Topsham is in the public outreach phase of its efforts to rewrite the building and zoning codes in seven areas of the town, with the goals of increasing mixed-use sections and making the areas more walkable.

The changes to the zoning and building codes resulted from the updated Comprehensive Plan in 2019. According to Susan Rae-Reeves, chairperson of the Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee, the ReCode Topsham Zoning Ordinance Update is in the draft phase and receiving public input.

Over the summer, Topsham officials are raising awareness of the recode with “Coffee with Topsham’s ReCode,” held at 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays through Aug. 8. These meetings are open to residents to ask questions and give opinions. Residents can read about the project online at topshammaine.com/recode.

The ReCode Topsham Zoning Project is a multiyear reorganization of zoning in Chapter 225 of the town code. It includes new mixed-use zones for Topsham Center that incorporate updated design standards, promote sustainable development, and streamline development review and approval procedures.

“Topsham really hasn’t had a village center-type [area], so the idea is we could develop this corridor,” Town Manager Mark Waltz said.

Recode Topsham calls the seven development areas Topsham Center Zones. These include lower, middle and upper villages along Main Street; a commercial mixed-use zone and a mixed transitional zone at the Topsham Fair Mall; mixed residential; and a master plan district applying to the Crooker District.

According to the project draft, the village zones are intended for use along Main Street in the town’s historic center.

“The whole town for land use ordinance had not had a comprehensive review in 40 years,” Rae-Reeves said, despite small updates to the zoning code over the years.

The seven areas in Topsham Center that are being considered for the zoning and building code updates. Courtesy of Skye Siladi

Topsham Center Zones

The recode project proposes Topsham Center growth areas in the seven locations that already have infrastructure, calls for greater density and uses a hybrid form-based code, which means that instead of separating uses, it focuses on how these buildings look from each other and to people walking by on the street. This means a building must meet the design standards laid out in the recode that fall in line with the Comprehensive Plan goals of a “cohesive community,” according to Planning Director Skye Siladi.

“The only real part you could consider a village at all is between the [Brunswick-Topsham] bridge and the stoplight [on Main Street and Bypass Drive],” Waltz said.

Topsham has a New England village character, and there is an interest in preserving that character in the town center with different village building specifications that could limit its destiny with village-style buildings and traditional storefronts in the lower and upper village sections.

“[The recode] is looking at creating public spaces that are attractive and will promote a walkable, multiuse community,” Rae-Reeves said.

The new spaces will allow more foot and bicycle traffic in Topsham. New zoning and building codes would support smaller-scale development, home-based businesses, and mixed-use and lived workspaces within the Topsham Center area.

“We are changing the regulations and rules that people who want to build housing have to adhere to,” Siladi said. “So, it will be an easier process to do high-density housing, which is something we outlined in our 2019 Comprehensive Plan as an interest in this area.”

Comprehensive Plan

Several big ideas in the 2019 Comprehensive Plan addressed issues needing updated zoning. Topsham is taking a hybrid approach with the zoning-use tables for certain places, like implementing form-based code in the town centers for buildings to look a certain way and be a certain distance from the street. Village buildings, traditional storefronts and row buildings can have brick, fiber cement board, stone and wood as façade material.

If the building and zoning code rewrite is approved, efforts could be made to increase the density near the Topsham Fair Mall for more housing developments because of the existing water and sewer infrastructure.

“If you use one of the building types that is used in this draft code, you may need to go through less approval processes depending on what exactly you want to do and what you want to do with your building,” Waltz said.

Another idea in the 2019 Comprehensive Plan is open space development to provide social interactions in open-space areas.

Waltz said the 2019 Comprehensive Plan could be used to redevelop the Crooker District. The recode would have a developer use a master plan of development for the whole project rather than splitting it up into pieces.

“Any time you hit the threshold of 6 acres or larger, you would have a master plan development requirement,” Rae-Reeves said.

Next steps

The first draft of the Topsham recode was released in spring 2022, and the second draft was released in April 2024. After gathering public input — the main goal of “Coffee with Topsham’s ReCode” — the Planning Board will host workshops in September on the rewrites to the building and zoning codes and allow the public to submit comments.

The Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee will consider the positive and negative comments in the second draft of zoning code rewrites and pass them along to consultants Duncan Associates and Codmetrics.

The Planning Board will hold hearings on the draft zoning and building codes in January 2025. If everything is on schedule, the third draft could go to the annual town meeting for a vote in May 2025.

“We are encouraging people to look at this over the summer,” Waltz said. “The big thing is we want the community to be behind this; we don’t want to divide the community, so if it turns out that there’s a lot of comments coming in and work needs to be done, then the time schedule gets adjusted.”