By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

For the first time in a year, Cape Elizabeth resident Shawn Tamir left town hall feeling positive. He hadn’t cast his absentee ballot for the general election or paid his property taxes, but spent the better part of his afternoon listening to the first meeting the Ordinance Committee has conducted on the proposed bed and breakfast amendments to the town ordinance.

Tamir didn’t purchase an 1.4-acre parcel on Crecent View Avenue with the intention of transforming its 16-room farmhouse into a bed and breakfast establishment; he said the idea “just evolved.”

“It came from being in the house and allowing it to affect me,” he said. 

Tamir and his business partner Ben Tinsman, whose grandfather once owned the 200-year-old farmhouse, originally talked of opening a moderate to high class, 24-bedroom bed and breakfast. Tamir said they planned to use the existing 14 rooms in the house and convert an old barn into an additional 12 guest rooms. After discussing the concept with several town councilors who had little enthusiasm for the project, they scaled back their vision, Tamir said. 

“Twenty-four rooms would be profitable,” he said. “But 14 rooms is viable.”

The smaller version of Tamir’s proposed bed and breakfast still would not comply with planning board proposed amendments to the Residential A (RA) and Residential C (RC) Districts. Under the proposed amendments, bed and breakfast establishments in the RA zone would only be allowed one bedroom per 20,000 square feet of the gross property area; 5,000 square feet per bedroom in the RC district. Although Tamir’s farmhouse sits on enough acreage in the RA district to allow him to open two rooms, the property does not comply with a requirement for 125 feet of frontage along either Shore Road or Route 77.

“How many properties fit into these categories?” Tamir asked. 

Town Planner Maureen O’Meara said the planning board included the requirement of frontage on the town’s two major roadways in an effort to keep bed and breakfast establishments toward the more dense areas of town, a vision some members of the Ordinance Committee, which is made up of town councilors, questioned on Tuesday.

“What about Mitchell or Sawyer [Road]?” Ordinance Committee member and Town Councilor Sarah Lennon asked. “Some of the best places to have a [bed and breakfast] are not on Shore Road or [Route] 77. When I go on vacation I call a place and ask ‘Are you on a major road,’ and if they say ‘Yes,’ I say ‘Thank you,’ and hang up. I feel like [bed and breakfasts] should be in the far flung areas of town.”

Committee member, Town Councilor and State Rep. Cynthia Dill said she also did not agree with limiting bed and breakfasts to Shore Road or Route 77 on the basis it “denies people the right just because they have a lot in a different place than someone else.”

“It should be applied to everyone in a district the same way,” she said. 

Lennon and Dill said they also were concerned about the ordinance requiring bed and breakfast operators in residential districts to own and live in the same building as the guest rooms, while those in business districts could live elsewhere. 

“I don’t have a problem with that,” Ordinance Committee member and Town Council Chairman James Rowe said. “With ownership and residency comes pride.”

The proposal would allow Tamir and Tinsman to open a “homestay,” which requires neither major roadside frontage or a minimum lot size and allows residents to open up to two rooms of their own home to paying guests.

“[A homestay] isn’t worth it,” Tamir said. “What’s the cost-benefit analysis of limiting the number of rooms?”

Tamir and Tinsman will continue to wait for the town council’s input on the proposed amendments; the ordinance committee took no votes on the draft and agreed to continue their discussion at their next meeting. 

“I’m almost back where I started now, there’s just too many things to consider,” Rowe said. “I want to listen to more discussion.”

O’Meara said the committee would begin discussion of the presence of bed and breakfasts in a business district once they reviewed the extensive changes to the Business A (BA) district next month.

“This is going to be a long process I think,” Tamir said.