Brunswick Council Advances Main Street Contract Zoning, Sets Hearings

[0:06] Council Chair (presiding officer): Good evening, everyone. Oh, getting used to the new microphones, surround sound. I'm going to officially call this meeting of October 5th, 2026 to order. Town Manager, was this meeting properly noticed? Yes, it was. Beautiful. I'm going to ask everyone to silence your electronic devices, counselors, please. We'll remind the audience when we get back. But we are looking to go into Executive Session 1 MRSA 4056A, Personnel Matters. Do I have a motion to go into executive session? So, motions. So, moved by Councillor Teemee, seconded by Councillor Ellis. Is there any discussion on the motion? Not seeing any, I'll call the vote. Councillor Ellis. Yes. Councillor Ecker. Yes. Councillor Anderson. Yes. Councillor Peralta. Yes. Councillor Hicks. Yes. Councillor Teemee. Yes. Councillor Weems. Yes. Councillor Wilson is not here, for the record. The chair is yes, so that is unanimous that the council present. We'll be back at 6 30. Hello everyone, and thank you for bearing with us for the technical difficulties. If you're in the room, you may be able to hear a difference. We've, we've been working on updating some of the technology here to make sure that everyone can hear properly, and that we have some accessible features. So thank you everyone for coming. We are resuming our October 5th, 2026 meeting. I will remind you all in the audience to please silence your electronic devices at this point in time. Airplane mode, silence button, all those good things. I'm doing it right now on my laptop. And then please rise, if you are willing and able, for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. As chair, that I ask that as we hold this space together, we try to treat everyone here with compassion and respect as we work to serve our town. Are there any adjustments to the agenda? Not seeing any, are there any announcements of council? Councilor Hicks. [1:10:51] Councilor (Brunswick Landing liaison): I wanted to announce that we have scheduled, or I have worked with town manager to schedule a Brunswick Landing community meeting to be held October 22nd from 5.30 to 7 here in the council chambers. This is an opportunity for people who live on Brunswick Landing, who actually do things on Brunswick Landing, to get updates and to get their questions answered if possible. We're going to focus on, for the community members,. There's been discussion for a while around Neptune Road and its future and the possibility of it getting updated, repaired, and talk about safety issues. We also will have conversation about what's coming up regarding commercial development in Brunswick Landing, upcoming events on the landing, possibly if we have someone from MIRA attending who has been invited, that Dan Stevenson the executive director has been invited, hopefully you can speak about the airport master plan update and maybe possibilities or the future plans for road upgrades to town standards and on the landing as well, so we've, I've had a lot of people ask me lots of different questions, have some concerns, so this is an opportunity to gather together. I've already had Jim Howard who is one of the developers on the landing, he's agreed to attend, and Kevin Bunker who's also a developer in the community, he's planning to attend as well, so I think we can get a lot of good discussion, some updates, some people to, you know, people can speak and hopefully have some better understanding of what we have as an, you know, what the positive and the negatives of Brunswick Landing, it's it's our growth area, it's changing fast, we have several, a couple thousand people living on that location, we have a airport that's growing, so it's obviously we have our environmental concerns on that property as well, so it felt like it was time to have a community meeting and everybody's invited to come, thank you, thank you, other councillors? Councillor Teemee. I have a couple. [1:13:20] Councilor (Senior Health Expo / labor strike resolution): So first of all, there is the Senior Health Expo on Thursday at the Rec Center from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. I also, this one's near and dear to my heart, I've been looking forward to telling people about it since last month when we passed our resolution about the labor strike back in the 1800s. And that is the Labor and Tenant History Walking Tour, which is on Sunday, October 11th at 10 a.m. at Fort Andros. And lastly, I wanted to let everybody know, as we head into election season, that there are two candidate forums coming up. One is on Wednesday at 6.30 at the Brunswick United Methodist Church. And the next is at Curtis Memorial Library on Friday, October 16th from 5 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. [1:14:08] Council Chair (presiding officer): You. Other councillors? Not seeing any. A couple of announcements I'll make. One for folks in the audience and at home, we do have Councillor Wilson is on Zoom, so is here for the record. And a couple of announcements talking about upcoming elections. I've been seeing folks talk about online and chat a little bit about in circles around political signs in our public ways, and I just wanted to clarify some things so folks are aware. So no signs are allowed on town property. This includes political signs. So you've heard some folks putting them in places they probably shouldn't. If that is done, the way to go about informing the town so that way they can be removed is to fill out a complaint form online. You can do the brunswickme.gov. There's a planning page, permits, applications, and there's a form that you can fill out that information. If you need some support around that, there's a phone number that you can call at the planning office. That is 207-725-6660. We just want to make sure that we're doing everything proper, that we have things in writing, so that way if people are asking, you know, why are you taking down my signs, we say, this is where we found it. This is the record we have, all those good things. So I just want to remind you that if you see them, regardless of the party, regardless of what they say, if you see it call it to the town and we'll make sure they get removed. We don't have town staff driving every mile of our town looking for them every day, so they may not always be missed, they may not always be caught if they're not on, you know, the code enforcement officers route to work and back. So give us a call if you see them. Another announcement is just a reminder that, well, we're here in this town council space and official proceeding that there is no campaigning in this space. So if you are running for an elected office, please do not be wearing buttons, shirts, handing out brochures, all of those good things. Don't come up to the podium or put your hand up on Zoom and say, you know, I am this person and I am running for this seat. Whether it's town council, state office, any of those things, it's not allowed in our official proceedings. So please make sure to plan accordingly. Any other announcements? Not seeing any, we'll jump on into public comment. So as a reminder, public comment is for non agenda items only. Three minutes per speaker, 30 minutes this session. If we need another one, we'll do it at the end. Please follow the code of conduct that's posted on either side. Show your name, town, pronouns if you'd like, and there's a sheet that should be over there for you to be able to fill out if you would like a follow up. What I will also remind folks is that we have a couple agenda items on here that are setting a public hearing. If we are doing an item that is to set a public hearing, we will not take public comment on that item. We'll take public comment when we do the public hearing for it. So just so you don't stick around and get to an item and be sad that we don't talk about it [1:17:10] Steve Walker, 900 River Road (public commenter): Without further ado, Steve Walker, 900 River Road. I am not going to fill out an online form about this, but I am going to make a public statement that Chapter 4.13 of our sign ordinance clearly says that political signs shall not be located on town-owned property, including but not limited to right-of-ways. I don't think that it's fair to candidates that actually abide by the rules to have to have other citizens apply online to have illegally placed signs removed. Hopefully, my being up here and the chair's reminder will be enough for candidates with integrity to take down their signs and self-correct. If not, I think we pay our code enforcement officers very well, and they should be enforcing every aspect of our zoning laws, including this, which is clearly stated and is clearly being violated by multiple at-large candidates, specifically throughout the Cook's Corner area. [1:18:25] Marika Gaiuson, Bay Bridge Estates / Broken Bridge Tenant Union: Hi. Excuse me. Marika Gaiuson. I live in Bay Bridge Estates, also one of the co-organizers of the Broken Bridge Tenant Union. This is awfully loud now. The new mobile home ordinance passed in June, Section 10.124B, says, Landlords shall comply with all provisions in state statute regarding increases in lot rent charged to tenants including, but not limited to, Title X of state law, Section 9093B. The state law that it references is that it requires no less than 90 days' notice to be provided to the tenants. We have documented evidence that Legacy Communities, the owner of Bay Bridge Estates, failed to provide that required notice, and we provided that to the town. Between June of 2025 and August of 2026, which is 14 months, the housing committee spent more than 13 hours. Council spent more than 11. The town spent $32,000 on a mobile home park study. The new rent board has already spent one and a half hours. And there's an upcoming hearing that is likely to be attended by a lot of residents. So it's not going to be short. untold staff, number of staff hours, and I don't even want to consider how many attorney billable hours were spent on this. Not to mention the thousands of hours that Bay Bridge residents spent on it. So much time and energy spent on this. Councillor Hicks, you mentioned at one of the meetings this past spring before the ordinance was passed, you commented that Brunswick should be a leader in this. that working to protect tenants, protect the homeowners in mobile home parks, is important. Town after town after town has since passed ordinances. I don't think you or any member of this council imagined that the way Brunswick would decide to lead is by being the first to not enforce the ordinance. I encourage you all to ask why. Ask who benefits from this lack of accountability, and who the town of Brunswick should be serving. [1:21:01] Paul Whitcomb, Brunswick resident: Hi, my name is Paul Whitcomb. I'm from Brunswick. I want to talk about the Jays' project at 53-69 Main Street, but I will avoid those specific items that will be addressed on the agenda tonight. night. I've been doing some research on the possible, likely contamination of the soil there, and there are two main targets here. Perclorethaline, which is a known carcinogen, and that heretofore I'll refer to that as Perc. And there is a waterproofing agent as well, Cole, that is in the PFAS family of chemicals. You need to approach this project very gingerly by taking some ground samples, because if you start detecting high levels of either of these compounds, you may be in this for the long haul because of the nature of the PERC. The U.S. EPA classifies PERC as a likely known carcinogen, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer lists it as a group to a probable carcinogen linked to bladder cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. That's a quote from the Prevent Cancer Foundation. PERClerit can readily migrate into the soil around dry cleaning establishments. Through spills and leaks, liquid solvent leaks from aging machines, storage drums, improper waste disposal, or cracks in untreated concrete and asphalt floors. These can all release PERC directly into