CAMDEN — Wednesday evening will be round two of Camden Planning Board’s consideration of a zoning amendment that could allow some bed and breakfast owners to pursue municipal approval for serving dinner to guests. Since last winter, one Camden innkeeper has been working on language that would loosen the rules and broaden meal-making from just breakfast and include dinner.

The planning board meets at 5 p.m. in the Washington Street Conference Room. Given the July 4 holiday, the Planning Board intentionally set its regular meeting schedule back one day this month.

On May 15, the board nixed a proposed ordinance change that would have allowed a Camden innkeeper to seek special exception from the Zoning Board of Appeals to serve dinner to her overnight guests, killing it before it could advance to the town’s Select Board.

The vote was 2 to 2, a split opinion on whether Kristi Bifulco’s proposed amendment to the town’s zoning ordinance should be sent on for further consideration and eventual placement before a citizen vote at town meeting.

The vote was a surprise to Camden Code Enforcement Officer Steve Wilson, who had been directed by the board to work with Bifulco over the winter in crafting potential ordinance amendment language.

The Camden Planning Board consists of Chairman Lowrie Sargent, John Scholz, Richard Bernhard, Jan McKinnon and Richard Householder.

Bifulco is coowner of the Windward House, at 6 High Street, which has nine guest rooms and is close to Camden’s downtown. She had crafted an amendment that would be included in the definition of inns and would effectively allow an inn abutting High Street and within 500 feet of a zone where restaurants are already allowed the possibility of being granted a special exception “to be allowed to serve meals to overnight guests only, subject to meeting the standards of a Low Impact Use as determined by the Zoning Board of Appeals.”

The 500-foot area in question would extend north on High Street (Route 1) from the intersection of Route 52.

Bifulco returned to the Camden Planning Board in April with the new language and for a public hearing on it. After discussion and a few more changes following a planning board discussion, she returned again in May. That’s when the board stalemated on a decision, with Householder absent for the vote.

But at the next board meeting, June 3, Board Chairman Lowrie Sargent reported that the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals has a policy that dictates when five members are not present to vote, and when there are tie votes, the applicant or the board can recommend the application be continued to a meeting when five members are present.

“If she had appeared before the ZBA, Ms. Bifulco would have been given that option,” meeting minutes said.

Camden’s town attorney Bill Kelly said the policy adhered to by the ZBA also applied to the planning board.

Given that information, Lowrie suggested Bifulco’s amendment be given an entirely new public hearing.

“Because of the level of interest in Ms. Bifulco’s proposal, Mr. Sargent proposed that it would be in everyone’s best interest to conduct a new public hearing, and the board agreed this was the best course to take to rectify the situation...,” minutes said.

The board voted unanimously in favor of the new public hearing.

Meanwhile, letters concerning the proposed amendment have arrived at the town office (see attached), all of them but one urging the planning board not to send the proposed language on to the Select Board.

Other innkeepers, homeowners, Camden citizens and one attorney argued that allowing an inn in that 500-foot stretch of Camden would negatively affect restaurant owners in town who are trying to make a living.

They also objected to the practice of special exceptions, spot zoning and contract zoning, saying the town’s comprehensive plan should be nexus for considering and recommending ordinance changes. The comprehensive plan is currently undergoing a revision.

One letter arrived from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, lending opinion on what the potential effects of the proposed amendment might have the High Street Historic District. 

The commission acknowledged that no external alterations were planned for the inn itself.

“Without plans to comment on, the Commission cannot make a determination whether this project would have any effect on the continued ability of the property to contribute to the High Street Historic District,” the letter said, which was signed by Christi Mitchell, National Register coordinator.

The Camden High Street Historic District was established in Camden there in 1989.

Mitchell also wrote: “In order to retain the National Register listing the historic district as a whole needs to maintain an overall sense of time and place reflecting its historical associations with Camden’s ‘growth and prosperity as as ship-building and trading center’ and ‘summer tourism.’”

Mitchell wrote: “The goal of listing the historic district in the National Register is to promote careful stewardship of the buildings, sites and structures within the district, but it does not regulate what private property owners can do with their property.

The agenda for Wednesday’s planning board meeting also includes consideration of an subdivision amendment to the Mountain Arrow Village Green, a development of Mountain Arrow Village Green, Inc., at 38 High Street.

Upcoming board business includes the Camden Snow Bowl lighting plan, consideration of open space commercial zone, and prioritizing board projects.

Editorial Director Lynda Clancy can be reached at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657