolina.

The Revolution was not a good time for them, however, because one of their beliefs is that war is not a solution to problems. Many were pacifists and therefore were accused of Tory sympathies; and many left colonies like Massachusetts for the Maine frontier.

One Friend who came to Maine in 1777 was a New Yorker named David Sands, Austin said. Reaching Vassalboro, he and his companion were invited to the spacious home of a magistrate named Remington Hobby (some sources spell the name Hobbie).

Hobby welcomed them in his warm kitchen, where, in Quaker fashion, they sat in silence. Thinking his informality had offended his guests, Hobby had a fire built in the best parlor – where again they sat silently.

As Hobby began to wonder if these men were trying to make a fool of him, Sands broke his silence. “Art thou willing to be a fool?” he asked. “Art thou willing to be a fool for Christ?”

Sands converted Hobby, and on future visits helped Hobby increase the number of Friends in Vassalboro.

Austin diverted from history to explain how someone like Sands would decide to travel. The person – not necessarily a man – would feel a call from that internal voice, she said, and would tell the other members of his or her local meeting about it.

Members would decide whether the call was genuine and should be approved. They could, and often did, appoint a second member to accompany the traveler.

Local meetings were held weekly in a member’s house, until the group became too large and built a meeting house. There were also quarterly (four times a year) meetings that brought together regional groups, and yearly meetings with an even wider geographic spread.

Meeting houses were simple and unornamented. If a Friends group outgrew a meeting house and built a larger one, the first one would likely become some family’s home.

A feature of Friends meeting houses was a panel that dropped from the ceiling to divide the room in two, women on one side and men on the other. Each group would discuss the day’s issues and come to its own conclusion, with the women not being overborne by the men.

The process of reaching a decision at such a business meeting Austin called getting “the sense of the meeting.” It is not consensus, and not compromise, but hearing and attempting to answer each person’s concerns. If after discussion one member still disagrees, there is no decision.

Holly Weidner, a Vassalboro Friend, explained from the audience that since everyone in the meeting has within him or her the same divine spark, the clerk of the meeting, who is leading the discussion, has to find the place where everyone is satisfied.

Austin mentioned another Vassalboro Friend, John Damon Lang (May 14, 1799 – 1879), a mill-owner who was appointed and sent West by President Ulysses Grant in 1870 as one of nine Indian commissioners. The commissioners’ mission, according to their report, was to “civilize, educate and provide moral training to the original inhabitants.”

A handout Austin had prepared included photos of three China friends known internationally, Eli Jones (1807-1890), his wife Sybil (1808-1873) and their nephew Rufus (Jan. 25, 1863 -June 16, 1948). In her talk she mentioned Eli’s sister, Rufus’ Aunt Peace (1815 – 1907).

“Her name was Peace?” an audience member asked.

Yes, and the Jones genealogy in the China bicentennial history records women named Comfort, Grace, Mercy and Thankful.

Quakers in central Kennebec Valley

Friends, or Quakers, are important enough in the history of the central Kennebec Valley and surrounding region to merit a separate chapter in Henry Kingsbury’s 1892 county history, a chapter written for the book by Rufus Jones, of China.

China’s first settlers, in the summer of 1774, were a family named Clark: Jonathan, Sr., and Miriam and their four sons. Jones wrote that Miriam and two of the sons, Andrew and Ephraim, were Friends; Jonathan and the other two sons were not.

In addition to books written by and about noted China Quakers and other documents, tangible reminders of their presence include five buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places and seven Friends cemeteries.

Friends Meeting House, in Vassalboro.

Three of the buildings have long been private homes, and two still are. In the order in which they were built, they are:

  • The Abel Jones House, on Jones Road in South China Village, dates from 1815 and is one of several Federal-style houses still standing in town. Rufus Jones was born and spent his early childhood there. The South China Library Association now owns the building, barn and land.
  • The Eli and Sybil Jones House on the northwest side of the intersection of Dirigo Road and Route 3 (Augusta Road), dates from 1833 and was the home of the famous missionaries.
  • Pendle Hill, off the west side of Route 202 (Lakeview Drive) was built in 1916 and was Rufus Jones’ summer home until his death in 1948.

