Camden's Select Board will convene for a regularly scheduled meeting Feb. 4, at 6:30 p.m. in the French Conference Room. On the agenda is a public hearing for proposed zoning amendments that are to appear before voters at June Town Meeting, as well as possibly contracting with a private company to draft a master plan for the Camden Snow Bowl, and a discussion about the future of regional emergency dispatch.

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If the Select Board agrees Tuesday evening to place it on the annual Town Meeting Warrant in June, Camden voters will consider a land use amendment to allow Borden Cottage to increase the number of beds at its private residential facility on Bay View Street from 12 to 18.

Borden Cottage, in business for the last six years under ownership of FHRE, LLC, is a treatment facility that provides a recovery program for alcohol and sbustance abuse disorders.

The beds are to be in single or double occupancy bedrooms, as opposed to the current requirement of single-occupancy bedrooms only.

The other public hearing Tuesday evening concerns a state-ordered adjustment to Camden's recently changed zoning ordinance governing accessory apartments.

"The state Dept. of Economic and Community Development reviewed the recent amendments that were approved by voters to implement the requirements of LD 2003 [2022 Maine Legislative Act] and responded with a strongly worded recommendation that our code needed to include the minimum allowable square footage for accessory apartments, not just the maximum square footage," wrote Camden Planning and Development Director Jeremy Martin, in a Dec. 11 memo to the Select Board.

According to current language, an accessory apartment is a dwelling unit of 600 square feet or less of living area. However the DECD wants Camden to add language that requires a minimum size of 190 square feet applied to accessory apartments.

Snow Bowl

Jeff Nathan, Snow Bowl General Manager and Parks and Recreation Director, is recommending that the Select Board contract with the SE Group to develop a master plan for four-season healthy outdoor activities at the Snow Bowl.

The privately-owned SE Group is headquartered in Utah with offices in Vermont and California. In 2023, it completed the Kingdom Trails Network Capacity Study for the Burke Area Chamber of Commerce and Kingdom Trail Association, in Vermont. The company also completed the West Vail Area Master Plan for West Vail, Colorado, and the Conway Master Plan Update for Conway, New Hampshire.

Funding for the Snow Bowl plan is to derive from a $160,000 grant from the Maine Community Outdoor Recreation Assistance Program of the DECD. Of that, $106,000 is to be spent on the plan.

Goals include incorporating proposed hiking and biking trail developments.

"The Master Plan development will build upon the planning and development that was initiated with the previous Camden Snow Bowl redevelopment, including the proposed new lodge," wrote Nathan, in a memo to the Select Board.

The SE Group's entire proposal is included in the Select Board's meeting packet.