Peaks Island Council — Portland, ME
Date: 2025-11-19
Time: 18:15

Peaks Island Council Monthly Meeting
 Wednesday, November 19th, 2025, 6:15pm

 in person at the Peaks Island Community Center ​
 and on Zoom - bit.ly/peakscouncilzoom​
 Upcoming meetings: December 17, January 28, February 25
 full meeting schedule at linktr.ee/peaksislandcouncil
​
CALL TO ORDER

ROLL CALL ​

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

ANNOUNCEMENTS -

TREASURER’S REPORT

BRIEF PUBLIC COMMENT
THIS WILL BE LIMITED TO ISSUES THAT REQUIRE BILL TO WEIGH IN, CHAIRS DISCRETION AS TO WHETHER COMMENT
FITS THIS DESCRIPTION.


COMMITTEE REPORTS & UPDATES
  ●​ Executive -
  ●​ Environment, Sustainability, Parks & Recreation-
  ●​ Housing & Zoning -
  ●​ Island Assessment -
  ●​ Paper Roads -
  ●​ Parking -
  ●​ Ferry Services -
  ●​ Golf Cart -

OLD BUSINESS
  ●​ Committee chairs to be settled with new council still the plan?




NEW BUSINESS
  ●​ Caity Hager, Emergency Management Coordinator, City of Portland makes a presentation
  ●​ Joey Brunelle, Portland Climate Action team, makes presentation about solar on our
 schools
  ●​ Motion for Parks and Rec to add electronic keypads to entry.
  ●​ Pest Control and its impact on island pets
​
OPEN PUBLIC COMMENT (any topic, 3 minutes per speaker)

ADJOURNMENT​

Public Comment
​
Public comment will be open on those items marked “public comment”. The PIC is required to take comment on items
we are taking action on (i.e. voting on), although we may take comment on additional items if input is valuable.
Comment on any topic is always welcome during the public comment section at the end of the meeting.

PIC Links​

 ●​ Check out our new "website" at linktr.ee/peaksislandcouncil.
 ●​ A digital archive of PIC meeting minutes, agendas, and materials is now available on our public Google Drive.
 ●​ Recent PIC email updates can be found here
 ●​ Our emails can be found on the City's PIC page. The full council can be reached at pic@portlandmaine.gov.

Zoom Info:

Direct link: http://bit.ly/peakscouncilzoom

Peaks Island Council is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: PIC monthly meeting

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Peaks Island Council
 MEETING MINUTES
 Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 6:15 p.m.
 Hybrid ZOOM/in-person meeting in the Community Center
 NEXT Regular Monthly PIC Meeting
 November 19, 2025
CALL TO ORDER: 6:21 p.m.
ROLL CALL
Present: Laura Glendening, Fred Somers, Scott Mohler, Karsten Rees, Jess Burton, Norm Proulx,
Shelagh Reiser

Absent:

Number of Audience Members (AM) in attendance: 16 in person

APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Unanimous approval of minutes from September 23rd PIC meeting.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Rees said that the island polling location is in the Community Room. Polls will be open 7am-8pm.

Glendening thanked Rees and Jerzy Sylvester for organizing candidates’ night and thanked Jerzy
Sylvester for putting together a packet about the candidates.


TREASURER’S REPORT
Patnaude said the only expenditure was $294 for needs-based tickets. Current Balance is $7,415.
Board approved Treasurer’s Report, Reiser abstained.


PUBLIC COMMENT (beginning of meeting)
AM asked if boat is going to be removed from ferry beach. Patnaude said the boat has not been
removed but the city is working on it. Rees said that the neighborhood prosecutor will be issuing an
order to remove and is serving the papers to the boat owner. Patnaude confirmed that the police
chief said that his officers will be serving papers.

Timmi Sellers publicly thanked Sarah Michniewicz and Pious Ali for their help in having the boat
removed.

Glendening asked about the stairs to ferry beach. Patnaude said the contractor is removing some
vegetation and lumber will be arriving at the end of this week.

Glendening asked about the work on the ferry dock. Patnaude said the work is concrete work
underneath the dock being done by the Department of Transportation (DOT). The DOT said the
work will not affect the ferry operation.


 PIC October 22, 2025 Meeting Minutes, DRAFT. Page 1
Patnaude said the water department is running a water main down Central Ave extension towards
Highland Avenue.

COMMITTEE REPORTS & UPDATES
• Executive Committee –
 Glendening asked chairs of committees to share meeting times so they can be posted in the
 newsletter and the STAR.

• Environmental and Sustainability and Parks and Rec Committee
  Timmi Sellers said Friends of Trott Littlejohn is having an open house Saturday, October 25,
  10am-noon, to celebrate the new exercise equipment.