The older of the public buildings is the Pond Meeting House on the east side of Lakeview Drive. It dates from 1807 and was used for worship for years; it is now part of the Friends Camp,

The South China Community Church, built in 1884, began as a Friends meeting house, succeeding the Pond Meeting House. It is still a house of worship, now non-denominational.

According to the China bicentennial history, there are seven Friends cemeteries in China. The oldest is behind the Pond Meeting house; here is the grave of Jerusha Fish, daughter of Jonathan and Miriam Clark. Jerusha married George Fish, a British Friend who was lost at sea.

The next oldest China Friends cemetery is on the east side of Neck Road, near the site of a former meeting house. The earliest date in that cemetery is on the grave of Isaac and Nancy Jones’ son Isaiah, who died Aug. 27, 1836, aged eight months. Also buried here is Denmark Hobby, identified in the China history as “a former slave of the Vassalboro Quaker Remington Hobby.”

Two more Friends cemeteries are close together on the east side of Dirigo Road not far south of Route 3, again, the history says, near a former meeting house.

The other three are scattered around town. Jones Cemetery is just south of South China Village, on former Route 3 that runs south parallel to contemporary Route 3. Hussey Cemetery is on the east side of Pleasant View Ridge Road, north of the Bog Brook Road intersection. Lakeview Cemetery is on an eminence on the west side of Lakeview Drive, north of Friends Camp and the Pond Meeting House.

In Vassalboro, according to Alma Pierce Robbins’ history, a Friends meeting house for the “River Meeting” was built in 1786 overlooking the Kennebec River, where the Oak Grove chapel now stands. There is a Friends’ cemetery behind the chapel.

The second Vassalboro meeting house was built in 1798, for the group initially called the “12 Mile Pond” and then the “East Pond” meeting. (China Lake was originally known as Twelve-Mile Pond because it is 12 miles from Fort Western in what is now Augusta.) This meeting house on South Stanley Hill Road is still in active use; there is an adjacent cemetery.

Earlier articles in this series have focused on some of the people and places mentioned today, including stories about Rufus Jones (July 30 and Aug. 6, 2020, issues) and about historic buildings (July 1, July 8, July 15 and July 22, 2021).

Main sources

Austin, Joann Clark, Presentation at Vassalboro Historical Society, June 18, 2023.
Grow, Mary M. China, Maine Bicentennial History including 1984 revisions (1984).
Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Robbins, Alma Pierce, History of Vassalborough Maine 1771 1971 n.d. (1971).

Websites, miscellaneous.

Vassalboro planners approve two site review applications

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The new Oak Grove Foundation building will be located behind the historic Oak Grove Chapel, pictured.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro planning board members approved both site review applications on their June 6 agenda.

Kassandra Lopes has a permit to run a retail store in one of two existing buildings Raymond Breton owns on the east side of Main Street, in North Vassalboro; and the Oak Grove School Foundation has a permit for a new building behind the historic Oak Grove Chapel, on Oak Grove Road, near the Riverside Drive (Route 201) intersection.

Lopes said she is currently selling clothing and displaying art works, her own and those of other, mostly local, venders. She seldom has more than half a dozen people in the building at a time.

Board members have reviewed and approved new uses of the building frequently – five times, Breton said. Lopes said she plans no changes to the building or the landscape.

The Oak Grove Foundation’s building is to have two main purposes: it will provide a meeting room for the foundation’s board and a “caretaker’s cottage,” a home for someone who will be designated the Oak Grove Chapel caretaker.

Foundation spokesmen Jody Welch and Susan Briggs and contractor Lance Cloutier explained that the project includes a new leachfield and a new well.

They plan to use existing parking spaces. Welch said should they occasionally need more parking, they and the adjacent police academy have an informal agreement that each can use the other’s lot for overflow parking.

The new building will include a kitchen and bathrooms that can be used when there are functions in the chapel. Be­cause the chapel is listed as a historic building, planners did not want to add modern facilities there, Welch explained.

