I would like to take this opportunity to response to Belfast City Councilor and former Mayor Mike Hurley’s March 3, 2021 letter in the Penobscot Bay Pilot in which he provides advice to the City of Rockland concerning accessory dwellings (ADUs).

For the following reasons the situation in Rockland is quite dissimilar making it difficult to compare to Belfast.

Belfast has a 2020 population of 6,653, 38 square miles and a density of 175 persons per square miles; whereas, in contrast, Rockland has a 2020 population of 7,173 squeezed into a small 13 square mile area, resulting in 552 persons per square miles.

Because approximately 5 square miles of the city’s boundaries consist of the undeveloped Rockland Bog, the city is even denser.

For this reason the adjusted density is 896 people per square mile who often reside on small crowded lots east of Broadway and Route 1. 

The lots, especially the smaller ones, in Belfast don’t appear to be crammed with structures such as garages, barns, sheds, decks and patios, carriage houses, outbuildings and driveways and utilities as they are in Rockland because of so little available land in which to build on.

With the recent enactment of the Rockland City Council policy to allow detached rental ADUs anywhere in the city, while prohibiting them in the Waldo Avenue and Samoset Road neighborhood because they do not fit into the character of that particular neighborhood, the construction of more short-term, seasonal and vacation ADU rentals will take up any space remaining on a small lot. 

Also, because of the larger lots, as well as a stormwater drainage system which seems to be different than Rockland (they don’t appear to have a system similar to Lindsey Brook in Belfast which winds throughout the city), Belfast may not experience similar stormwater runoff problems to those that occur in Rockland, aggravated by more frequent and heavier rain storms in which the additional water has little or no place to go because the lots are so jam-packed leading to more property and sidewalk and street flooding.

In summary, because of the science of cumulative impact in an over crowded area, it will only take a few new ADUs to bring about the consequences as herein described.

Rodney Lynch lives in Rockland