ROCKPORT — Before the Rockport Planning Board begins a discussion about ordinance amendments to possibly place before voters in November, it will wrap up business on one subdivision waiver request and a harbor pier application, as well as hear from a Union Street citizen urging revisions to the town's Land Use Ordinance.

"I respectfully request that you include my letter in the agenda/packet for the March 26 meeting as these concerns need to be addressed immediately," wrote Union Street resident Sarah Price, in a March 20 memo to the Planning Board. "I trust you will agree that no citizen should be put in the unjust and damaging situation precipitated on me by the series of errors allowed to occur concerning land adjacent to mine."

The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Rockport Opera House Geoffrey Parker Meeting Room, and will be streamed live on the town's YouTube channel.

The agenda includes approving the findings of fact regarding a subdivision review waiver request discussed at the Planning Board's February meeting. That subdivision, named Moon River, is proposed for a parcel of land that straddles the Rockport-Camden town line on Camden Street.

The 2.44-acre parcel at 162 Camden Street is owned by Chen Family Property, and Jeff Chen proposes to build there seven detached dwelling units on 2.44 acres of vacant land, a small portion of which is located in Rockport.

Per state law, when a subdivision is proposed for a parcel that is on land in two towns, either a joint municipal meeting and hearings must be held or a waiver of that process is granted. Rockport is choosing to do the latter. The Rockport land, according to Rockport planner Orion Thomas, mostly falls within the setback area of the parcel, where development is not to take place.

The Camden Planning is currently reviewing the project, most recently it conducted a March 24 site walk of the field that lies between Camden Street and Route 1, across from Hannaford Plaza.

The other matter of business in continuance from the Rockport Planning Board's February meeting is approving findings of fact concerning an application from Elizabeth Rodini and Charles Rudin to build a pier in the outer harbor of Rockport. The Rockport Harbor Committee first reviewed the pier plans at the Pandion Lane parcel in 2024.

"The Harbor Committee did their review in January 2024 and discussed the limitations in the ordinance," said the February 26 Planning Board minutes. "At the same meeting the Harbor Committee discussed several changes to the ordinance that would benefit this project, and those changes regarding pier height and length] were voted on by the public and approved in June 2025. Permits have already been obtained from the Army Corps and DEP, and they have approval from Harbor Committee."

Sarah Price, the Union Street resident who is requesting an ordinance amendment discussion, recounted her reasons in a memo to the board. She outlined the proposed changes that she requested be placed before Rockport voters at the annual town meeting June 9.

In early December, Price had filed an appeal with the Maine Board of Environmental Protection of a permit granted Nov. 7 by the state to her neighbor, Lily Pond Partners LLC, that allowed the LLC to remove a section of the old road that serviced the transport of limerock from inland quarries to kilns at Rockport Harbor at the turn of the 20th Century. She had also appealed the town's permit, and questioned the municipal process in a townwide discussion at a January Select Board meeting.

"I’m not here to place blame, only to help identify where our ordinances are vulnerable to being overlooked and misinterpreted and to explore ways to strengthen their oversight and clarify their application," wrote Price, herself a former Rockport Planning Board member. "It is my hope that we can all learn from my distressing and sadly continuing experience, and put measures in place to prevent it happening again to me or to anyone else."

She continued:

"I respectfully request:

"1. that in all applications of ordinances you explicitly consider abutters and implement measures to ensure their concerns be addressed in the permitting process prior to permit approval,

"2. that abutters be notified of all permit applications and decisions, that the notification process be reviewed and improved to ensure its success in achieving this inclusion,

"3. that clear, comprehensive information and guidance regarding the complete appeals process be directly conveyed to abutters and made easily accessible to the public

"4. that you make it explicit that the Code Enforcement Officer be prohibited from preparing permit applications and supplemental materials for applicants,

"5. that you amend Section 1416 Administration number 4 by adding “or the Code Enforcement Officer, as appropriate,” to the second paragraph as it is used in the first, 

"6. that you prohibit all municipal employees and officers from interpreting, or presenting as fact, information on environmental and legal issues outside their professional expertise,

"7. that the ordinance be amended to clarify under what circumstances a permittee is allowed to proceed with a project pending the outcome of an appeal with special consideration and conditions for activities that would result in irreparable loss such as the destruction of historic structures,

"8. that the shoreland zoning ordinance be amended to ensure that work in or adjacent to wetlands requires planning board approval with special attention to any demolition or large- scale filling in or near the shoreland zone,

"9. that number 28 on the Table of Land Uses in the Shoreland Zone regarding the filling and earth moving of more than ten (10) cubic yards be revised to required planning board approval in all districts,

"10. that numbers 30, 31, and 32 regarding uses similar to other uses be revised to require planning board approval and to initiate a review to either include and specify the new use within an existing one or name it a new use,

"11. that the other numbers on the table allowing only the code enforcement officer’s approval be reviewed regarding areas outside the code enforcement officer’s expertise then revised or amended to ensure an appropriately informed decision.

"12. that the ordinance be reviewed to identify and close all existing loopholes that allow developers to obtain piecemeal approvals without planning board review, rather than having their projects comprehensively considered by the planning board."

While Price had requested the proposed amendments go before voters in June, she was informed that the cutoff for placing amendments before the Select Board for ballot consideration has passed.

Price's memo substantiates each amendment she proposes. Those amendments range from improvements to the town's code enforcement administrative processes to refining land use standards and definitions. 

The Rockport Planning Board is a seven-member quasi-judicial municipal board. There is currently one vacancy on the board. Members include Jeffrey Leclair, Chair; Sam Clark,  Vice-Chair; Jan Rosenbaum, Tom Laurent, Robert Dybas and Peter Sarno.

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.cm; 207-706-6657