the ground. Because PERC is a dense, non-aqueous phase liquid, it is heavier than water and moves downward through the soil pores and gravity flow, often penetrating deep beneath the facility. That's the reason that this type of development could take much longer than expected to completely decontaminate it. Groundwater contamination, once PERC passes through the shallow soil, It can reach the water table and form expanding groundwater plumes through travel off sites Vapor intrusion as a VOC Volatile organic compound subsurface perk turns into vapors and can migrate upward through so Is that three minutes you can you can wrap up your okay? Yeah, I would just implore the council to go above and beyond what is specified by the VRAP volunteer program for site analysis, soil analysis, and we need to hire our own environmental land use expert. We need to go above and beyond the VRAP consideration. This is one location and one level of contamination where this type of extra caution is warranted. [1:25:04] Council Chair (presiding officer): Is there anybody else in the room that would like to speak before I go to Zoom? Not seeing anyone standing up heading to the podium, I'm going to go with Sean Hogan. [1:25:17] Sean Hogan, Brunswick Town resident: Yes, good evening. Thank you for letting me speak. Sean Hogan, Brunswick Town resident. I'd just like to echo what Mr. Walker said. It should not be incumbent upon the citizen of the town to go online and fill out a form. Our code enforcement officers should be proactive,. And I find it really hard to believe that there's been a Hannah Pingree sign in front of the police department for at least a month. And I'm supposed to believe that nobody from code enforcement or even the police department has seen that. So I feel it's a little disingenuous. If we're going to enforce these rules, let's enforce them evenly for everybody and expect our code enforcement folks to be proactive and not put the burden of doing [1:26:04] Council Chair (presiding officer): their job on the citizen. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else on Zoom that would like to speak? Not seeing any hands, I'm going to close public comment, and I'm going to turn it over to the manager to do a report. Thank you, Chair McDonald. [1:26:21] Town Manager: So I'm starting with absentee ballots. [1:26:25] Town Clerk: Yes, we have them, and the citizens have found us. We today was the first day of for in-person absentee voting. We had received back approximately 300 today, and that didn't include any that we sent out in the mail or if somebody took one with them in last over last Friday, and we issued about 1,500 that we put in the mail. So if you have requested a ballot, it should be coming. We also have some additional today. You should be getting them this week. If you don't receive them by next Monday, give us office a call, and we'll make sure you get a ballot. We are here 730 to 430, Monday through Thursday, and we will have extended hours. Normally the town hall is not open on Fridays, but we will be open for balloting only, not for other services. The next three Fridays, the first two will be from 7.30 to noontime, and the last one will be 7.30 to 3 p.m. And the last day is the 29th to pick up in person, and we will be here until 7 that evening, and it's right here in this chamber. If you were to be present, you could see all the computers set up to service the folks. And if you have any questions, feel free to call our office at 725-6658. [1:27:56] Town Manager: Thank you, Clerk Smith. So the next thing, we've been working on the capital improvement program, and we're about to get started on workshops. So today was the day. Something's ringing. Today was the day that all of the projects were due for capital projects for the Capital Improvement Program, and the schedule of workshops is attached here. The first workshop is going to be on Thursday, October 15th, when I hope to have a draft, the first draft. As you know, the CIP is a process that takes months. We start in October. We finish next May. So we'll have a number of drafts before we're done. But it is a council process, but it is hosted by the Finance Committee. So the Finance Committee will be the host of these workshops. They're great. Attend them. We love it. Maybe not as much fun, however, as the Fire Department Open House, which is this Wednesday, 4 to 7 p.m. I encourage anyone with children to go over there. It's at the Emerson Station. There's popcorn and hot dogs. Need I say more? So then the other thing I put in this manager's report is just a general update. And one of the things that we've been doing is getting this packet out a week early. And I struggle with the manager's report a week early. I really do, because I have a hard time thinking of what should I put in this. Yes. And it's just hard. So I'm going to start doing this. I'm going to start just telling you about other things in the meeting that might be of interest. And in some ways, I'd like people just to know things that are going on that may not be on your project list. The council has access to the major projects through a project list online. But these are some other things that maybe aren't on there. So first, Stephen Drive neighborhood. There was a Stephen Drive neighborhood meeting. So Stephen Drive is that connector from Garnett Road to Thomas Point Road that has been designed. The plans are at 60%. And on September 23rd, staff invited the neighborhood to come. We sent out postcards to everyone in the area to come to this meeting and go over the designs. And so people could look at the plans at that time, and provide feedback. So the next steps are to complete the design. I will say that I've heard that I saw the meeting, I attended it, and it went very well. People were... I know Council Ellis was there. It was well-received, and the staff got good feedback that we were on the right track. So the next step is to complete the design and the right-of-way and property acquisition, because the town will take over that, will own that, will be a public road, what is now a private road. We would then obviously be coming to the town council for financing approval, of the project and financing. It's proposed to be applying for a business partnership initiative grant through Maine DOT and bond authorization with the debt service to be paid by TIF revenues. So that's the proposal that would be coming to the council probably in November. And, of course, then going through the process with the planning department of the development approval and all of that. Lots of issues were raised around Thomas Point Road. Staff is extremely aware of that. It is a very challenging situation, the walking as well as the intersection with Bath Road. And so the plan would be when the Stephen Drive extension is completed, that intersection at Bath Road would be right in and right out only. So you wouldn't be able to turn left coming out of Thomas Point Road. So that's just the 30,000-foot view. You so next at your last meeting we talked about tax acquired properties. I did check in with the town attorney about what the process would be, and I'm asking the Conservation Commission and the environmental planner to take a look at those parcels. The process would be if the council wants to conserve that property, the town council would decide to retain them, the those parcels, whichever of them, get appraisals of those and then pay the original owner. And then the choice could be either to put a conservation easement on the property and then sell it, or just retain it and also put a conservation easement on it. But it would involve paying the original owner the appraised value. So that's – but I will have more after the Conservation Commission and the environmental planner have had a look at it. Next, Edwards Field parking. So we've heard from Pathway Vineyards that they are very doing well at renovating the former Regal Cinema. And they plan to be in December by Christmas. And so that means that the two Columbus will be available for the town. And that definitely means that we can do the Edwards Field parking lot next summer. And so we're planning to set up a neighborhood meeting around that in November, and construction would be in the summer. But there have been plans drawn, and obviously without the Parks Division having to be located there, much more of the area can be used for parking. Tell me if you're sick of this. All right. I'll try to be quick. A couple more things. I'm not sure if people are aware of what's happening with our closed landfill. We forget that we have a closed landfill after a while. It was closed in 2022, and we're doing ongoing monitoring and permit. We have permit requirements that go on for forever. We're currently working on a renewal of our discharge charge permit with DEP. This is pretty standard. It was a permit we had, and we are working on the renewal. We're also working on a leachate management plan to comply with the administrative consent order that was signed at the time of the landfill was closed. And this is to build a system to haul the leachate away as opposed to have it go into those lagoons that are there. So it's just one of those things that people probably don't think about, but it is a project that is ongoing for the town. Also environmental. So the Navy is doing a lot of PFAS testing, and they've contacted us about three different types of tests on town property. One, drinking water. They're testing a lot of wells outside the Brunswick Landing, and they tested the well at Mary Meading Park, which if you remember, that was the Ormsby property, and there's a cabin, a house there. They told us, we haven't seen the results yet, I'm waiting for those, they said there are trace amounts of PFAS, but it's okay to drink, so it's well below the four parts per trillion limit. They're also doing a soil background study. Well, they're doing a lot of soil sampling, but they're doing a background study, and they're sampling soil on town commons and on the town's property that is on the Brunswick Landing side of Harpswell Road, And those are meant to provide some background data that can be compared to the actual data that they get at the hot sites on Brunswick Landing. And finally, game animals. I don't know if you remember, but there were some testing done on not-town property. They contacted us and asked if they could test sample deer and turkeys. And they were doing that. We're hoping, we think they should be done, and we're waiting for, they did that on Kate Furbish and on McCoy Woods. And they're waiting for results. And then, of course, what the recommendation is. So IFNW works with the CDC to determine what sort of recommendation to make to the public about that. And the only other thing that's on my mind is the auditors arrived in town today. They started at the school department, and they'll be here for two weeks. So this is a fun time for our finance department. And that's all I have. [1:37:13] Council Chair (presiding officer): Questions? We'll start with Councilor Anderson. I'll do some jumping back and forth. [1:37:17] Councilor (committee interviews report): Is there an update on the Samard contract? [1:37:21] Town Manager: Yes. So we did renegotiate the Samard contract. Contract. The total contract was $826,000. We negotiated so that we paid 70% of that and we retained the ownership of all the equipment that was purchased under that. So that was how that ended up. We ended up paying 70% of the total and we're retaining all the tanks and the pumps and we've purchased a couple of containers that we could put some of this equipment in so that's how that ended up. [1:38:06] Council Chair (presiding officer): Counselor Timmy and then I'll go back. [1:38:09] Councilor (Senior Health Expo / labor strike resolution): Well now I only have one thing to ask about. I wanted just to clarify about we were just hearing about the signs. How wide is the right-of-way just so that people know if they see a sign near the road whether that sign is definitely not compliant or could be compliant if it's like on private