The Cape Elizabeth Town Council voted 4 - 2 to favor the rezoning of 553 Shore Road at the meeting on June 8. In an email received that  day, Councilor Sara Lennon said: “Our decisions have been made based on the best use of a single property on the edge of the BA zone.”

Our understanding of the term “best use” has to do with the market value of a particular piece of property. So we are asking, what is the town doing interfering in the financial value of a piece of privately owned property?   

In order for boards and committees to make the finding they have, the questionable zoning of the property to the left of Ms. Wilson at 551 Shore Road has been ignored and set back requirements greatly reduced.  

An ordinance has been adopted that states any lot within the Shore Road Business A District that shares one or more boundary lines totaling in excess of 225 feet with any lot in the Residence C District in the town of Cape Elizabeth would be restricted. 

While it does protect the owners of  abutting property at 1 Charles Road, it does nothing to protect abutters to 1 Charles Road, should at some future date the current owners sell their property and a new owner with as much validity as the 553 owner, requests of the town that their property be rezoned business. Since the boundary line between 1 Charles Road and its neighbors to the west is only 125 feet, the above ordinance does nothing to ally concerns of neighbors.

There have been only three lone voices who have spoken up on behalf of a beleaguered neighborhood. They are a man at a planning board hearing in October, council members Jim Rowe and David Backer who said that he had asked himself how he would like it if he were a neighbor living here, and he concluded that he would not like it at all. That sounds like the golden rule doesn’t it?  

Edward and Emily Materson

Cape Elizabeth