Residents press council on data center, petition filed to overrule TIF; calls for limits on ICE cooperation and Airbnb enforcement

Residents used the public‑comment period at the March 17 Sanford City Council meeting to press elected officials on a set of related development and enforcement concerns: potential data‑center development on long‑held land, short‑term rental properties that neighbors say operate as party houses, and municipal cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Jeff Kitchen, who described his family’s 114‑year local history, said a property at 8 Curtis Lake Drive is advertised as short‑term lodging for up to 22 people and ‘‘is not a home, it’s a hotel’’ that has generated repeated police and code‑enforcement calls. Kitchen said he had reported the property to multiple city departments and to his councilor without seeing effective enforcement. ‘‘When an ongoing violation persists for years, it signals that our system does not function the way we were told it’s supposed to function,’’ Kitchen said.

Councilors discussed the enforcement tools available, including existing rental‑property rules, occupancy limits, and a disorderly‑house ordinance that staff said has rarely been used. Councilors also noted that platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo told a resident they can remove listings if the property violates local ordinance; residents urged staff to coordinate takedown requests with platform contacts.

On a related front, City Manager Steve Buck and other speakers described two citizen petitions submitted to the clerk: (1) a petition to overrule the council’s recent omnibus tax‑increment financing (TIF) district approval for the South Sanford industrial district (an override under charter section 13.01), and (2) a proposed citizen initiative that would establish a temporary moratorium on municipal permits for large industrial, high‑energy‑intensity developments (including sludge processing and data centers) until local regulatory standards are adopted. Buck said legal staff will draft ballot question language and that petitioners will have a 30‑day period to collect signatures (5% of registered voters; 735 signatures) for each petition.

Separately, Alex Clary, who works in federal immigration programs, urged the council to forbid the Sanford Police Department from participating in ICE removal operations and criticized ICE practices. Clary said immigrant residents live in fear and urged local elected officials to explore limitations on cooperation, while acknowledging the complexity of federal preemption and recent state legislation that may affect local authority.

Mayor Brink and other staff also reiterated prior communications related to an ACLU FOAA request. The mayor introduced a written FOAA response prepared by Deputy Chief Matthew Gagne; Gagne wrote the department had released redacted call logs and that some incident reports were denied under 1 M.R.S.A. and 16 M.R.S.A. exemptions, and recommended seeking a court order for denied material if petitioners wished to pursue it.

What happens next: staff said legal will draft petition language and the clerk will advise proponents of signature requirements and verification timelines; councilors asked staff to return with a review of state LD 1971/LD 307 (recently considered bills limiting certain police cooperation) and to consider a codes/zoning review for problematic Main Street signage and rental enforcement options.