CAMDEN — Steve Laite's lot on the bend in Union Street in downtown Camden is often a disturbing snapshot of highway misfortunes. His is the garage where cars and trucks involved in accidents wind up, vehicles twisted and broken, their windshields smashed and tires flattened. Or, they are there for reasons more nefarious, impounded by police in drug or even attempted homicide investigations.

Camden Exxon is the tow company commonly called by area police after crashes, OUI arrests, or drug busts. He arrives at the scene, quickly loads the vehicles on his flatbed and drives them back to his downtown Camden garage, where, depending on the sensitivity of circumstances, he either locks the vehicle inside the one open bay in his garage, or parks it outside, where the community can't help but notice how damaging a crash has been. They must stay there until insurance adjusters make their assessments.

Sometimes, out of respect for family, police ask him to store the accident-related cars inside the garage. And if a person dies in a crash, the car needs to stay inside the garage until state police comb through it.

“There are a lot of variables,” he said. “One winter, I had 10 or 12 cars per week waiting for insurance adjusters.”

On average, Laite said he stores two police impounds a week, though on Oct. 31 he had five in his lot.

“It's a rotating stock,” he said. “It can be drugs, alcohol, or they can be stolen and impounded for fingerprints. There is a lot of drug-related hauling at night.”

Laite acquired the garage business in the late 1980s, and has been operating his garage and towing business there since. Because the business was in existence prior to the 1992 rewrite of Camden's zoning ordinance, he is able to continue to operate as a garage, even though garages are no longer an allowed use in his particular zone. His business is “grandfathered” there, as code enforcement officers and zoning boards say.

Under the current ordinance, however, he cannot physically expand his building or his parking footprint because his business is considered a nonconforming use.

But Laite wants to expand, and last spring he approached Camden Code Enforcement Officer Steve Wilson, who, in turn, initiated a discussion before the planning board about rules governing nonconforming use in the town's ordinance. Other businesses operating under nonconforming use weighed in, and an amendment to the ordinance was crafted. Public hearings were held, and now that amendment will appear before voters on Nov. 6 on Camden's municipal ballot. However, it is not an amendment without some debate.

On the ballot
Shall the town vote to amend the zoning ordinance of the Town of Camden, Article VI entitled "Nonconformance", so as to amend subsection 3, entitled "Expansion of Use" so as to modify the definition, prohibit expansion in certain districts, and identify districts within which expansion is permitted or is not permitted depending on the residential or commercial character of the district, all as more particularly presented in a draft amendment to Article VI dated July 19, 2012?

The amendment proposes that nonconforming use, business or residential, be loosened in some parts of Camden to allow property owners the option of going before the Zoning Board of Appeals, and possibly the Planning Board (if a site plan review is required for larger expansions) for permission to expand a building or parking footprint on lot.

“It gives them a venue to improve business but at the same time be sensitive to people around them,” said Wilson.

Wilson's explanation to voters that is attached to the proposed amendment says: "The proposed changes in nonconformance affect a limited number of businesses in Camden that have been a part of the community since ordinance adoption and will hopefully allow them to continue as part of the community."

He said there were approximately 11 businesses in town that could benefit from the amendment, including Beloin's takeout on Route 1, which currently cannot expand its kitchen, and Coastal Auto Repair, on John Street, which cannot expand its garage. The latter business is owned by Camden Select Board member John French.

Wilson said Coastal Auto's insurance company has told French that people cannot walk into his service area for liability reasons; however, there is no customer waiting area, and because the use is nonconforming, French cannot expand his footprint and build one there.

The amendment as proposed adds two paragraphs and says that expansion of use in certain districts will be allowed up to 30 percent in volume and area of use if the ZBA determines that: “there will be no greater physical or visual adverse impact on the subject and adjacent properties and resources. In determining there is no greater adverse impact, the decision is to be based on adverse impacts such as changes to traffic (volume and type), noise, and dust. The Zoning Board of Appeals may place additional requirements to the project design to offset current and possible impacts of the nonconforming use and such requirements will become part of the approval once accepted by the applicant.”