The Oak Grove Chapel dates from 1786, Briggs said. It was renovated in 1895. Until recently it had been used intermittently in warm weather (there is no heat) for reunions, weddings and other functions.

Welch and Briggs said construction on the new building is scheduled to start immediately. They hope the chapel will see more use.

Planning board members scheduled their July meeting for the second Tuesday evening, July 11, instead of the usual first Tuesday, which is Independence Day this year.

Vassalboro volunteer receives thanks badge from Girl Scouts of Maine

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Jessica Prentiss

Jessica Prentiss, a troop leader and Product Sales Supervisor within the Arnold Service Unit, was recently awarded the Thanks Badge from the Girl Scouts of Maine (GSME). The Thanks Badge is awarded to a volunteer or staff member whose significant service has had an exceptional, measurable impact on meeting the mission delivery goals of the entire council or the entire Girl Scout Movement.

Over the last seven years, Prentiss has undertaken the highly crucial role of coordinating fall product and cookie sales for her service unit. As a product sales expert, she conducts thorough trainings, and responds to any and all questions from adult members and volunteers who are new to the organization. Prentiss steps far beyond her local area, participating in GSME statewide Q&A programs for new leaders across Maine.

More recently, Prentiss initiated and now organizes a council-wide opportunity for service units to offer incentives and rewards during the cookie program. At the Fall Product Supervisor Training, she collaborates with GSME to offer her wisdom on the subject through an insightful presentation. Prentiss has made an impact on the Girl Scout community at every corner of the state, and GSME is honored to present her with the Thanks Badge.

To learn more about the Thanks Badge, visit https://www.girlscoutsofmaine.org/volunteer-and-alum-stories/2023-annual-celebration-thanks-badge-recipients.

China and Vassalboro voting results from June 13, 2023

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Vassalboro balloting

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Town Clerk Cathy Coyne reported the following results from the polls on June 13:

  • Vassalboro’s amended Site Review Ordinance, adding a chapter on commercial solar development and making other changes, was approved by a vote of 137 in favor to 44 opposed.
  • The 2023-24 school budget approved at the June 5 open town meeting was ratified by a vote of 158 in favor to 28 opposed.
  • Michael C. Poulin, the only declared write-in candidate for the select board, received 58 votes. Poulin will succeed Barbara Redmond, who is retiring from the board.
  • Running unopposed for re-election to the school board, Zachary Smith received 151 votes and Erin L. “Libby” Loiko received 136 votes.

China’s annual town business meeting voting

by Mary Grow

Voters participating in China’s June 13 annual town business meeting, conducted by written ballot, approved all 32 warrant articles, according to Town Clerk Angela Nelson.

Their votes funded municipal and related activities for the 2023-24 fiscal year, authorized select board members to take actions on their behalf and approved two revised town ordinances.

On a separate ballot, they approved the Regional School Unit #18 budget for 2023-24, by a vote of 230 in favor and 77 opposed.

The issue most discussed at public meetings in the first half of the year was proposed changes in the Board of Appeals section of China’s Land Development Code. Voters approved the amended ordinance by a vote of 185 in favor to 120 opposed, the closest vote of the day.

The amended Solid Waste Ordinance got 234 “yes” votes and 70 “no” votes.

The most popular expenditure was the appropriation of state snowmobile registration money to the Four Seasons Club (Art. 15), approved 285-24.

Nelson said 313 voters cast ballots.

Results were posted by mid-evening Tuesday on the town website, china.govoffice.com, under the Elections tab on the left side of the home page.

PHOTO: Spirit of America award recipients in Vassalboro

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Don and Lisa Breton, of Vassalboro, were recently presented with the Spirit of America award for their volunteer work. In the photo, from left to right, Rick Denico, Jr., Don and Lisa Breton, Barbara Redmond, Christopher French. (photo by Aaron Miller)

Redmond thanked for many years of service on Vassalboro select board

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members discussed a variety of items at their June 8 meeting, the last for retiring board chairman Barbara Redmond.

Barbara Redmond

Senior board member Chris French thanked Redmond for her service, to applause from the audience in the town office meeting room. Red­mond expressed her appreciation to the town’s “small, small staff who get a lot done.”