property. That's a very good question I [1:38:32] Town Manager: asked it myself this morning and the answer was it depends. I love that. So I was in Cook's Corner and noticed a number of signs in a in a strip that was along a private property and when we looked at the map yes half you know only part of it. It really depends on where you are. But if you do see along sort of vacant parcels that don't have an obvious business or something like that, probably is not okay. Certainly anybody who does put their sign on someone's property is supposed to get information. I will say that town staff wants to hear about the worst offenders because our staff isn't out and about all the time and doesn't see it. So at least a call, phone call, would be good about if there's something particular. And I wrote notes about some of those. [1:39:33] Councilor (Senior Health Expo / labor strike resolution): And could you also give a reminder on what the fines are for repeat offenders on that? [1:39:39] Town Manager: Oh, I don't have that off the top of my head. Oh, we'd have to look that up. Do you know? You probably do. [1:39:45] Councilor (Senior Health Expo / labor strike resolution): I don't, but they exist. So heads up. [1:39:51] Steve Walker, 900 River Road (public commenter): Counselor Ecker yes a quick question on the game animal testing boy the sound was really yeah it really throws you off a sound wall any idea when the results will be released and if and w will make a determination so their goal was before the [1:40:11] Town Manager: hunting season gets going to be sure to do that. I was hoping it would be this week that we would hear something so I'm I will follow up with them. Yeah some hunting has already begun so [1:40:24] Steve Walker, 900 River Road (public commenter): I'm curious. All right great thank you Counselor Ellis on two of the topics that you brought up [1:40:30] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): On the first one, the easiest would be the Edwards Field, the parking limitations that are there. It was Jordan Avenue where we put no parking. Is that correct? Yes, because I received a complaint from a constituent who was a coach who parked, they describe it as at Edwards Field, but they were ticketed. They're not ticketing in Edwards Field. My presumption was he probably parked on Jordan Avenue and walked into Edwards Field. But we're not ticketing within the confines of Edwards Field itself. [1:41:04] Town Manager: Maybe overnight, but not during the day. Or we are? Oh, well, that's why we have Jay at the back there. Okay. [1:41:18] Jay Astle, Assistant Town Manager: Good evening, Jay. Wow, look at that sound. Isn't that neat? I tested it out the other day. I kind of knew. Jay Astle, assistant town manager. I asked that same question having kids that play soccer. I'm at Edwards quite a bit. So they were ticketing inside Edwards Field where it was clearly marked no parking by Parks and Rec staff. If you're not familiar with Edwards, this might not make sense. But the area is right adjacent to the maintenance building that staff that work seven days a week. so they work on the weekends need to get access in and out of the building so they put no parking signs it routinely happens on saturdays and sundays where people ignore those signs drive past them park in amongst the equipment the trucks the building so yes pd has been in there ticketing those vehicles so i'm not saying that 's the case with your yeah your coach [1:42:11] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): friend, but you've given me information that he's cc'ing me. I can reach back out to him with accurate understanding. The second issue I had was related to the Stevens Drive you raised and I've received this from multiple constituents and quite frankly I thought it was a good idea as well. I know you and I had talked about it but I know that the Stevens Drive is a year or two off from actually happening and so the head of Thomas Point Road is still problematic but I've had multiple people now approach me with putting limitations on the Gurnett Road turning right onto Bath Road towards Walmart and requesting that it be changed and the way they described it, doesn't cost much to put a sign, no right turn on red, and so I don't know if we're looking at a solution or... [1:43:00] Jay Astle, Assistant Town Manager: Yes? Welcome back. You again. I was just waiting for you to finish, yeah. Yeah, we've talked to DOT about that, restricting the right turn on red coming northbound on Gurnet Road to be able to create breaks in traffic for people on Thomas Point Road to take a left on to Bath Road and also talking about the right in right out on to From Bath Road on to Thomas Point Road. So yeah, it'll be in conjunction with the Stephen Drive project. I'm not sure about the timing of those In relation to the actual construction of Stephen Drive, but yes, we have talked to DOT about that. [1:43:35] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): I got the sense that the right turn on red Was something that the two people who had suggested to me were not comfortable waiting two years to have that. [1:43:43] Jay Astle, Assistant Town Manager: That's not a two-year project. [1:43:45] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): And then the other thing with that one, and this was an odd question, and I disagreed with them on this, but you're saying it'll be right turn on red eventually. Is that theoretically today considered to be two lanes at the top of that? Because people stage up in two lanes, but the complaint was some people turning left are actually in the right lane, and there's no line painted in the road there. And so maybe if we got a bucket of paint and painted a line, we could solve that situation. But my contention is I'm not sure it's supposed to be two lanes. I think it might be one lane there. That's a great question. [1:44:18] Jay Astle, Assistant Town Manager: I know that mouth is a little bit wider, and so it might look like it's two lanes, or it could actually be two very narrow lanes, one for the left turn and one for the slip lane for the right turn. [1:44:30] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): So there was a lack of clarity there. And I would say that just, again, my personal preference, if it is two, getting a pickup truck on the right-hand side of you, 're weighted because you can't see over the truck to see what's coming from Walmart. Martin so that was the other piece of clarity on those two points that again I've received correspondence from people this past week on did. [1:44:51] Council Chair (presiding officer): You have a follow-up question for the assistant. [1:44:53] Councilor (Brunswick Landing liaison): I was also going to say I think there's a lot of I'm going back to Jordan Avenue but people parking on Jordan Avenue during games at Edward Field I they are definitely parking in no parking areas on Jordan Avenue the Jordan Avenue parking restrictions is that we recently passed in the past year or so that was for during school hours weekdays monday through friday so eight to four you can't park on jordan but on weekends you can on the right side but we have people parking on the left side or. Just all places but where they should be, so there may be that too. And so if you hear from others, they're, and I don't know if it sounds like PD's showing up a little [1:45:36] Jay Astle, Assistant Town Manager: little bit now. Okay, on Jordan Avenue, yeah, they've actually gotten out of their cruisers, walked into Edwards Field, walked down to the soccer fields, and walked up and down the sidelines informing people that they're going to be ticketing. The worst offenders on Jordan Ave are those people that park in and clearly sign no parking areas that on Jordan Ave that obstruct the view of people exiting from Edwards Field. It's very difficult to see even in the best conditions, but when you've got cars parked right up to that intersection, it's really unsafe and difficult to exit. Any [1:46:12] Council Chair (presiding officer): further questions about the manager's report before I continue us on here? Not seeing any, you're relieved to head to the back, assistant town manager. Okay, so is that the end of your report? Perfect. So moving on to public hearings, item number 115, the town Council will hear public comments on both a junkyard and an automobile graveyard license and will take any appropriate action. I'm going to open the public hearing and I'm going to turn this over to Town Clerk to introduce the item. [1:46:41] Town Clerk: I'm sure. This is an annual renewal for a junkyard and an automobile graveyard for Brunswick Auto Recycling, which is on 117 Bath Road. It was inspected by our Marine officer and it passed that inspection. We haven't had any complaints that I'm aware of. So we are in support of the council moving forward with this renewal. [1:47:07] Council Chair (presiding officer): Are there any questions of council? Not seeing any questions, I'll open the floor to public comment. If you wish to speak on this item, say your name, town of residence, pronouns if you'd like, and three minutes to speak. Is there anybody in the room that would like to speak about this? Anybody on Zoom? And go once, go twice. Okay. I'm going to officially close the public hearing and bring it back to counsel for a motion. [1:47:40] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): Counselor Ellis. I wasn't doing the motion. I had a question. [1:47:45] Council Chair (presiding officer): You can do your question, and then we can do the motion. [1:47:47] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): I really appreciate the feedback you gave on how you staged that up and talked about no complaints and what have you. With other ones, and we have another one within the consent agenda, is that something normally that if you had complaints, you would have included? [1:48:01] Town Clerk: The consent agenda, I thought, was the special event, special amusement. Okay. But what I will say is the reason that this was required to have a public hearing is that state statute, which is different. As you may have remembered, at the beginning of the year, we made some changes so that we wouldn't have to go to public hearing for renewals on special amusements and things. [1:48:25] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): Okay, but if we and I remember this from decades ago when we maybe had some bars on Main Street that weren't as [1:48:32] Town Clerk: Yeah, anytime if we were to have situations where because we get a special amusement. Which I know this isn't special music. But if we were to get complaints or the police chief decided that wasn't proper, we would, we would request a public hearing and we would bring it forward that way. But because we have in the past, but again, this was about the automobiles. [1:48:54] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): So we would know in advance of voting. Absolutely. Thank you. [1:48:58] Council Chair (presiding officer): I will entertain a motion now. Is there somebody that would like to make a motion? [1:49:03] Councilor (Brunswick Landing liaison): Councillor Hicks move, I move to approve the license for a junkyard and automobile graveyard license for Brunswick Auto Recycling LLC. [1:49:11] Council Chair (presiding officer): Motion by councillor Hicks. Is there a second? Second by councillor Ecker. Any further discussion on the motion? Not seeing any, I'll call the vote. Councillor Ellis. Yes. Councillor Ecker. Yes. Councillor Anderson. Yes. Councillor Peral. Yes. Councillor Hicks. Yes. Councillor Teemee. Yes. Councillor Weems. Yes. Councillor Wilson. Yes. The chair is a yes. That is unanimous of the council. The motion passes. Moving on to new business, item number 116. The town council will consider setting a public hearing on October 19th, 2026 for a proposed contract zoning application and will take any appropriate action. I'm going to turn this over to the development director, Ertman enters the item. Good evening. [1:49:56] Town Planner / Planning staff (contract