Finally, the update I know you've all been waiting for.
Last night, the second and final public hearing on the proposed ordinance change took place. I spent much of the day discussing and inputting into the computer dozens of questions that my sister had been compulsively jotting down upon arising at her usual ungodly hour (sometimes as early as 12:30 a.m.--although those are really bad days--more commonly around 2 or 3). I then categorized them, rewrote them, and printed them out to hand out at the meeting. The idea was to make it easier for people to stand up and ask questions, using the list as a guide.
At the meeting, we handed out the five-page list to all and sundry--including the developer and the selectmen--and waited to see what would happen. From the start, it was clear that the powers-that-be had learned a lesson or two from the shambles that was the last meeting. The first selectman, who had bullied, interrupted, and shilled for the project two weeks before, held his tongue more often than not. All the selectman and the developer had obviously (finally) taken the time to do some of the homework they should have done before. Most important, the developer changed the scope of the project. The townhouses have been dropped, and the new ordinance now only allows him to build on smaller lots with less road frontage. It also incorporates a height limit (35 feet). The houses will be single-family homes, and no house can cover more than 50 percent of the lot (rather than 70 percent), which would ensure that house sizes would be modest. In addition, the plans for the factory have shifted from turning it into a kind of minimall chockfull of little shoppes filled with junque for the tourists. Now, the developer talks of selling fuel for the fisherman, a marine supply shop, a lobster bait joint. He will be talking to someone who wants to organize a clammers' cooperative. In short, all the businesses he mentioned are for the good of working fishermen and many would offer year-round employment. And one of the selectman--a very scary woman (with whom I'm quite friendly, actually) who was once arrested for beating up her sister's boyfriend--mentioned Natura Pet Products.
That said, the developer still intends to build three houses on a small lot that would be better left empty. He will also certainly build at least two houses on one side of me and one on the other and possibly two more lower down on the property--and could build two more on the land currently available and even more if he ends up knocking down the factory. Plus there is absolutely no guarantee that he will put the factory to the use he described.
So. A difference has been made. And the zoning change could still be voted down at the meeting next week. I'm thinking of the whole thing is a lesson in how democracy works: no one is entirely happy, but neither is anyone completely dissatisfied. Fucking compromise, in other words. But better than nothing. And, who knows? maybe people will surprise me and vote the change down. I have a feeling they won't, though: as I described Lubec to someone in an e-mail the other day, this town is a dying animal, chewing out its own entrails because its empty belly hurts. People are too desperate for jobs to say no to a project that promises to offer even a few. But at least if the change passes, the results will not be quite as gruesome as they otherwise would have been. And I will be able to say, to quote Buffy, "the battle's done and we kind of won."
