Wayne planning board recommends updated campground ordinance, asks for inspection logs and edits

The Town of Wayne Planning Board voted on Feb. 20 to forward an amended campground, RV park and mobile home park ordinance to the Select Board with a favorable recommendation and several requested changes, following a lengthy public hearing and comment period.

The recommendation comes after members of the moratorium advisory committee presented a redraft that they said clarifies permitting standards, aligns campground rules with Wayne’s zoning and subdivision regulations, and distinguishes lower-intensity wilderness campgrounds from full-service resort-style developments. Patty Scheidt, a member of the moratorium advisory committee, summarized changes the committee proposed, including a seasonal operating window, limits on site size, added buffers and setback provisions and an explicit requirement that campgrounds follow applicable state campground statutes and regulations.

The planning board’s vote follows two hours of public comment from residents and organized groups, who generally supported moving the amended ordinance forward but raised specific concerns and suggested edits that the board asked the committee to address before the Select Board takes it up. Those items include clearer language about invasive-aquatic-species inspections at campground launches, requiring campgrounds to keep logs of such inspections and to provide educational materials to boat owners, reconsideration or further study of a proposed prohibition on phosphorus-containing fertilizers, and a revision of the permit-renewal/application timing so the board has time to review proposed changes before camps open.

Why it matters: residents and several public commenters said Androscoggin Lake is fragile and that clearer local rules are needed to prevent heavy development from degrading water quality or changing the town’s rural character. The moratorium, adopted last year, paused new or…