SIDNEY, Maine — A 159,000-square-foot Amazon distribution center planned near Junction and Trafton roads cannot be stopped by a citizen effort to pause development on large-scale industrial facilities.
That’s according to Sidney officials who clashed with residents Monday night during a public hearing on the effort for a moratorium on such projects.
A petition to allow residents to vote on a 180-day moratorium on “large-scale industrial facilities” and create an oversight board gathered 270 signatures in June. At Monday’s hearing on the petition, Select Board member John Whitcomb said elements of the proposed moratorium ordinance are illegal, including that it would apply retroactively, meaning it would not block a proposed Amazon facility.
Sidney’s Planning Board approved a 159,000-square-foot Amazon distribution center in June. By the time residents vote on the moratorium, it will have been more than 45 days since the town approved the project, which, according to state statute, means it can’t be overridden.
The petition could, however, create a process for overseeing and limiting future development with a large-scale development committee.
Most of the questions at the hearing from a crowd of about 25 people were critical of the petition and directed at Tim Stonesifer, one of the people who circulated the petition. Planning Board member Mary Blaschke and other town officials criticized Stonesifer for not coming to more Planning Board and Select Board meetings, arguing his concerns could have been addressed without an expensive public process.
Stonesifer said he circulated the petition because Sidney has “significant gaps” in ordinances regulating commercial development projects and he wanted to protect residents. For example, Sidney does not have regulations on noise levels or nighttime glare allowed by major developments.
Budget Committee Chair Laura Whitcomb, who is married to John Whitcomb, asked the Select Board chair how much money the petition has cost the town so far.
Whitcomb said it has cost almost $3,000, most of which covered legal fees for the town attorney.
The moratorium asks for a “study of the impacts of large-scale developments on Sidney’s infrastructure, environment and quality of life.” Whitcomb said that the part of the petition that asks the town to allocate $5,000 to a committee that would do so is not legal, because it asks for the town to reallocate funds after the town already passed its budget, and so would not go into effect if the moratorium passed.
Stonesifer said he trusts the town attorney’s judgment on the legality of the petition.
Jacob Bragg, a local dairy farmer, spoke in favor of Stonesifer’s proposal, arguing that more oversight on development would empower the town.
“We should be accountable if a business moves in, and we should be the ones to take it on the chin,” Bragg said. “Him actually creating these roadblocks, I think, does help, and it provides you guys the ability to be able to have your insight, and then it provides us to be able to counter that.”
Budget Committee member Tim Russell said he doesn’t want any more government oversight.
“If you’re concerned, get involved in the daily governance that we already have in place,” Russell said. “Let’s not put another level of government on the town and cost taxpayers more money.”
Developers on the Amazon project, representatives from the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce and Waterville City Manager Nick Cloutier attended the hearing but did not speak.
Plans show the majority of the Amazon facility would be in Waterville. Waterville’s Planning Board approved the plan in June.
The planned distribution hub is part of a larger Amazon effort to establish 210 delivery stations in rural areas by the end of the year. It would be the fourth Amazon facility in Maine, joining a delivery building in Caribou and a planned distribution centers in Gorham and Hermon.
A special town meeting to vote on the proposed moratorium is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday in Sidney’s town office at 2986 Middle Road.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Abigail Pritchard can be reached at apritchard@centralmaine.com.