Residents of the central Aroostook County town of Castle Hill voted Tuesday night to change to the town’s land use ordinance to allow the development of schools, hospitals and libraries.
The facilities — which are typically community anchors — were not previously allowed under the ordinance.
It was not an intentional ban, Sandra Fournier, the town manager of Castle Hill, Mapleton and Chapman, said. Rather, Castle Hill and the neighboring town of Chapman, which also prohibits those structures, are entirely zoned for residential, agricultural and forest use.
Those zones, by default, do not typically allow for commercial or institutional developments, Fournier said.
The amendment to the land use ordinance passed with no discussion.
“It means [Castle Hill] is a little better place to live,” said Ewen Allison, an attorney from Castle Hill who started a campaign to change land use policy, after the vote. “We’re a little more respectable than we were before, and that’s a good thing.”
Castle Hill — population 373 at the 2020 census — does not and may never have a school, hospital or library, given its size and proximity to Mapleton and Presque Isle, where those services are available.
But the subject arose after Allison noticed the quirk in the ordinance and took issue with it on principle.
“Even if no one is going to have one, why ban them?” Allison said in a previous interview with the Bangor Daily News. “It’s a silly thing to ban.”
Allison mailed 235 postcards to other Castle Hill residents this month to encourage them to attend the town meeting and vote to change the ordinance. He also took to Facebook to publicize his campaign, noting that the zoning rule “makes no sense.”
During the town meeting Tuesday, residents also approved the town’s 2026 municipal budget, totaling $327,876. The budget is roughly $17,500 higher than the previous year. The biggest increases came in the general government and highway departments, which made up the vast majority of the rise.
Additionally, the residents approved a new logo for the towns of Mapleton, Castle Hill and Chapman, which all operate under a single town office, and reelected Ryan Spooner to a three-year term on the Castle Hill’s select board.