Zoning audit

§ 300-201Three terms are defined twice, and two of the pairs do not agree

BUILDING, LOT and PERSON are each defined in § 300-201 and again in § 300-202. BUILDING is consistent. LOT is an inclusion rule in one place and a substantive definition in the other. PERSON differs in substance: § 300-202 reaches a "governmental agency" and a "municipality", which § 300-201 does not name.

• § 300-201: "PERSON — Includes a firm, association, organization, partnership, trust, company, or corporation, as well as an individual."
• § 300-202: "PERSON — An individual, corporation, governmental agency, municipality, trust, estate, partnership, association, two or more individuals having a joint or common interest, or other legal entity."

Decide which governs and delete the other, or state expressly that § 300-201 controls Part 1 and § 300-202 the rest.

read from the City's materials

§ 300-302Four districts are established and never regulated

§ 300-302C establishes the Urban Highway Overlay, Rural Highway Overlay, Capitol View and Resource Conservation and Use Districts, marking each "(Reserved)". Capitol View and Resource Conservation and Use are then referred to as though operative — § 300-316.4, § 300-506 and § 300-529 for the first, § 300-316.6 and § 300-532 for the second — but every one of those targets is itself "(Reserved)". The two Highway Overlays appear nowhere else in the chapter at all.

• § 300-302C(3): "Highway Overlay Districts: (Reserved)."
• § 300-302C(4): "Capitol View District. (Reserved)."
• §§ 300-316.4, 300-316.6, 300-529, 300-532: each “(Reserved)”

A district that is established, mapped nowhere and regulated nowhere is a name a title search can find and a reader cannot act on. Either write the standards or repeal the establishing paragraphs.

read from the City's materials

§ 300-304Two exemptions the chapter says should have deleted themselves are still in it

§ 300-304A(3) and (4) grant limited exemptions to landowners affected by the "Third Bridge" project. Each provides for its own removal on expiry — eighteen months and eight months respectively — and both are still printed. The chapter records no amendment history for § 300-304, so the text carries no date from which either period can be measured.

• § 300-304A(3)(b): "This exemption shall expire 18 months from the date of the statutory notice of taking … Upon expiration, this paragraph shall automatically be removed from this chapter."
• § 300-304A(4)(b): "This exemption shall expire eight months from date of passage by the City Council, and this paragraph shall automatically be removed from this chapter."

Confirm both have expired and delete them.

read from the City's materials

§ 300-314.1The chapter never says which uses are allowed in which district

Chapter 300 contains no list, table or schedule of permitted or conditional uses. The district sections give a Purpose and Dimensional requirements and nothing else, yet § 300-314.1's own opening sentence says the residential regulations are "listing permitted and conditional uses", and § 300-603B(1) exempts the expansion of "an existing listed conditional use" — machinery that presupposes a list. Of the 344 terms the chapter defines, dozens are use types — AUTOMOBILE BUSINESS, BARBER/BEAUTY SHOP, DAY-CARE CENTER, CANNABIS RETAIL STORE, CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION — that appear nowhere else in the text. A defined use type with no provision allowing it anywhere is a definition with nothing to do.

• § 300-314.1: "The Residential District regulations are based on conventional zoning standards, listing permitted and conditional uses"
• § 300-314.1A through D: Purpose and Dimensional requirements only; no use list
• § 300-603B(1): "Expansion/enlargement of an existing listed conditional use"
• Checked against the City's published Word text, not only our conversion: no use table, and the chapter references no attachment containing one

Ask the City whether a use table exists outside Chapter 300 or was lost in codification. Until that is answered, nothing in this chapter tells a property owner what they may build, and § 300-304A(1) — which forbids any use not "in conformity with all of the regulations herein specified for the district" — has little to bite on.

read from the City's materials

§ 300-506A standard is cross-referenced to a provision that is empty

§ 300-506A(3), governing development on slopes over 15%, directs the reader to "the overlay standards in § 300-529, Capitol View District." § 300-529 reads, in its entirety, "(Reserved)". This is the only cross-reference in the chapter that lands on an empty provision; the other 182 all resolve.

• § 300-506A(3): "See the overlay standards in § 300-529, Capitol View District."
• § 300-529 Capitol View District: “(Reserved)”

Either write the standards or drop the reference.

read from the City's materials

§ 300-524The ADU definition is narrower than the section that allows ADUs

§ 300-202 defines an accessory dwelling unit as one located "within, attached to, or detached from a one-family dwelling". § 300-524E allows one "on all parcels where a One and Two-Family Dwelling is the only residential use on the lot". A unit accessory to a two-family dwelling is allowed by the operative provision and is not an ADU under the definition.

• § 300-202: "DWELLING UNIT, ACCESSORY DWELLING UNIT (ADU) — A self-contained dwelling unit located within, attached to, or detached from a one-family dwelling located on the same parcel of land."
• § 300-524E: "One Accessory Dwelling Unit shall be allowed on all parcels where a One and Two-Family Dwelling is the only residential use on the lot."

Align the definition with § 300-524E — and with 30-A M.R.S. § 4364-B, below.

read from the City's materials

§ 300-302Capitol View District is established and not on the map

§ 300-302 establishes this district; no layer draws it.

• CV is recorded as established with no layer drawing it

Confirm with Augusta whether a layer exists. Where the boundaries are another agency's — FEMA's flood maps, for instance — the absence is the right answer and this note is the record of it.