• Ferry Service
 Somers said the new ferry will be delivered in March 2026. Then there will be several months for
 staff training and coast guard approval.

 Somers said that the Maine DOT will be doing routine maintenance work on the transfer bridge
 tower but no date has been set.

 Patnaude said the city is going to repair the railing at the ferry landing, timing is sometime in early
 2026.

 Somers thanked Patnaude for the fence replacement around the parking lot. Reiser asked if the
 stairs going into the parking lot will be replaced. Patnaude said that the stairs going down into the
 parking lot are not going to be replaced because it means loss of parking spaces.

 AM said the sign to the bathrooms should be moved from the top of where the stairs used to be
 since the stairs are no longer there and they are not going to be installed in the future.

• Housing and Zoning Committee – ReCode Zoning survey
 Rees said the Housing and Zoning committee met to discuss Land Use Code Amendments, city
 regulations of ADUs, looking at housing supply on Peaks. Details will be shared later in the
 meeting.

• Island Assessment –
 Burton said the Peaks Environmental Action Team received a $25,000 grant from Casco Bay
 Estuary Partnership to help carry through on the assessment recommendations and public
 feedback. Next step is to develop a steering committee for the project. Three areas that will be
 focused on are public mental health, education, climate impact.

• Paper Roads
 Norm Proulx said the committee has rewritten the mission statement for the committee to remove
 advocacy for preserving paper roads and public access to paper roads. The committee is going to
 document the paper roads and release a map of their location.

 Original mission statement:
 The Paper Roads Committee aims to identify and catalog paper roads across the island. Through
 a collaborative, educational process with islanders, local authorities, and knowledgeable experts,

 PIC October 22, 2025 Meeting Minutes, DRAFT. Page 2
 we seek to facilitate the preservation of these historic pathways, particularly those that are of
 great value to islanders, and to ensure they remain accessible as integral parts of our community.

 New mission statement:
 To document the paper roads on Peaks Island by providing a clarification of terms used when
 discussing “paper roads” and a visual map that will indicate the location of the “paper roads,”
 along with their current use and proximity to Peaks Island resources, the results of which will be
 presented to Peaks Island residents and property owners.


• Parking
 Reiser said that winter parking is available at Casco Bay Lines garage. The committee is still
 working with the city to obtain more street parking in Portland.

• Golf cart
 No update.

• Election Committee
 Three PIC seats are up for election in November, three CBL seats are also up for election. The
 PIC Election Committee is looking for a chair. Mohler will ask Jerzy Sylvester if he would like to be
 the chair.


OLD BUSINESS
• Status of boat removal – discussed during public comment.


● Land use Code Update – Rees said the Planning Board feedback will require a couple of
changes to the PIC recommendations.

First change – subdivision only needs to retain a minimum of 12,000 square feet subject to
an Affordable Housing Covenant as laid out in state law 33 MRS Ch. 6, meaning the smaller
minimum lot subdivision only applies for the purposes of developing affordable housing.

Second change – lot coverage change allows maximum lot coverage of 45% (instead of
60%) with inclusion of water permeable decks allowing lot coverage up to 60%.

Glendening clarified that the 45% lot coverage does not apply to ADUs. The ADU and house
lot coverage limit is 70%.

Proulx asked where the issue of short-term rentals falls in these changes. Rees said it does
not apply because affordable housing does not include short-term rentals.

Rees explained that PIC can make a recommendation about Land Use Code Amendments,
the Planning Board can also make a recommendation, the city council then makes a
decision about which recommendation to adopt.

Rees made the motion below. Glendening seconded. Unanimous approval.



 PIC October 22, 2025 Meeting Minutes, DRAFT. Page 3
• Needs-based tickets
Rees said that Sarah was able to connect Norm Proulx and him with the finance manager.
They will meet soon to discuss issues about providing monthly passes instead of individual
needs-based tickets.


NEW BUSINESS
• Community Center programming
Haida Arias introduced some people from the Recreation Division of the City Parks and Recreation
Team. The after-school recreation program will begin to use the school gym, except for Mondays
and Wednesdays. This means the community room will be available during the days on Tuesdays,

 PIC October 22, 2025 Meeting Minutes, DRAFT. Page 4
Thursdays, Fridays. The city has interviewed and selected five people who will be on call as a city
rep for programs run at the school, such as pickup basketball, etc.

Sarah talked about the success of the Bingo program that was run in the community room last
week. 40 people came, including some from town.

Haida said the city needs to hire one more person to help run the after-school program from 3-5pm.
Glendening said PIC could post the job in their newsletter.