Redmond then raised an issue on behalf of her road association members: the accumulation of “dog poop” at the Webber Pond boat landing. There was an earlier decision not to put trash cans there, fearing overuse; now, residents suggest a sign and plastic bags.

With no trash can, resident Joe Presti said, dog-walkers will leave bags all over the place. Town Manager Aaron Miller, smiling, asked if the bags should be considered a memorial commemorating Redmond’s service on the select board.

Board members and Miller will consider the issue.

The meeting began with opening of 18 bids for the tax-acquired property at 83 South Stanley Hill Road. The first one opened was from Mark Grenier, owner of Grenier Properties, in South China, for $112,000; the next highest was $83,210. Board members accepted Grenier’s bid.

Resident Amy Davidoff presented an update on broadband access in Vassalboro, a topic she has followed for the last few years. She has explored options for improvement in the parts of town that lack adequate service.

One option is cooperation with the Town of China, which is working with UniTel, in Unity, now a subsidiary of Idaho-based Direct Communications. Davidoff reported that Direct Communications intends to apply for Maine grant funds for China and is “interested in including the underserved areas of Vassalboro” in the application.

She invited select board members to send a letter of interest to UniTel. The letter would not obligate Vassalboro in any way; but it would let Direct Communications engineers evaluate Vassalboro’s needs, she said.

French and Redmond authorized Miller to send the letter of interest. Board member Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., was not present June 8.

The two board members also authorized Miller to pursue a community resilience grant, through a state program designed to help municipalities reduce emissions and otherwise combat or adapt to climate change.

Miller gave updates on three issues from the board’s May 25 meeting (see the June 1 issue of The Town Line, p. 3).

  • He had a meeting scheduled June 14 with people from the state Department of Transportation and the Vassalboro Sanitary District to talk about manhole covers in Main Street, in North Vassalboro.
  • State revenues paid to local school districts are based on two-year-old figures, so a valuation increase in 2023 will have no immediate impact on state funding for the Vassalboro school department.
  • Vassalboro’s year-end budget still looks good, “pretty much where we thought we would be.”

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, June 22. The town office will be closed Monday, June 19, for the Juneteenth holiday.

VASSALBORO: Voters have two written ballots on June 13

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro’s annual town meeting did not end after voters acted on 38 articles Monday evening, June 5. They have two written ballots on Tuesday, June 13, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the town office.

One ballot is for local elections, for one member of the select board and two members of the school board.

For select board, there are only blank lines. Michael C. Poulin, of Vassalboro, is a declared write-in candidate. Incumbent Barbara Redmond is retiring.

For school board, incumbents Erin L. Loiko (“Libby”) and Zachary Smith seek re-election. There are two blank lines if a voter wants to write in someone else instead of one or both of those listed.

Instructions for write-ins are printed on the ballot.

The other ballot contains warrant Articles 39 and 40.

Art. 39 asks if voters want to approve the 2023-24 school budget that was adopted June 5. This school budget validation referendum has been standard in many Maine municipalities for years.

Art. 40 asks if voters want to amend Vassalboro’s Site Review Ordinance. If a majority approve, they will add to the ordinance a new Chapter XI titled “Performance Standards for Commercial Solar Energy Systems.”

The ordinance with proposed amendments is on the Town of Vassalboro website, under “What’s New in Vassalboro,” after several other items; it immediately follows the announcement of new Facebook and Instagram pages.

In the draft, the new section covers pages 18 through the top of 22. It sets out standards for building, operating, maintaining and decommissioning commercial solar farms.

Approval of the amended ordinance includes numerous lesser changes outside Chapter XI. Some complement the provisions dealing with solar farms – for example, chapters after XI are renumbered, and new definitions of “commercial solar energy system” and “solar energy system” are proposed.

Other changes clarify procedures or correct past omissions. For example, voter approval would add a requirement that a site plan application include the names of abutting property-owners. It would add definitions of multiple terms not specific to Chapter XI, like “buffer,” “property line,” “residential structure” and “setback.”