By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

HARRISON — The public hearing was held shortly after the snow melted this spring, and the proposed Shoreland Zoning Ordinance will get its day in the sun in June.

The Town of Harrison has posted a copy of the proposed Shoreland Zoning Ordinance on its website. Although the draft would be ready in time to be a warrant article at town meeting, elected public officials have decided to put it on the ballot.

“We get a lot more residents voting during the June Elections than show up for Town Meeting,” Harrison Secretary Melissa St. John said.

On Thursday, the Harrison Board of Selectmen voted, 4-0, to put the Shoreland Zoning Ordinance (SZO) on the June ballot. Chairman Matthew Frank summarized the change to the SZO.

“Under the original proposal, you could do one of two things,” he said. “For simplicity purposes, we are going to one.”

“I am talking about nonconforming structures. (The ones that) have been along the lake forever,” Frank said.

There are two rules for the expansion of existing structures in the Shoreland Zone.

“One dealt with square footage. The other part said you could increase your home by 30 percent on the side away from the lake — which we are taking out,” he said.

“The first one is the size of the footprint but you could move (the structure) higher,” he said.

“Is that roughly correct?” Chairman Frank asked, directing his question to the Code Enforcement Officer John Wentworth, who was present at the meeting.

“There will be a footprint. There is a maximum size you can expand. If you are already at that, you can expand upwards, depending on how far from the lake” the structure is, Wentworth said.

“The table showed that mining was allowed. We cleared that up,” he said.

Secretary St. John agreed that there was some language that was deleted and some typos that were corrected.

“It is all cleaned up. It is going on the ballot in June,” she said.