zoning): Section 5.2.13 of the zoning ordinance recognizes that traditional zoning methods and procedures may occasionally be inadequate to promote desirable development. In these situations, contract zoning provides a more flexible and adaptable zoning method that can accommodate appropriate development that benefits the public. Contract zoning is permitted only when the Town Council finds that it is necessary or appropriate to impose, by agreement with the property owner, certain conditions or restrictions to ensure that the rezoning is consistent with the Town's Comprehensive Plan. 53 Main Associates LLC has submitted a contract zoning application for the project known as the J at 53-69 Main Street. The purpose of the application is to seek parking relief for the proposed mixed-use redevelopment of the property. The redevelopment is also the subject of a separate development review application. The applicant has completed sketch plan review and has recently submitted her final plan review of the project, which the Planning Board will not review until and unless the contract zone is approved by the Council. The Village Review Board has approved the demolition of the existing structures and has recommended approval of the current building design. The Main Street overlay adopted by the Town Council on September 8th did not include a reduction to the existing off-street parking requirements as originally proposed. Accordingly, approval of the contract zoning application is necessary to provide the requested parking relief and allow the redevelopment to proceed. The proposed contract zoning agreement would reduce the required number of off-street parking spaces from 87 to 41. That's a difference of 46 spaces. I heard earlier today that News Center Maine had reported that the town is considering removing 46 parking spaces from Main Street. This is not true. The proposed spaces would be located within a parking garage reserved for the residential component of the development. And those 46 spaces make up the difference between what the ordinance requires for off-street parking spaces and what the applicant is pretending, intending to provide, not pretending. According to the applicant, the garage could accommodate up to 74 spaces through the future installation of parking lifts if additional residential parking is warranted by demand. Parking associated with the commercial uses would generally be accommodated through nearby on-street parking, public parking lots, and other public available parking. The subject properties are located within the town's designated growth area, which encourages reinvestment in areas of concentrated growth where space and infrastructure capacity exist to support growth objectives, and where orderly development can complement the surrounding context. The comprehensive plan also identifies the downtown town center as a key area for targeted improvements that can support denser housing, revitalization, and infill opportunities on underutilized properties. The proposed parking reduction would support these comprehensive plan strategies by allowing the site to accommodate higher density mixed-use development, active commercial street frontage, and a building design that complements the surrounding downtown. town. Requiring additional on-site parking could limit the site's ability to achieve these objectives by dedicating a greater portion of the property to parking rather than active residential and commercial uses. The proposal would also advance the vision for Main Street as a major mixed-use street and shopfront street by supporting a building located close to the street, parking situated away from pedestrian ways, and a pedestrian-oriented environment for shopping,, gathering, and socializing. The proposed contract zone would balance these broader planning objectives with the project's immediate parking needs while preserving the ability to provide additional parking through parking lifts if warranted by future demand. For these reasons, staff finds that the proposed contract zone is consistent with the applicable goals and strategies of the comprehensive plan. The planning board reviewed the contract zoning application on September 22nd and voted unanimously to recommend approval of the zoning request by the Town Council based on the following three factors. One, that the project is consistent with the comprehensive plan. Two, that the project is consistent with but not limited to the existing uses and allowed uses within the original zone. And three, the project is subject to conditions sufficient to achieve the purposes described in Section 5.2.13 of the Zoning Ordinance, which essentially is to provide a desirable development while protecting the best interests of the town and its residents. I will note as I did during the contract zoning workshop that the replacement of this portion of the sidewalk along Main Street was placed on hold in anticipation of the redevelopment of this property. Town staff have had discussions with the applicant regarding cost of the replacement sidewalk and feel it is appropriate for the town to pay for the portion of the sidewalk that the town had already planned to replace. Additional expenses such as widening the sidewalk to create parallel parking should be borne by the applicant. These are details that should also be included as part of the contract zoning agreement. Lastly, in considering a change in zoning classification, the town council may determine that public necessity, convenience, or the general welfare require the imposition of certain limitations or restrictions on the use or development of the property. Such conditions may be deemed necessary to protect the best interests of the property owner, surrounding property owners, the neighborhood, and all other property owners and residents of the town and to ensure appropriate development consistent with the town's comprehensive plan. Any conditions or restrictions imposed may relate only to the physical development and operation of the property. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to the J for their presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions when that's complete. Thank you. Thank you. [1:56:19] Planning/Development staff presenter (condo project): Thank you, Julie. Thank you, Chair. Wow, that is loud. Wait a moment for it to start. I think we've all heard this at least once before, so I'll try to keep it a little bit briefer than normal, but feel free to jump in if there are any questions or something you want elaborate it on more. Next slide please. Tonight we're gonna briefly go over who the project team is, how this project fits into consistency within the town plans, and we're gonna look at kind of what the ask is for the contract zone as well as what the benefits are for the contract zone, and then obviously at the end would be happy to take any questions. Next slide please. And actually you can just skip the next one as well. Perfect. The J is a team working with Dave Holman, who's the owner and representative here tonight for 53 Maine Associates. It's a group that really focuses on energy efficiency, kind of placemaking within a community, and then fitting into the community. So it's something that has kind of driven their projects throughout what they've done to date, and it's continuing with this project. So myself, I'm Ryan Barnes with LJB Engineering. We're the civil site permitter on the project. We have Archetype Architects with Catherine Lamont and Bill Hopkins on the team, who really are the ones who were kind of bringing together the vision of the downtown and for landscaping. We have Dry LA who are assisting us with looking at what that vision will be to incorporate the Future Streetscape project within our project to make sure that they are compatible. Next slide, please. So the proposed project is 34 residential units. It's a mix of one, two, and three bedroom units. We'll go over that a little bit more moving forward. It's got roughly nine hundred, nine thousand nine hundred square feet of commercial space on the first floor. The full footprint of the building is around sixteen thousand square feet. The remaining land or remaining property is shared use is for the residential, so there'll be atrium space, trash space, those sorts of things. So that's why the commercial space is not equal to that full first floor is that a large chunk of that property is being utilized as kind of shared space for the residential component. Next slide, please. So just kind of stepping through how this kind of fits into other plannings and studies that have been done. The town's always been very good about studying things and usually pretty good about implementing them too. So we wanted to take a kind of a quick step through what's been done, and where we're moving from there. So next slide, please. So in 2001, the town did a parking study. The results of that parking study was that there was adequate parking downtown. There should be better parking management. What came out of that was that shorter-term parking was introduced, most of it in the form of two-hour parking. It helped turn over businesses more. It helped get people who were parking there that were employees to start parking elsewhere, like in the town lot. And it really helped increase the amount of parking that was available during the peak hours. Fast forward to 2025, the town hired T.Y. Lin to do a parking study. Again, that study found that there was adequate parking. It, again, encouraged improvement of parking management. In this case, they're actually recommending some zones of one-hour parking and some areas with drop-off zones, so that if you have someone that's mobility challenged, they could be dropped off adjacent to the commercial property or to a business, and they wouldn't have to walk two blocks to get there. But then whoever's with them and who's dropping them off could circle back and park somewhere that is a little bit further away. So it would help kind of bring everybody downtown, or at least give them access to it. I will say that study in the area that they incorporated did indicate that there were over 300 surplus parking spaces in the downtown. town. Again, we're looking for a reduction from 87 to 41. The one thing I will say, you'll see some numbers I quote later that are related to what we did for just a quick assessment of the parking in the area. We are only looking at the area within 1,000 feet of the building, whereas that parking study included a larger area. So that's why you might see some discrepancies in the numbers we're presenting, but we're presenting them based on zoning ordinance. Next slide, please. So the master plan for downtown and Outer Pleasant Street was a feasibility study that was done to try to encourage development and walkability in the downtown. What came out of that as far as parking and businesses go is that they had a vision for feasibility of shared parking downtown. And it also recommended that the town pursue funding opportunities through state and federal funds to try to build additional funding downtown. So they recognized that wasn't a cost that could be solely borne by the businesses. Next slide, please. The 2024 Climate Action Plan recommended revising the zoning ordinance to reduce both the minimum and maximum parking requirements for developments. So essentially sliding the entire scale down. So less parking for the minimums and for the maximum. So you can't essentially design a lot to be over parked. So people who design an extra 50% for snow storage or once-a-year events would be discouraged from doing so. They would be looking at alternative methods. Next slide, please. Also out of the Climate Action Plan, it recommended prioritizing transit and active transportation in the downtown. We definitely encourage that as well. It encouraged higher density of housing in the downtown, especially near transit stops. Again, we encourage that as well. And it encouraged mixed-use development, which we are. Next slide, please. One Brunswick beautifully balanced, the comprehensive plan. Under the housing