Maine has banned floating camps—small house-like structures moored offshore—due to growing concerns about pollution, safety, and public access to waterways. These “nonwater-dependent floating structures” had evaded regulation because no single agency had authority over them. Owners often avoided municipal rules by moving locations. A state stakeholder group considered new oversight but chose a full ban instead to protect public water rights. About 200 such structures are currently registered as boats; existing ones may apply for permits, but no new ones are allowed. Advocates say the ban is a proactive move to prevent environmental harm.
Government news
Rockland affordable housing bond
Rockland, Maine has become the first municipality in the state to approve a bond specifically for affordable housing development. Voters passed a measure on June 10 allowing the city to borrow up to $10 million to support affordable and workforce housing initiatives. The goal is to add 50 housing units annually for the next decade to address the region’s housing crisis.
The bond, designed to be revenue-neutral, may fund infrastructure, land acquisition, and low-interest loans, with repayment and property tax revenue expected to offset costs. Priority will be given to creating housing for the “missing middle”—those who earn too much for low-income programs but cannot afford market rates. Use of the funds and eligibility criteria will be overseen by the city’s Housing Task Force, with City Council approval. Implementation is expected to begin in the fall.
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Parts of Maine hit hardest by the housing crisis
A wave of migration in the pandemic years coupled with historic underproduction of new housing pushed prices and values up, and middle- to low-income earners out of affordable homeownership. While the heavily populated southern part of the state has gotten most of the attention, Zillow data shows that home values have actually skyrocketed most in an odd mix of inland towns.
Source: Bangor Daily News
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Discontinued Road lawsuit in Freedom
“The family has always considered the portion of road by their land abandoned, and therefore their private property.
But not everyone in town agrees: Officials mentioned at multiple meetings last summer that the road is open to the public, Hadyniak said, and that the family is illegally posting it. The Hadyniak’s wooden barricades were run over by an ATV later that month, and shortly after, a private property sign was vandalized to say “town road open to public.”
Now, Hadyniak, an attorney, is representing his family in a lawsuit against the town, claiming ownership of part of the road. The town is fighting back, wracking up thousands in legal fees, paid by taxpayers, to counter that the family is obstructing a public right of way.”
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The “Floating Camps” loophole
The state says the floating camps are blocking the views from houses and camps onshore, posing pollution risks, and creating congestion at public docks and boat ramps. Some are even being used as seasonal rental properties.
Because they are not solidly onshore, these camps are beyond the reach of private property boundaries and shore regulations that protect the water and fishery from pollution. And because Maine doesn’t have a clear definition of what is a boat and what isn’t, there’s no consensus of what regulations apply to the structures.
Source: Bangor Daily News
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Sears Island to be new offshore wind port
Sears Island in Searsport will be the state’s new wind port site, where turbines and other components will be assembled and shipped to the Gulf of Maine, Gov. Janet Mills announced Tuesday.
Source: Press Herald
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Contamination plague Maine towns
Soil Preparation Inc., the private Plymouth-based company that owns the plant, was bringing in out-of-state sludge and local waste to process into farmland fertilizer. It had placed standpipes with sprinkler heads throughout the woods between its and Seavey’s properties to disperse the wastewater it had squeezed out of the sludge, a mixture of human, food and other waste that was about 80 percent liquid.
Source: Bangor Daily News
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Wiscasset seeks millions in taxes from Maine Yankee nuclear plant
Maine Yankee, which in 1997 shut down its nuclear plant on Bailey Point and transferred 542 metric tons of radioactive waste into canisters there, paid annual property taxes to the town under an agreement that expired last year. The two sides have been unable to reach a new tax agreement and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection last year granted Maine Yankee a tax exemption based on a state law that gives breaks to industrial facilities for reducing air pollution.
Source: Press Herald
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State funding sought to address storm damage
Communities across the state, from Kittery to Fort Kent and from the shoreline to the western mountains, are looking to the government to help them prepare for Maine’s warmer, wetter future, including more frequent and ferocious storms and a fast-warming, continually rising Gulf of Maine.
Source: Storm-battered Maine communities look to state funding to prepare for warmer, wetter future
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Falmouth issues new short-term rental rules
A new requirement that all Falmouth short-term renters register their properties, with hefty fines for those who don’t comply, is drawing mixed reactions from owners and residents. The ordinance, approved by the Town Council July 26, stems from residents’ concerns about noise and congestion coming from vacation rentals like those advertised on sites such as Airbnb, according to Town Councilor Hope Cahan.
Source: Portland Press Herald