why cant more towns zone like Freeport? (HOA, condos)

[Maineah]

Walletemptyingport just didn't have the same ring to it.

[MRVphotog]

Originally Posted by Maineah

Walletemptyingport just didn't have the same ring to it.

LMAO.......

[island mermaid]

Originally Posted by Acadianlion

Sums it up exceedingly well. And points out one of the major glaring issues with Maine today: the simple fact that we are bemoaning the death of the 19th century industrial model and have yet as a state found a replacement for it. Retail shops selling merchanidise made in China and Singapore do not provide the income that is necessary to grow successful local economies. Shopkeepers and waitstaff making minimum wage without health insurance do not earn enough money to make a committment to local communities by buying homes and paying real estate taxes.

Maine's dependence on the tourist trade will find tougher and tougher sledding with gasoline to fuel the tourist's SUV's moving above $5 per gallon.

Maine needs to develop new forms of industrial pursuits that will enable true sustainable communities to develop, and that will give more younger people reason to move to Maine and help her future.

In the 1960's the City of Ellsworth was a centerpiece in Downeast Magazine. That article heralded Ellsworth's "miracle mile" where the first of the infestation of shopping centers was being developed along Route 3. What has actually happened is that this blight of sprawl has continued, with more of the same kinds of establishments, paying the same kind of low wages, with more and more people working at part time jobs and earning a substandard living.

Reselling stuff made in sweatshops in Indonesia does not grow wealth in a community. If we find true leadership to send to Augusta, that leadership will inaugerate a new era of business and industrial development in Maine, and once that happens, IF it happens, true value of employment will be the product and true value of the lives of families will be the end result which will make towns like Freeport be a benefit, instead of a hopeful salvor of a declining economy.

I understand what you are saying and agree with your overall statement, I was stating that these stores/ restaurants/ B&B's provide some sort of an income to the several hundred people that work in the service industry in Freeport. As well as provide revenue to the MANY locally owned stores / shops / restaurants there as well. Some income be it lower than elsewhere, is far better than standing in the unemployment line.

[dmyankee]

Originally Posted by Maineah

Your description is fairly accurate. You didn't see Freeport before the transformation though did you? It was a dump. Tons of old shoe shops falling down, ratty apartments,sub standard grocery stores and a pile of moronic kids hanging out in the center of the town in their hotrods. You got me why people would think of shopping when in Maine, but try to get into this town on a rainy summer day. As far as color goes they don't always get their way. As proof take a look at the purple pet store on the way in to town. Do you have something against conformity and cleanliness?

I have no argument at all against gentrification, especially for Freeport. Just not my cup of tea. At least they took the initiative.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by dmyankee

I have no argument at all against gentrification, especially for Freeport. Just not my cup of tea. At least they took the initiative.

Believe me you're not alone there!

[AustinB]

I, for one, happen to like the lack of zoning in a town. I don't want the neighbors telling me what I can and can't do. Our towns comp. planning committee made sure that there were no calls for zoning written into the latest plan. We had to convince the state,where one size fits all, that we really didn't need zoning. We prefered to be 'real' not mandated.

[HarvetHomes]

I love Maine, I love Freeport. Down town is great place to visit and work. Trouble with area is try to live there and pay rent or buy home. This is a problem the cost of land, homes, condos and businesses are out of site for the working man. Zoning will only help those with lots of money, I know there is property which is zoned for new trailer park development,but try to get it done. It will cost you a small fortune to get through the regulations in Freeport. Why? the powers to be have selectively desided that mobile homes are not what they want in area.

[CalieCat]

I used to be able to insert a picture here but I cannot seem to do it tonight I just uploaded a few pictures of Freeport on our trip last month into my pictures.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by HarvetHomes

I love Maine, I love Freeport. Down town is great place to visit and work. Trouble with area is try to live there and pay rent or buy home. This is a problem the cost of land, homes, condos and businesses are out of site for the working man. Zoning will only help those with lots of money, I know there is property which is zoned for new trailer park development,but try to get it done. It will cost you a small fortune to get through the regulations in Freeport. Why? the powers to be have selectively desided that mobile homes are not what they want in area.

With good reason! Look at it the other way around. Say you have spent a large amount of time,money and energy to build a beautiful home. You have beautiful landscaping as do most of your neighbors. You all have fairly expensive, traditional older homes kept up nicely and the neighborhood looks nice. Then someone wants to put a trailer right in the middle of the neighborhood and there goes the look, feel, and value everyone else has worked so hard to gain. Its equally unfair to the existing neighborhood to have a trailer plopped down amongst traditional, expensive homes than it is to deny the people with trailers a place to park them. Trailers have a valuable purpose to folks just starting out, fixed income people, or some who would rather invest in toys than a home. They do not ,however ,fit in established neighborhoods and are suited more for rural lots or trailer parks. Why should the guy who has invested hundreds of thousands on a home have to put up with a neighbor who is only willing to spent $50,000 on a trailer? There are two sides to the coin.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Maineah

With good reason! Look at it the other way around. Say you have spent a large amount of time,money and energy to build a beautiful home. You have beautiful landscaping as do most of your neighbors. You all have fairly expensive, traditional older homes kept up nicely and the neighborhood looks nice. Then someone wants to put a trailer right in the middle of the neighborhood and there goes the look, feel, and value everyone else has worked so hard to gain. Its equally unfair to the existing neighborhood to have a trailer plopped down amongst traditional, expensive homes than it is to deny the people with trailers a place to park them. Trailers have a valuable purpose to folks just starting out, fixed income people, or some who would rather invest in toys than a home. They do not ,however ,fit in established neighborhoods and are suited more for rural lots or trailer parks. Why should the guy who has invested hundreds of thousands on a home have to put up with a neighbor who is only willing to spent $50,000 on a trailer? There are two sides to the coin.

Then you need a HOA