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§ 300-302Resource Conservation and Use District is established and not on the map

§ 300-302 establishes this district; no layer draws it.

• RCU is recorded as established with no layer drawing it

Confirm with Augusta whether a layer exists. Where the boundaries are another agency's — FEMA's flood maps, for instance — the absence is the right answer and this note is the record of it.

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§ 300-302Rural Highway Overlay District is established and not on the map

§ 300-302 establishes this district; no layer draws it.

• RHO is recorded as established with no layer drawing it

Confirm with Augusta whether a layer exists. Where the boundaries are another agency's — FEMA's flood maps, for instance — the absence is the right answer and this note is the record of it.

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§ 300-302Urban Highway Overlay District is established and not on the map

§ 300-302 establishes this district; no layer draws it.

• UHO is recorded as established with no layer drawing it

Confirm with Augusta whether a layer exists. Where the boundaries are another agency's — FEMA's flood maps, for instance — the absence is the right answer and this note is the record of it.

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§ 300-202Homeless shelters are defined and permitted nowhere

30-A M.R.S. § 4357-B(2) provides that "a municipality may not prohibit homeless shelters in the municipality". Chapter 300 defines SHELTER in § 300-202 in terms close to the statute's own, and no provision in the chapter permits one in any district. Whether that amounts to a prohibition turns on the finding above about the missing use list: § 300-304A(1) allows use only in conformity with the regulations specified for the district, and there are no use regulations to conform to.

• § 300-202: "SHELTER — A social services facility providing temporary overnight shelter in a dormitory-style or per-bed arrangement."
• 30-A M.R.S. § 4357-B(2): "A municipality may not prohibit homeless shelters in the municipality."
• No section of Chapter 300 permits a shelter in any district

Name the districts in which a shelter is allowed.

read from the City's materials

§ 300-202The chapter is silent on community living arrangements

30-A M.R.S. § 4357-A(2) deems a community living arrangement "a single-family use of property for the purposes of zoning". Chapter 300 defines COMMUNITY LIVING ARRANGEMENT and then never uses the term. The statute is self-executing, so this is a gap in the ordinance rather than a conflict with it — but a reader of Chapter 300 alone would not learn the rule that governs.

• 30-A M.R.S. § 4357-A(2): "a community living arrangement is deemed a single-family use of property for the purposes of zoning"
• § 300-202 defines COMMUNITY LIVING ARRANGEMENT; the term appears in no other section

State the rule in the chapter, or cite the statute where uses are set out.

read from the City's materials

§ 300-314.1The RA density cap appears to fall below the minimum 30-A M.R.S. § 4364-A requires

§ 300-314.1A sets the Low Density Residential District's minimum lot at 10,000 square feet on public sewer and requires 5,000 square feet of lot area per dwelling unit — two units on a minimum conforming lot. 30-A M.R.S. § 4364-A(1) requires a municipality to allow at minimum three dwelling units per lot in any area where residential uses are allowed, and four where the lot is in a designated growth area or is served by public water and sewer. § 300-314 places the RA District in the Urban Growth Area "as defined on the land use map of the 2023 Comprehensive Plan". The implementation date for a municipality whose ordinances are enacted by its municipal officers was 1 January 2024; this chapter is current through 4 December 2025. RB1 and RB2, at 2,500 square feet per unit, reach three units on a minimum lot but not four; RC, at 1,650, reaches four.

• § 300-314.1A(2)(a)-(b): lot area 10,000 sq ft (public sewer); lot area per dwelling unit 5,000 sq ft
• 30-A M.R.S. § 4364-A(1): "a municipality shall allow at a minimum: A. Three dwelling units … per lot; and B. Four dwelling units … per lot if the lot is located in a designated growth area … or served by a public … water system and a public … sewer system."
• 30-A M.R.S. § 4364(1-A): implementation date "January 1, 2024 for municipalities for which ordinances may be enacted by the municipal officers"
• § 4364-A(1) is published by the Revisor in two conflicting versions (PL 2025, c. 385, § 7 and PL 2025, c. 388, Pt. D, § 37). The arithmetic differs; on either reading RA's two units is below the figure required for a lot in a growth area served by public water and sewer.

For counsel. The reading above assumes the per-dwelling-unit standard operates as a ceiling on units and that RA land sits in the designated growth area; both should be confirmed before the City relies on this.

read from the City's materials

§ 300-524ADUs are not allowed on lots with a multi-unit structure, which § 4364-B requires

30-A M.R.S. § 4364-B(1) requires a municipality to allow an accessory dwelling unit on the same lot as "a single-family dwelling unit or multi-unit structure in any area in which residential uses are permitted". § 300-524E allows one only where "a One and Two-Family Dwelling is the only residential use on the lot", which excludes a lot carrying a structure of three or more units.

• 30-A M.R.S. § 4364-B(1): "a municipality shall allow an accessory dwelling unit to be located on the same lot as a single-family dwelling unit or multi-unit structure in any area in which residential uses are permitted"
• § 300-524E: "One Accessory Dwelling Unit shall be allowed on all parcels where a One and Two-Family Dwelling is the only residential use on the lot."

Extend § 300-524E to lots with a multi-unit structure.

read from the City's materials

The zoning map is not published here yet

The district pages read from the code alone. Until the layers are built, a reader cannot go from a place to the rules that govern it, which is half of what this site is for.

Ours.

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