section, it recommends eliminating excessive parking requirements, particularly within the downtown areas and areas close to transit. It. And in the transportation section of that document, it says that they should improve parking downtown, but at the same time also mentions developing the surface lots into mixed-use developments. So it's improving it through parking management, not just by making more parking. Next slide, please. So Julie did a very good job of explaining what a contract zone is, and I'm glad she did because I wouldn't have done that well. But I'm going to kind of break it down into two pieces, kind of what the ask is and then what the benefits of that are. Next slide, please. So as I previously mentioned, this has 34 dwelling units. Of those, 14 of them are one bedroom and 20 of them are two and three bedroom units. What that means is that in order to meet the ordinance, we would have to accommodate 54 parking spaces on the site. The commercial portion of the site is roughly 9,900 square feet, which would be about 33 parking spaces. So just from a perspective standpoint, as Julie said, we have 41 parking spaces designed for the parking garage. What are those? Are the surface spots. So on the concrete we have the ability to add lifts to those spaces as well, which means we could go up to 74 parking spaces, which would far exceed the 54 that are required. But we're planning to do that based on need, so that we're not over parking ourselves as well. And then so really what we're looking for reduction is really for the commercial, which is pretty common in downtowns throughout the state of Maine. Next slide, please. This is our parking reduction request information. I want to just clarify again that this is a different study area than was done for the TY Lynn study. So the TY Lynn study was a much bigger area. But what we found by counting parking spaces was that there are 550 parking spaces within a thousand feet of this building. There are two transit stops within a thousand feet and a third one that's just over the line. And then there are 20 plus bike racks currently in the streetscape, and we're encouraging installing more of them along this frontage as well, because we understand that those are really good for businesses, especially as things like the Jordan Avenue project and other projects help make it easier for people to start funneling into downtown using active transportation. So that's the ask. Going into the why and the benefits is the next step. So the why, next slide, please. We looked at what it would take to actually fit 80 parking spaces on this site. So the site itself is about half an acre, just under, and the gray box that you see drawn in here represents 40 parking spaces. So even if we use the entire site for parking, we couldn't fit the 87 parking spaces on it. In fact, if you go to the next slide, that 40 spaces disregards the setback that is required of 20 feet from the property line for parking in the downtown. town. So really you can only fit 20 parking spaces on this lot, full build. What the applicant is proposing is to put all the parking underneath, maximizing the footprint, maximizing what is possible, because obviously a parking lot downtown is not the highest and best use of a downtown proximity, especially one that's a gateway to the community. Next slide, please. So the next thing that makes things more challenging here, this site is contaminated. It's a former gas station. It's a former dry cleaner. We definitely agree with the gentleman earlier that there is contamination there. It's not a question of maybe. We know it. We've tested it. We're currently working with Midcoast Council of Governments, MCOG, through their engineer, Sivian Mahar, to do the phase one and phase two ESA studies for the site. Those are environmental site assessments. Once those are complete, we'll have a better picture of what the materials are that we have on site, but based on what we've seen so far, what this is going to require is hauling off the material that we excavate, so basically everything we dig up is going to have to go somewhere else, and they'll have to go to a licensed landfill. So it will get cleaned up, it will follow EPA standards, it'll follow DEP standards, and it will be following the voluntary response action program, which is the VRAT that he was referring to, so we're definitely on top of that. And I should point out that in this case, it's kind of great for the town. He advocated for hiring a separate engineering firm. Stephen Mahar is working for MCOG. So they are independent on this. It's not the original environmental engineer that we had assessed the property to begin with. So it's just there have now been two environmental engineers on the site. And they both think the same thing. So essentially, it's a quarter acre lot. I said half an acre before, but it's about a quarter acre lot. We've got to dig down 16 feet. It's roughly 10,000 cubic yards of material or roughly 700 dump truck loads of material that have to be hauled off of this site, which will likely cost somewhere around $1.4 million. So that's a big chunk to begin with. Before we even start thinking about going vertical, we've got to go down, and that cost is pretty substantial. Next slide, please. The applicant has been very upfront and has been working with the community. One of the things that we knew even before we started on this project, before we even talked to the town, was that there were SWIFTs there. We know that because we know that they relocated to this location during a failed relocation or attempted relocation of them previously. So, what we're proposing and what we're doing is working with Mr. Walker and several people at IFNW to try to figure out the most appropriate solution. We are going to follow all the recommendations from IFNW on both the capping and demolition of the facility. And then we're looking at alternatives. So, possible alternatives would be trying to extend or raise the chimney at 90 Main Street, which is kind of kitty corner across the street from this parcel, also owned by the applicant, or potentially refurbish the chimney that failed previously. What happened is the existing chimney was built with CMU block on the inside. It was supposed to be brick-lined. That got cut. The brick lining is apparently what the Swift's like. So they decided they didn't want to go there, and they moved to this chimney. Next slide, please. please. So what you see in front of you is a conceptual sketch of what this building with the town streetscape project could look like. The major difference between this and what the town streetscape originally was that we have gone to parallel parking. The reason for that being is safety. Even with the current stop configuration that's there now, it's a fairly unsafe place to try to back into traffic and move. Once it becomes signalized, it's going to be a very unsafe place to do it, so we're trying to accommodate that. It's similar to what the town is already doing on the Lamont block. Next slide, please. Consistency with the comp plan. Top left hand corner is the parcel at 7-Eleven or across from it, and what you'll see is that the building was originally, or the comp plan was envisioning fifth floor. It was envisioning full infill, so it was envisioning the entire parcel being utilized for the structure without parking. This way this one's drawn, it doesn't look like it actually includes the parking garage, but we can assume that they would have had to have done something underneath. And then the picture on the right hand side is a picture of the J, or a rendering of the J incorporated into the downtown, and you can see that it very much blends into what that comp plan was having with it. And then if we go to the next slide, this shows the J on the left-hand side this time, so again we're trying to, but the architect has done a great job of kind of mimicking what's going on in both directions, so it's trying to create that gateway. So from the other direction you saw a pitched roof to match the bank. In this direction you see flat roof to match the flat roofs across the street, and you can see by scale, because of how wide that roadway is, that it doesn't look completely out of proportion to what's across the street. One thing that I don't have a slide on, unfortunately, because I did on my last presentation and I somehow left it out of this one. Another benefit of this is going to be the tax revenue. The current parcels, both of them are assessed at $1.7 million based on the 2027 evaluation or revaluation, which generates roughly $23,000 annually. This one is anticipated to be somewhere between $25 and $35 million for a build, for an assessment, I should say, which will be about $340,000 to $500,000 a year in tax revenue. And again, that's for somewhere between a third and a quarter of an acre. So you're looking at close to $2 million per acre for tax revenue for that lot. That's really high rent, and that's a really good use for that property. I don't usually like talking about the taxes, but it is a strong benefit. So next slide, please. So again, the ask is a parking reduction. The benefit is the remediation of the soils, because a lot of times people just walk away from these brownfield sites and the communities get stuck handling them. So city of Portland, Lewiston, Biddeford, all of the old mill towns are dealing with us every day. Economic benefit we just talked about. Working with the Swifts, or the Swifties, as we've come fondly to refer to them as, until we realized that there was another group named that. Consistency with the plans of the town. Consistency with the streetscape and incorporation of the streetscape. And just creating a vibrant downtown gateway that really should be impressive. So with that, I'd be happy to take any questions. [2:12:56] Council Chair (presiding officer): Thank you so much. Sorry, we were talking about the TV over here. The color is completely different than this one. Thank you for your presentation. Are there any questions of counsel? We'll start with Counselor Peral. [2:13:10] Councilor (Brunswick Landing liaison): So just talking about the underground parking right now. If we tried to have the number of parking spots for the number of possible adults in the room from the 14 single units and then the 22 plus three bedroom units. You said like that would be 54. [2:13:41] Planning/Development staff presenter (condo project): Based on ordinance, yes. [2:13:43] Councilor (Brunswick Landing liaison): Including the lifts and so 41 without the lifts. So who is, does the developer still own that portion of the building? Like someday if somebody decides they want to lift because they need a second car for their unit, like how does that happen after the fact? [2:14:03] Planning/Development staff presenter (condo project): So they're still working through the HOA documents. We'll see if I've heard this enough times so Dave doesn't have to come up, but he's coming up anyway. So each of the individual spaces will be essentially a condo unit. They'll be able to purchase them. They'll all be equipped for both EV and lift potential. potential and then that way it would be modular and be able to be done in the future if they chose [2:14:24] Councilor (Brunswick Landing liaison): To but so they would do that through the HOA, they would own the spot, right? But you're not just going to let somebody bring in their own lift, like how, who's going to be responsible, like for making sure that the lift is proper for that space? I'm just curious, like you're not going to want like, out of the 20 units, if all 20 of them decided a different time to bring in a lift, it could be 20 different lifts, potentially. I don't know how many lift companies are out there. So, just curious. [2:14:57] Planning/Development staff presenter (condo project): Not that many, actually, but Dave? [2:14:59] Dave Holman, developer: Dave Holman, developer. It's a good question, Corey. I hadn't honestly thought about that. But it strikes me that we'd want to allow the HOA to approve any sort of capital