China Planners begin work on potential ordinance changes

by Mary Grow

China Planning Board members started working on potential ordinance amendments at an Oct. 10 workshop meeting.

Retiring board Chairman James Wilkens brought copies of the first few pages of four other towns’ ordinance definitions, covering those beginning with the first two letters of the alphabet. Board members reviewed China’s parallel definitions.

They proposed no major changes. As the meeting wound down, they talked about adding new definitions, including “Airbnb,” “adult business” and “boathouse,” but made no decisions.

They also considered deleting one or two definitions, either because they might be obsolete or because they seemed irrelevant to China’s ordinance and to past and potential land use issues in town.

Codes Officer Paul Mitnik said he reviewed the entire definitions section in China’s land use ordinance and found fewer than half a dozen possible places to amend, mostly minor.

Any ordinance changes require voter approval. Planners have not decided when they will be ready to ask selectmen to schedule a vote if they do recommend amendments.

Board members plan to continue ordinance review at future meetings. Their next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening, Oct. 24.