Lincolnville voters came out in force Tuesday evening to pass a six-month moratorium on the development of large retail stores.
Out of the 225 people who checked in to vote at a town meeting, all who participated voted “yes” to the moratorium, said Town Administrator David Kinney. Nobody raised their hands for “no.” The moratorium will go into effect immediately.
Lincolnville has been considering the moratorium since October, after a South Portland engineering firm submitted a pre-application for an unspecified retail store at the intersection of Thurlow Road and Beach Road.
While the developer submitted a pre-application for the project, the town has received no formal applications that fit the moratorium’s qualifications as of Tuesday.
The moratorium applies to any “major non-residential development project,” which can include buildings that are over 4,000 square feet and parking lots that can fit 20 or more vehicles, among other things.
The reasons for the town to push this moratorium forward include maintaining the “rural character” of the town and preventing environmental degradation in the local watersheds due to phosphorus pollution from construction.
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