The amendment also states: “As part of the approval of expansion, no additional nonconformity shall be allowed to be created on the property and all district standards and applicable Site Plan Review standards must be met.”

In business districts, existing nonconforming uses not in the shoreland zone may be expanded, depending, again, on ZBA determination that “there will be no greater adverse physical or visual impact on the subject and adjacent properties and resources.” And, the ZBA may place additional stipulations on any expansion plans.

If the amendment passes with voters, Laite said he will add two more bays to his two-bay garage and build a solid fence to the right of his building on the part of the lot that borders Village Variety. Behind that fence he will park vehicles that have been involved in accidents and are awaiting insurance adjusters. The left side of his garage will be used for repaired vehicles waiting to be picked up. Laite said he would not expand into the wetlands behind the garage.

Laite said Bays 1 and 2 will be relegated for police impounds, Bay 3 for storage of trailers, motorcycles and four-wheelers, and Bay 4 would be for welding, tire repair, and inspections.

He wants to expand for two reasons: to stop complaints made to the town office about the visibility of wrecked cars, and he wants to grow his repair business, to accommodate, “the rest, the people whose flat tires need to get fixed.”

While some Select Board members have written letters endorsing the amendment, including Chairman Martin Cates, John French and Donald White, another member opposes the measure.

“I'm not sure if some of the places should be rewarded with a 30 percent increase in building size,” said Leonard Lookner.

Lookner, whose institutional knowledge of Camden's ordinance is long, having sat on the Select Board in for previous terms, as well as on the Zoning Board of Appeals, does not like altering a set of rules that he believes has worked well for the town since 1992.

“The planning board and CEO suggest 11 businesses in town are affected by this,” he said. “I suspect there will be far more than 11.”

Lookner is concerned that the interpretation of the ordinance is too subjective and will be left up to a code enforcement officer and a ZBA whose volunteer members change on a regular basis.

“Being a member of the ZBA, I recognize how continually they change, and how thought changes,” he said. “It has been a mantra in our community for 20 years that the ZBA and CEO should have less comment.”

Lookner questioned whether interpretations of the amendment would ultimately be strict enough to enforce stipulations made to a plan after a business is granted approval to expand. He wonders if businesses that currently use trailers for storage on nonconforming lots, and are subsequently given permission to expand, will actually remove those trailers.

Furthermore, he said, the nonconforming businesses now seeking ability to expand footprints and use never went through the 1992 ordinance's comprehensive criteria for planning board approval in the first place because they were grandfathered.

“There's too much subjectivity associated with the amendment,” he said. “We've kept the integrity of this town for 20 years. My biggest concern is that we throw the baby out with the bathwater. The public has to recognize that once all this stuff happens you can't take it back.”

While the three Select Board members and Planning Board Vice Chairman Lowrie Sargent have said publicly that they support the amendment because they support a healthy business climate, Lookner attributes the difference of opinion to a larger philosophical debate.

Lookner also questions how three Select Board members go together to write a letter to the editor in support of the ordinance change without him knowing about that. There is an understanding, he said, that anytime three Select Board members congregate it constitutes a quorum and therefore is considered a public meeting.

Sargent said at the Oct. 23 Select Board meeting that the current ordinances were effected in 1992, and now, “we are trying to fit into current times.” He said Camden's population has decreased since then by 10 percent, or 450 residents.

“We live in the oldest county, in the oldest state in the country,” said Sargent, adding that changing the ordinance will allow Camden to have a healthier business climate.

Lookner said that business is doing well in Camden, and that it is the residential property owner who funds the majority of operating the town. Residential property owners pay approximately 85 to 90 percent of the tax bill, he said.

“The tail is wagging the dog because they [business] are organized and have a vested interest,” he said.

Penobscot Bay Pilot Editorial Director Lynda Clancy can be reached at lyndaclancy@PenBayPilot.com; 706-6657.