infrastructure that's going in there that's significant like that. I don't see why someone wouldn't – there's not many companies that do these, and the one we're using is kind of the best in class or most reliable. So I assume most people, if they don't get one in the first sort of sale and then some later buyer wants to install one, they likely would get the same brand. But if not, I think it would make sense for the HOA to have authority to, you know, veto if someone wants something that could be bumping a neighbor's vehicle or not a good fit. [2:15:47] Councilor (Brunswick Landing liaison): Yeah, it's a good idea. Okay. So then two other things. One was one of the renderings, and it could be I'm just not seeing it properly. It looked like there were parking spots behind the building. [2:16:03] Dave Holman, developer: They belong to the neighbor. [2:16:05] Councilor (Brunswick Landing liaison): Yeah, oh okay, there's that, so that's the property line, okay, so that answer is that, and then my other, it's a, it's a comment about if the 41 spots are the only spots under there and people are moving in and maybe not getting their lifts immediately, that again we'll, we'll have to agree to totally disagree about your assessment about the parking, but what I'm thinking about for a two-car family, if they only have one car in the parking garage and have to take on street parking, that might be okay during the week, but on the weekends when downtown is excruciatingly hard to find a parking spot, their car would be taking up some sort of space, that extra car, the a second car that's not accommodated by the underground, so I just feel, I want you to know I love the project, I like, very supportive of it, I would feel so much better about being able to sell it to people if all of the units had enough parking like when they moved in underground, I'm not so worried about the commercial thing because That's not really in my mind. That's not your responsibility to do that. We have a parking issue in downtown that, you know, we as a community need to take care of. But the residential piece, where those are different, that's somebody's car is going to be sitting there. Like if they're like me and don't go anywhere on the weekend, their car is going to be sitting there for 48 hours until Monday morning, taking up valuable parking spots from other people wanting to come down. So that would be my only thing. Like I just, I have a feeling when we have the public hearing, parking is going to, like, you know, people saying that parking is a real issue downtown is going to be the biggest thing that we have to overcome. And so that would be my only thing, is if we actually had enough parking spaces, you know, when people moved in, that would make me feel really, you know, but I, again, I'm, I am supportive of this. So I don't want you to think that I'm not. It concerns me if the residents don't have adequate parking to begin with. [2:18:26] Planning/Development staff presenter (condo project): Yeah, and with the margin on housing, we're trying to just kind of minimize what the upfront costs are, knowing that some of these units may not even have a vehicle. So we're just trying to kind of build best suit, best fit. And just to clarify, it's not my study you're disagreeing with. It's the town study, T.Y. Lynn, not L.J.B. [2:18:45] Council Chair (presiding officer): So just heard, continuing on the question train, we'll go to Councillor Timmy, and then I'll bounce back to this setting. I'm trying to go back and forth. So I think my question is actually for [2:18:56] Councilor (Senior Health Expo / labor strike resolution): Director Erdman, it's just procedurally about contract zoning, and I think I know the answer, but I want to make sure. Our job as the council right now is to basically determine whether the exception is compliant or in line with the comprehensive plan. Is that right? That should be our goal in making this decision? [2:19:23] Town Planner / Planning staff (contract zoning): And that you feel that this is a desirable development that the town wants to support. And also, I just lost my train of thought. Also, if there are any other conditions or anything that you want to add to the project, to the contract, you have a draft contract in your packet, if there is other language that you want to see as a [2:19:57] Councilor (Senior Health Expo / labor strike resolution): Part of that should be suggested as well, so the overall benefits of the project, or benefits and drawbacks of the project, are within scope of our consideration as well. It's not like just the narrow vision of the parking impact that is being, you know, is why we are here talking about this right now. Correct? Thank you, Counselor Ecker. Yes, thank you. First question. [2:20:27] Steve Walker, 900 River Road (public commenter): For Mr. Barnes, one of the tables that you show, I'm just curious about this footnote where you, we show 515 available public off-street parking places, but then there's a footnote that says it increases by 174 spaces using available after-hours parking. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? [2:20:50] Planning/Development staff presenter (condo project): Absolutely, and I apologize. I was trying to be brief. So essentially what it is, that includes like CEI, the bank, other public lots that are allowed for use after hours for the other businesses. So there are certain businesses that have already made that available to people, so that's what that $175,000 is to. And there's a map of that in the town's webpage for parking downtown. [2:21:13] Steve Walker, 900 River Road (public commenter): Great. I didn't realize that. That's great. Yep. Then if I could just switch, I think it's to Director Erdman or probably to the town manager, on just two other questions. And maybe I missed something along the way here, but the T.Y. Lynn study from October, are we working through an implementation plan of their recommendations? Does anybody have an update on that? [2:21:42] Councilor (Brunswick Landing liaison): So we have been. [2:21:44] Town Manager: Sometimes some of the recommendations are things like paid parking downtown, so I bring it up, but then I take it away again because I see people shake their heads, so I won't say that we're actively working up. I [2:22:02] Town Planner / Planning staff (contract zoning): think we were only recently, fairly recently made aware of the final plan, the final traffic study, so there are some changes in there that could be implemented as Ryan mentioned before, converting some of the two-hour parking to one-hour parking might provide some relief, so that's definitely something that we can look into. Yeah, it sounds [2:22:27] Steve Walker, 900 River Road (public commenter): pretty, it sounds like some of it is being implemented, if I mean one of the recommendations was to talk with private lots about using their parking after hours, so I guess parts of it being worked through, but it seems like a key to maybe alleviating in the short term or the medium term. [2:22:45] Town Planner / Planning staff (contract zoning): And I think that has been done occasionally. Okay. [2:22:49] Council Chair (presiding officer): And I'll say, too, just to throw in there that I know that it's been in conversation, at least with me and the town manager, about this particular issue around just, like, parking in general in the downtown area being kind of folded into the recode process around the comp plan. Because we know that there's adjustments that are happening downtown, so that would kind of be a ripe time to talk about some of those issues and make more adjustments. [2:23:13] Steve Walker, 900 River Road (public commenter): Yeah. Makes sense. And then the last question is about the sidewalks. I assume this is for the town manager. So I guess we're paying for half, they're paying for half, roughly. And since they're putting in new utilities and there's no activity at their street front that's not working yet, do you expect this to cost less than these other sections of sidewalk that we've done downtown? [2:23:47] Town Manager: I certainly expect them to cost less, not just because we'll be partnering with excavation and all of that, but also because one of the largest costs of our streetscape was maintaining access to active storefronts, and that will not be an issue at all. We won't have to have all the flaggers. We won't have to have sort of the conflict between pedestrians and construction. Maybe you can describe. I know you've described to me like how you'll do that. [2:24:23] Planning/Development staff presenter (condo project): Yeah, so the project will be phased so that it corresponds with obviously before we open, but it won't be right at the beginning of it because there's no point in putting a nice pretty sidewalk that we might break. So that's kind of like paint the house at the end situation. So the goal would be to time the opening of the sidewalk or the building of the sidewalk towards the end when we're doing the finish work on the building as well. I would guess, best estimate, that you're probably looking at a 20-plus percent decrease in cost by not having to deal with the businesses. I think that you're potentially even more than that without having to deal with the traffic and the flaggers. So at $600,000 a block that you've been paying, it's probably because of us working together and partnering, hopefully you can realize between $150,000 and $200,000 in savings for that section. Great. [2:25:15] Steve Walker, 900 River Road (public commenter): And last question, is this going to be a continuation of the old contract, or will this be bid as a new contract to do the sidewalks? [2:25:26] Town Manager: We would bid it out again. Great. Yeah. Great. Thank you. [2:25:30] Planning/Development staff presenter (condo project): And we'll have a contractor that has to take out 700 truckloads, so they might be the same person. And we'll be doing our utilities, so it might even work out better in that case. [2:25:44] Council Chair (presiding officer): Yep. Checking this side before I go back just because I'm bouncing back and forth. Did you have something, Councilor Hicks? Okay, Councilor Hicks, and then I'll go back on this side. [2:25:52] Councilor (Brunswick Landing liaison): I'm curious if the applicant would be open to the idea of allowing some of that commercial space to be used for a public use. And I don't have any specifics, but was it 9,900 square feet of commercial? And our town is facing, I think, a deficit in third spaces. And I wonder if that you would consider using or offering some of that commercial space as a public, as a community space of some sort that's managed by a nonprofit, but maybe provide a very low rent or some availability for arts, for music. Music we have a vibrant singer songwriter group, open mic musicians. I'm just noticing a lot of need for space. The building that you bought behind recently at Bolos that used to be a very good spot for musicians, so I don't know what this future is, but I just wanted to throw that out there and see if that might float a little bit as a public benefit. Yeah, no, I appreciate [2:27:10] Dave Holman, developer: that need and to clarify, I guess all those commercial spaces will be sold to small businesses, so we won't really control them or have the ability to, you know, manage them in the future. There's a community lounge that'll be in the residential part of the building, you know, that I can't think off the top of my head of how many people, you know, like per the fire department would fit in there, but it might be the kind of space that could host non-profits or community gatherings. That strikes me as a much sort of better fit than in one of the store front, you know, or commercial shops that are that's there. And in other buildings that we manage in town, we do host non-profit groups and things like that in spaces. We have a great conference room and Tops them that can fit like 50 people, so we've often done that for educational groups and that kind of thing. [2:28:07] Council Chair (presiding