Staff Writer 

Lee Wilson owns a three-story building at 553 Shore Road in Cape Elizabeth. She said she was puzzled by the town council’s goal to alleviate residents’ concerns about proposed updates to the town’s Business A, or BA, zone. 

Last week, the town council discussed the most recent draft of what Town Planner Maureen O’Meara calls the “BA overhaul,” including expanding the BA zone to include Wilson’s property. 

For more than a year, the planning board, ordinance committee and town council have modified proposals for zoning regulations that will govern the town’s few businesses along Route 77 and the northern section of Shore Road along the South Portland border.

“The process is what it has to be, and [the council] has done really well. The only hitch or problem I have seen is the worry that they’re trying to make everyone happy,” Wilson said. “Any town has to abide by all sorts of different red tape, but this certainly isn’t the first case where there’s been a ‘No, not in my backyard’ neighbor.”

Since officials began updating the zone in 2008, abutters along Charles Road and Shore Road have rallied against the rezoning of Wilson’s property. Charles Road resident Emily Materson has spoken on behalf of the “North Shore Neighborhood Association” since the group’s formation in November. She said the group opposes the rezoning of Wilson’s lot because they fear it might trigger a decline in neighboring property values.

“The voices of the direct abutters, who stand to have their property and homes devalued by such a change [have been] muted by the endless praise of [Wilson] and her intentions,” Materson wrote in an email to the town council. “The people directly affected have invested  considerable time and effort to keep their property attractive. If the trend to expand this small zone continues it might ultimately result in the loss of the beautiful park-like corner of the [abutting property owners Joyce Wilson-Sanford and John] Sanford’s lot.”

Members of the group hoped not only to discourage the council from expanding the BA zone, but to eliminate Jane Waning’s property from the zone. While Materson said the group believes the Waning property was included in the BA zone in error, Town Councilor Sara Lennon said the council took a more holistic view of the zoning along Shore Road.

“As far as the request to 551 [Shore Road], we said it made sense to keep it with whatever happens to 553 [Shore Road],” Lennon said. “You want it to be consistent.”

Wilson said amendments regarding lots within the BA zone under 10,000 square feet – of which her lot would be the only one – would not interfere with her plans to convert the first floor to a “small retail space,” with offices on the second floor and possibly a tenant on the third.

“[The town council] excluded some things, but it’s not going to really make too much of a difference,” she said. “The property itself is limiting to what you can do. If I were to sell it – which I don’t want to do – the size, the amount of property and parking would keep it from being anything else.”

Assistant Town Manager Deb Lane said the final draft of the proposed BA overhaul, which also proposes to limit the sale of alcohol in restaurants in the BA zone to 50 percent of their total profit, will be voted on by the council June 8. 

Staff Writer Nate Jones may be reached at 282-4337 ext. 233.