Opinion ID: 3157467
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Site Plan Approval and Amendment

Text: [¶9] We first consider Desfosses’s argument regarding her right to appeal the City Planner’s approval of WWS’s site plan amendment. The Ordinance generally requires that parties seeking “commercial, industrial, institutional and multifamily residential developments” of a certain scale must first obtain site plan approval. Saco, Me., Zoning Ordinance § 1101 (Feb. 17, 2004); see Saco, Me., Zoning Ordinance §§ 1102, 1103(1), 1106 (Feb. 17, 2004). The Ordinance further distinguishes between major site plans and minor site plans; although major site plans must be approved by the Planning Board, minor site plans can be approved by the City Planner alone.4 Saco, Me., Zoning Ordinance §§ 1103(1), (7) (Feb. 17, 2004). There is no dispute that WWS initially obtained site plan approval for its major plan from the Planning Board. [¶10] Once a site plan has been approved, the Ordinance allows amendments to the approved plan depending on whether the project involves a 4 The Ordinance defines minor site plans as, inter alia, those involving structures of less than 6,000 square feet. Saco, Me., Zoning Ordinance § 1103(7) (Feb. 17, 2004). 7 major or minor site plan and whether the proposed change is a major or minor amendment.5 One provision of the Ordinance requires that “[a]ny changes in the plan after approval must be approved by the Planning Board, or in the case of a minor site plan, the City Planner. Minor changes during construction can be approved by the City Planner.” Saco, Me., Zoning Ordinance § 1109 (Feb. 17, 2004). In a similar, but not identical, provision entitled “SITE LOCATION OF DEVELOPMENT AMENDMENT,” the Ordinance provides: “Once approved and signed by the Planning Board, no changes may be made to approved plans, without an amended approval from the Planning Board in the case of a major amendment, or from the City Planner in the case of a minor amendment.” Saco, Me., Zoning Ordinance § 1103(8) (Feb. 17, 2004). [¶11] Sections 1103(8) and 1109 do not otherwise explain the scope of their application, and site location of development amendments are not distinguished from site plan approvals anywhere else in the Ordinance. When read together, however, sections 1103 and 1109 provide that the Planning Board decides major amendments to major site plans and the City Planner decides minor amendments to 5 Examples of minor amendments include “changes in the record owner, altering phases of development, the addition of accessory structures of less than two thousand . . . s.f. each, . . . the addition of minor site features, such as lighting . . . , and changes in construction details necessitated by changing circumstances found during construction.” Saco, Me., Zoning Ordinance § 1103(8) (Feb. 17, 2004). The determination of whether a proposed amendment is a minor or major amendment also rests with the City Planner: “The City Planner will have the authority to refer any changes to the [Planning] Board if it is determined to be necessary.” Saco, Me., Zoning Ordinance § 1103(8). 8 both major and minor site plans, as well as major amendments to minor site plans.6 Here, the City Planner approved WWS’s request to construct the retaining wall and fence as a minor amendment to its major site plan.