officer): Councillor Ellis, I know you had some questions over there. [2:28:10] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): I had to write them down because I'm getting older and I thought I'd forget them. And this is probably more geared towards staff. I was surprised to hear you talk about the Cabot lot because I don't know as to where I realize as a resident that part of that is theirs. And I will say, if you've ever tried to get into Dutchman's on a Saturday, the whole lot is a hot mess over there. But I didn't realize that part of it is the town of Brunswick right up front. There's a lot of reserve spots in there. But there is a map on our website that shows all of these things and so that spurred for me a question. There's a lot of the parking spots are listed as two hours and there are blue lines on the map. Touching on Cory's question, is that two hours all the time or is that until five o'clock at night and then people are parking their second car? On one of those spots, does anyone know? [2:28:59] Speaker P (unidentified): And if you don't, that's fine. We can, I believe it's it's daytime time, okay, right during business hours and later it's it's more open, okay, and then the one hour [2:29:12] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): impacts I would just caution on. We've got a vibrant restaurant population downtown that sometimes it's hard to get into a restaurant and certainly I'm not hurrying through a meal in an hour and so just considerations for that within the nature of businesses that we have there. And then the other comment, I know you've talked about the parallel parking and the rationale for that and some things that we don't control as far as the stop lights on that, but I will say I shared with you earlier I was looking at past minutes and articles and I distinctively remember counselors at the time trying to convince people that reverse back in parking here was going to be the way we should go with things and I'm just thinking I don't see any reverse back in parking so I'm supposing that didn't work. But so I don't want to go through [2:29:57] Speaker P (unidentified): that same, we did try it, yeah, that was very exciting and I don't think parallel will be on [2:30:04] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): that same regard, but again and I know that again this won't influence my vote to move this to the public hearing but lots of parking things and I think the project as a whole is again something I'm supportive of, particularly on the housing front. Other [2:30:22] Council Chair (presiding officer): questions that folks have before I entertain a motion? Not seeing any questions, as a reminder that while we're setting a public hearing we won't take public comment, we'll take public comment at the public hearing. So with that I will entertain a motion. Counselor Weems uses [2:30:46] Steve Walker, 900 River Road (public commenter): New sound system there we go get in on this game I moved to set a public hearing on October 19th 2026 for a proposed [2:30:56] Council Chair (presiding officer): contract zoning application motion by Counselor Weems seconded by Counselor Ecker are there any further discussions on this motion? Councillor Timmy. [2:31:08] Councilor (Senior Health Expo / labor strike resolution): So initially I was really just thinking about this from the comprehensive plan standpoint and I was looking at the same items that were on the slide show there actually which is the section B, housing, B.5 is eliminating excessive parking requirements specifically with the goal of housing density from what I was reading and then the other being area G which is about transportation is G13 and it's within the subheading safe and connected streets which states that it seeks opportunities to improve parking and wayfinding and I've been thinking a lot about this parking issue because you know you're hearing all these different things and I very much understand the benefits of reducing parking minimums when it comes to housing. But we're hearing also from a lot of people that they're having a hard time getting into downtown Brunswick. And I think that is really, for me, the key. The people who are having a hard time primarily with the parking in downtown Brunswick don't live in downtown Brunswick. They're coming to visit. They're coming to shop. They might live in Brunswick elsewhere. They might not live in Brunswick at all. But the things that they're coming to do in Brunswick that they need parking for are the commercial uses you know obviously because they don't live there so they don't need residential parking so I have a hard time with you know giving a pass for commercial space parking when we're you know creating all of this residential parking I'd feel much more comfortable giving a pass on residential parking and saying we still have the commercial parking because that feels like the type of parking that we are really at a loss for in downtown Brunswick and I understand that in G13 it also is talking about the potential redevelopment of lots but it's not necessarily talking about the redevelopment in a way that gets rid of parking on those lots. We've heard recently that there's been some discussion around a potential parking garage with housing above it. That's the sort of thing that you can do or like they're proposing under a development. So I really don't think that we should be eliminating parking that's used for commercial uses in downtown Brunswick because downtown Brunswick is like a destination main street. like people come here and need somewhere to put their car unfortunately as long as we don't have [2:33:46] Council Chair (presiding officer): better public transit so i suppose my own two cents into this conversation one i think the parallel parking situation i don't necessarily have an issue with especially because the bangor savings bank and share poon job like right across the street are all parallel parkings and they're in the same area yeah i'm looking at the map right now oh actually yeah there's only a few [2:34:09] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): I was thinking Frosty's. Yeah,. [2:34:11] Council Chair (presiding officer): No, the, yeah, next to Frosty's is, yeah. So all of those are parallel parking right beside it. So I don't feel like it would be out of place. I guess the, I was actually going to take a different tact than Councillor Teemee here, where I've lived downtown, and anyone that has a second car needs a place to put it, and you're not going to be putting it downtown because there's snow. snow. And when the snow bans happen, it's not a fun time. As a two-car household with a one-car spot, you have to get creative. And luckily, we were able to get creative with our property that we were renting because we had a very small car and a very small alcove that we could put it there, even though it wasn't really the parking spot and it worked out fine. But anyone that has a second car that is trying to park it that isn't a residential use, all of that is thrown out the window because of winter and winter is a long time here and there's lots of snow as we've all experienced and so putting a car in a residential area on public parking especially downtown isn't a sustainable living mechanism because it just you're gonna have to move your car to the lot over on which street is it cedar street cedar street i was like i can't remember off the top of my head and that is nowhere like I lived on Everett and there's no that's that's a journey that we're taking at you know one o'clock in the morning when we get the snow ban notification. So there's not a sustainable way for people who are living downtown to have a place to put their vehicle where a commercial person who is visiting can find a spot somewhere. It might not be the most convenient spot, it might not be a spot that is you know right where they want to be, but like I talk about the experience. I went down to the art festival that happened this summer unexpectedly. I did not get the memo that the big art festival was happening. And my partner and I were just like, we're going to go to brunch. And we went to Elevensy's, which is right downtown. And I was able to find parking within five minutes. And it was a 10-minute, 8-ish minute walk from my car to the restaurant where we were going. But, like, it was one of the biggest events that we have in town. and I was able to find a spot not without you know going up a couple down roads taking 10 minutes to find where I needed to go. So personally I don't have an issue with this application because I think that the residents of this building are going to have a really difficult time existing in this building if they don't have the ability to off street park because of the snow bands and that's just because I went through it for two and a half years and got to play the joy of that. Any further discussion i know we'll have a bigger discussion at public hearing but i just want to throw that out there not seeing any i'll call the vote counselor ellis yes counselor ecker yes counselor anderson yes counselor pearl yes counselor hicks yes counselor teamy no counselor weems yes counselor wilson yes the chair is a yes the motion passes eight to one we'll see you at the public hearing thank you everyone thank you item number 117 the town council will consider setting a public hearing on October 19th 2026 to adopt amendments to the general assistance maximums on an emergency and regular basis and will take any appropriate action [2:37:34] Town Manager: I'm going to turn this over the town manager. Thank you, Chair McDonald. So this is the annual adoption of the limits. This is something we do every year, and it requires setting a public hearing and holding a public hearing. So they're general assistance maximums, and so this is changes. Every year it follows probably inflation, and this is based on county, and it is estimated to be to relate to the cost of living. And this is the, there's the GA overall maximums, which is by the number of people persons in the household, and it basically establishes what can be distributed through general assistance. Assistance through the state program. So as you know, general assistance is a state program that is mandatory for the towns to administer, and so we have to follow the state laws. And one of these things is every year adopting the changes to the GA maximums. So this is a request for you to set a public hearing to do that. Director Crocker of Human Services will be here at the public hearing, but if you have any questions that I can't answer, I will happily relay them to her. [2:38:59] Council Chair (presiding officer): Thank you. Questions? Councillor Ellis. [2:39:02] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): We're listed in a county grouping of Cumberland County HMFA. Does anyone have an idea as to what HMFA stands for? [2:39:10] Council Chair (presiding officer): Cora? It's housing metro. It's something, it's like the area that we are. It's a housing area. It's how they can determine area meeting income. Okay. So it looks like an odd collection of places, not Portland is what it kind of looks like. Yeah. I'm trying to pull it up. I know. So we actually have our housing chair who's just entered the room. Do you know off the top of your head, and I'm going to put you on the spot, if you don't, that's okay, HMFA for a like area median income? Do you know what it's called? Why it's HMFA? No, you're not at the top again, just [2:39:45] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): curious because it does seem to be an odd collective of like Baldwin, Bridgeton, Brunswick, Harpswell, Harrison, Naples, New Gloucester, Poland. I mean, they're not necessarily geographically [2:39:54] Council Chair (presiding officer): close, but maybe they're more economically close. Housing metro fair market rent area. Yeah, HUD metro fair market. Yeah, but it was the HUD. Okay, they typically, so like if you were, I know this because I just went through this, the first time homebuyers program, the way that they bracketed out is