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Bridgton Planning Board reviews zoning changes to comply with new state housing laws
Summary
At a May 19 workshop, the Bridgton Planning Board reviewed required zoning changes under the state's new housing laws, including major reductions in minimum lot sizes in served growth areas, ADU counting rules and options for tiered lot-size tables tied to infrastructure access.
The Bridgton Planning Board on May 19 examined a draft package of zoning changes the town must adopt to comply with new state housing laws, focusing on lot-size reductions, accessory dwelling unit rules and district-specific impacts.
Chair (speaker 1) opened the workshop with an overview of materials uploaded to the board's OneDrive and the board's work plan. The chair said the inner quarter will see the largest change: where lots are served by public water and sewer, the minimum lot size would drop in many districts from 40,000 square feet toward 5,000 square feet.
The board reviewed a primary table that lists for each district whether it is a growth area, whether it has public water and sewer, the current lot-size standard and the minimum lot size required under the new law. Chair noted questions sent to the Housing Opportunity Program about whether subdivision lot-size rules must follow district minimums and cautioned that some technical clarifications are still pending.
The board also discussed how accessory dwelling units (ADUs) count toward unit totals. Under the state guidance reviewed, ADUs are counted as dwelling units for the purposes of the dwelling-unit limits (for example, higher unit allowances in growth areas); board members emphasized the need to capture that rule in a clarifying footnote in the ordinance.
Members debated whether to apply a tiered lot-size approach tied to infrastructure access (public water/sewer). One option discussed was a two-tier table that lists one set of minimum lot sizes where public water and sewer are available and a larger minimum where they are not. Chair urged more analysis and visuals before committing to a specific numeric tier.
On parking, the board discussed the law's cap on residential parking (a maximum of one parking space per dwelling unit in certain cases). Chair asked staff to identify the appropriate code section for that standard'site plan, district standards or building code'and noted affordable-housing projects may have separate parking rules.
Members agreed on next steps: gather quantitative infrastructure data (water and wastewater capacity) from public works, finish district-level tables for the remaining areas, and seek technical assistance from planning consultants while preserving local ownership of the final deliverable. Chair warned that a final deliverable in November without intermediate workshops would risk losing local control of the ordinance edits.
Votes at a glance: the board approved the April 21 minutes and later approved the Middlebridge Subdivision findings of fact and conclusions of law during the meeting. The minutes approval passed on a voice tally recorded as 4–0. The Middlebridge findings were also moved, seconded and approved; Chair indicated she had already signed the document for processing.
The board will receive additional district-level tables and capacity numbers and will continue the housing-law implementation work in follow-up workshops.