Ryan French said the goal is to have the Peaks Island community room used more by the
community and he wants to make it easy for the organizations that are already meeting somewhere
to use the room. He said that the insurance requirement when using the room is taken care of when
the programming is coordinated with the Parks and Rec department, or through PIC. The
Recreation Department can insure programs run at the school and in the community room.

Haida said that instructors who organize classes through Portland Parks and Recreation get paid
70% of class fee, city gets 30% of fee. Insurance is covered by the city.

• Preliminary budget talks
  Patnaude said the approved PIC budget should be submitted sometime in February.

 Glendening asked when Capital Improvement Plan requests should be submitted. Patnaude said
 that process is about to begin. Some recent island projects such as the new fence around the
 parking lot and the stairs to ferry beach will be paid for with CIP money. He explained that the city
 gets about $30 million of requests and has about $10 million to spend. He recommended road
 repairs (not backshore which will be paid for with FEMA money), sidewalk repairs, etc. Patnaude
 said some projects that are submitted are put in the five-year plan and don’t have to be
 resubmitted in subsequent years.

 Somers asked when the CIP requests should be submitted. Patnaude said requests should be
 submitted early 2026. Patnaude said some small requests could be assigned to operating budget.

 Proulx suggested that PIC follow up via email or mail with each budget request from island
 organizations, stating the outcome of their submission. Somers said that he thought that was
 already occurring but agreed that it was good practice. General agreement from councilors.


• Public water access/boat storage/public dinghy dock
Glendening said that she would like PIC to organize a committee to start investigating these
topics. Rees asked for more information about the public demand for boat storage and a
public dock. Glendening said she does not have a sense of public demand, but that
community water access and public docking is important to an island community.
AM asked if Army Dock is owned by the city. Somers said it is.
Reiser asked about boat storage. Glendening said she is talking about somewhere that the
kayaks and small dinghies can be stored during the summer, not winter storage.
Proulx asked if ferry beach is owned by the city. AM said it is.


 PIC October 22, 2025 Meeting Minutes, DRAFT. Page 5
Rees asked about life rings at beaches. Glendening said that they cost about $500 for a life
ring cabinet, and they are important for public safety.

• PIC Committee restructuring
Glendening proposed the following committee structure so that environment and
sustainability issues get more attention.

 Change 1 – Divide Environment, Sustainability, Parks & Recreation committee into
 two committees.
 1. Environment and Sustainability – Island Assessment joins this committee
 2. Parks & Beaches & Waterfront –

 Change 2 - Add Safety Committee – Golf Cart committee joins, and this includes the
 traffic studies Shelagh and Karsten have been working on

 Current list of committees:
 ● Executive -
 ● Environment, Sustainability, Parks & Recreation-
 ● Housing & Zoning -
 ● Island Assessment - joins Environment and Sustainability
 ● Paper Roads -
 ● Parking -
 ● Ferry Services -
 ● Golf Cart - joins new Safety Committee

 Proposed new list of PIC committees:
 ● Executive -
 ● Environment & Sustainability – including work with the Island Assessment
 ● Parks, Beaches, & Waterfront
 ● Housing & Zoning
 ● Paper Roads
 ● Parking
 ● Ferry Services - including Needs Based ferry tickets
 ● Safety Committee – includes old Golf Cart committee, and traffic studies. Disaster
 preparedness could be here too.

Rees asked if PIC should wait for newly elected councilors to weigh in on the restructuring.
Glendening said this PIC has the working knowledge of committee structure so the vote should go
ahead.

Rees asked if Ferry Services committee could be called “Ferry Services and Needs Based Tickets”
so it is more explicit. Reiser suggested “Ferry Services and Access.” Councilors agreed with changing
the name of that committee to Ferry Services and Access.

Glendening made a motion that PIC adopt new committee structure. Proulx seconded.
AM said that having a safety committee again is a good idea.
Motion passed unanimously.



 PIC October 22, 2025 Meeting Minutes, DRAFT. Page 6
Glendening offered to chair the Environmental and Sustainability Committee. Burton said that it would
be good for Glendening to chair the Environmental and Sustainability Committee for now and then
see if a newly elected councilor wanted to take over.

PUBLIC COMMENT
AM asked Safety Committee to advocate for the city to install a 4-way stop sign at the top of Welch Street.
Rees said that the process should begin by consulting the city traffic engineer.

AM asked about a live cam on Welch Street to watch the ferry line. Somers said that the long history of that
item ended with city push back and the decision not to pursue.

Somers made a motion to adjourn. Proulx seconded. Motion passed unanimously.



ANNOUNCEMENTS/UPDATES

Next PIC Meeting: Wednesday, November 19, 2025, at 6:15 pm in the community room and on
Zoom.

Meeting Adjournment: 8:13 p.m.




 PIC October 22, 2025 Meeting Minutes, DRAFT. Page 7