like there is the Portland area, and then there is like the rest of us that are kind of in the orbit of Portland that but aren't necessarily Portland, and we kind of [2:40:25] Councilor (Edwards Field parking / Stevens Drive): Get bucketed together. And the reason for the question is, I mean, there's impact between that and the Portland one, which it's about a $300 difference per whichever category you fall in [2:40:36] Council Chair (presiding officer): Persons and households. So it's different. Yeah. Same thing with the first time homebuyers program. Like they have higher income limits in the Portland metro area because we know things are more expensive and they have higher housing limits because things are more expensive. Other questions. Sorry. I didn't mean to derail us. Councilor Tini. I think this is probably going [2:40:56] Councilor (Senior Health Expo / labor strike resolution): Going to be one of those questions to relay and we'll get at it in the public hearing but when I look at these numbers like at first of all at the top of the housing maximums page it says only consider adopting these numbers if these figures are consistent with local rent values then I scroll down to Cumberland County and I look under one bedroom and it says that like thirteen hundred dollars unheated or 1500 heated is the number and if I look on Zillow like most of the listings are like 1900 Or above for a one bedroom unit so I don't know exactly what consistent means it is true that you can go on Zillow and you can find a one there's I think there's three of them at $1,300. But to me, consistent sounds more like maybe not the average or the mean, but like where you would actually find a significant number of units. So those numbers seem pretty low to me, I guess is what I'm saying. [2:42:01] Town Manager: So I would say, I will pass that along. But it also says you can choose not to accept the housing maximums and then those eligible that can be evaluated in regard to the overall maximum so that would be an option but I will pass that along to Director [2:42:22] Council Chair (presiding officer): Crocker other questions of counselors not seeing any as a reminder that this is setting a public hearing so we do not take public comment we'll take the public comment at the public hearing Is there anybody that would like to make a motion? [2:42:43] Steve Walker, 900 River Road (public commenter): Councillor Weems. Yes, thank you. I'd like to move to set a public hearing for October 19th, 2026, to consider the updated general assistance maximums on an emergency and a regular basis. [2:42:57] Council Chair (presiding officer): Motion by Councillor Weems. Were you going to second, Councillor Perrault? I can. Okay, yeah, Councillor Perrault. I saw you're almost for the motion. Any discussion on the item? Not seeing any, I'll call the vote. Councillor Ellis. Yes. Councillor Ecker. Yes. Councillor Anderson. Yes. Councillor Peralta. Yes. Councillor Hicks. Yes. Councillor Teemee. Yes. Councillor Weems. Yes. Councillor Wilson. Yes. The chair is a yes. That is unanimous of the council. The motion passes. Moving on to item 118. The Brunswick Town Council will consider appointments to the town's boards and committees and will take any appropriate action. I'm going to turn this over to Councillor Anderson, who is chair of said committee, to present the report and nominations. [2:43:38] Councilor (committee interviews report): Well, let me pull that up. I was stuck on the GA. We actually did two meetings this month, one on Monday, September 14th, and the second on Tuesday, September 29th. We've interviewed five individuals for five different committees. For the Brunswick Housing Authority,, we are recommending Michael Pinnell to a five-year term to begin immediately and expire June 3rd, 2031. And John Gallagher has a reappointment to a five-year term to begin immediately and expire June 3rd, 2031. For cable TV, we are recommending Cynthia Poles to a three-year term to expire September 6th, 2029 for the Brunswick tops and water district. We're recommending Emma Glidden lion to a three-year term to begin now and expire September 12th, 2029. And then to the Brunswick sewer district, we have Steven musica to for a balance of a three-year term to begin now and expire April 1st, 2029. Social services, we have Jesse Chalmers to a three-year term to begin immediately and expire June 3rd, 2029. And I think my numbers are way more than five and five at this point. All right, and then we have for the housing committee, Katie Spencer-White as a resident member for the remainder of a three-year term to expire November 5th, 2027. [2:45:35] Council Chair (presiding officer): Thank you for your report. Are there any additional nominations? Not seeing any. Are there any questions that folks have for our appointments committee? Councillor Teeming. It's not actually [2:45:51] Councilor (Senior Health Expo / labor strike resolution): a question. I just wanted to shout out the fact that there is one more opening on the housing committee specifically for a renter. So if you are so inclined, please apply. [2:46:03] Council Chair (presiding officer): Anything else? No? Okay. Okay. If folks are good, then we don't do a motion. This was one of the weird ones that I just asked that, you know, we, if you're good with the nominations, I'm going to call your name and we'll do a vote. So, Councilor Ellis. Yes. Councilor Ecker. Yes. Councilor Anderson. Yes. Councilor Peral. Yes. Councilor Hicks. Yes. Councilor Teemee. Yes. Councilor Weems. Yes. Councilor Wilson. Yes. The chair is a yes. Those unanimous of the council, the motion, the, you know folks are appointed moving on to consent agenda that one's always a weird one the way it's structured I'm gonna pull are there any questions about the consent agenda [2:46:45] Councilor (Brunswick Landing liaison): Counselor Pearl, I just have a question about when we have a resolution on the consent agenda. It seems to defeat the purpose of having a resolution if it's on the consent agenda, because we don't talk about it or read it for the public to hear, and it just gets set aside. So I just, especially where for the one I'm discussing is that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and in light of what we're hearing nationally, I think that something that prevalent in society that gets swept away, for it to be on a consent agenda, getting swept away, just says a lot about, is it a priority for us to make a resolution about it, or isn't it? And that's an extreme case, but I just feel like, in general, if we're going to do [2:47:53] Council Chair (presiding officer): If we're going to do it as a resolution that it should be part of an agenda heard personally. So the way that the consent agenda at least is structures that you can pull out any item. I plan to pull this one out because I sponsored it, so that's what, so I was going to talk about it. I wanted to see if there was any questions first, but I hear you. Any other questions? Yet, Council record, are you mic'd up? I don't hear you echoing around. One other [2:48:23] Steve Walker, 900 River Road (public commenter): item on the minutes, a comment, I think a correction that needs to be made on page six or page five. It was regarding the August 17th, the resolution to support prohibiting civilian firearms in municipal buildings. I think there's some language duplicated there. Are you looking at it? Okay, I think you'll probably pick up on it quickly. I think it was duplicated, and then one of the duplications was partial. So this is for August 17th. Yes, do we want to just [2:49:09] Council Chair (presiding officer): Pull that one out to table for next time. I could just make the correction. Yeah, okay. Is council okay with moving forward in that way? Cool. Just making sure we're all on the same page. So, yeah, before we vote on the consent agenda, I want to talk about our resolution here, consent agenda item B. We were approached by our local domestic violence resource center to recognize October as domestic violence awareness month, as it is in our state. The governor usually does a proclamation, so that has occurred as well. Just as somebody who works for a domestic violence resource center, just to give you a little bit of information to the public, the way that domestic violence resource centers work, at least in our state, is that we are regionally appropriated across the state. There's eight different ones. They all go by different names, but they all do pretty much the same work. So the one that is for Cumberland County is called Through These Doors. Their helpline number for anybody who may be experiencing or know somebody that is experiencing domestic abuse is 1-800-537-6066. It's toll-free, confidential. The only time that it's not confidential is if there's a mandated report that needs to happen, but people are really up front as to saying that 's what is the case. All services are free and a variety of services. If you have any, you know, question, comment, or inclination about whether you are someone that is going through a relationship that you think may be abusive, we encourage you to reach out. Our Domestic Violence Resource Centers are 24-7 helplines. They have emergency housing, court advocates that can help you get protection from abuse orders. There are folks that will help you through the housing navigation process, getting you signed up for vouchers so that way you can get into stable housing. In a variety of different services, support groups, community education, through prevention, working in schools, things of that nature, but we are actually partnered with Through These Doors. We support them through a federally funded grant or kind of a pass-through them through our law enforcement office, so we work pretty well with Through These Doors. So something, some other bits of information just to bring to light and say it, that like domestic violence is a really big problem in Maine specifically. Nearly half of all homicides in Maine are intimate partner violence, which is consistent year after year. There's a homicide review panel that puts out that figure, and you can go ahead and dig into them. About one in four women and one in seven men experience intimate partner violence. And we know that, you know, those who are in non-binary, transgender, those folks who are in the LGBTQ community, faces at a higher rate. So yeah, if, you are, you know, someone reach out to the helpline, this 24 seven, literally you don't have to be the person that's going through the situation to say, Hey, how do I talk to this person about this? I'm noticing something, or is this something? And folks are there 24 seven to talk to you. So yeah, counselor Timmy. [2:52:18] Councilor (Senior Health Expo / labor strike resolution): I just wanted to say, I really appreciate, the inclusion of the piece about nearly half of all homicides being related to domestic abuse and violence, because we hear an awful lot about, other forms of public safety. And I think that people who feel a strong urge to improve public safety, you know, spreading awareness of the resources that are available for people who are experiencing, domestic abuse and violence is basically the number one thing that you can do to try and improve public safety yeah also [2:53:01] Council Chair (presiding officer): Happy to talk with folks or those who are in the audience offline who are interested in learning more about different ways you can get involved. Feel free to send me an email with that. Is there any other questions about the consent agenda? Not seeing any, I'll make the motion to approve the consent agenda. Is there a second? Seconded by Councillor Ecker. All those in favor, show of hands. That is unanimous of the council. The consent agenda is approved. I will take now a motion to adjourn. Is there a motion? I know everyone wants to stay here. Oh, we got motion by Councillor Wilson. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Councillor Atimi. All those in favor, show of hands. That's unanimous. Thank you, everyone, and good night. Good night. See you all.