Cape Elizabeth resident Cynthia Dill led a successful petition drive for a citizen referendum to overturn the amendments.
Dill said Thursday she was “delighted” with the outcome of the vote.
“Moving forward, it’s my hope the housing committee takes up the idea of Community Housing, which I have presented to it, as well as considers other options that reflect the values of our beautiful town,” she said in an email to The Forecaster.
Read More“We still have, as a town, opportunities to develop multifamily housing in the town center,” Dill said, “but we would be abiding by the new state law, LD 2003, which would allow for greater density – twice the density – and reduced parking, but would still keep intact the local design standards of height restriction and the requirement to have commercial activity on the first floor.”
Read MoreOn October 13, 2022 at the Cape Elizabeth Town Hall a public forum with Town Councilor Tim Reiniger and Cynthia Dill was convened and broadcast about the “Town Center and Affordable Housing Zoning Ordinance Amendments Referendum” on the November 8th Cape Elizabeth ballot. The forum was broadcast live on CETV.
Read MoreCynthia Dill, a town center resident who led opposition to Dunham Court, said she wishes Shinberg luck but questioned why he needs 23 additional parking spaces.
“(I) support the development of the town center consistent with our zoning ordinance and the comprehensive plan,” Dill said Friday in a written statement.
Read More“You win some, you lose some,” Dill said in an email to The Forecaster. “I have no regrets working to help solve a problem and am grateful for the opportunity to have met so many good people in our town along the way who want to help solve problems.”
Read MoreThe Cape Elizabeth resident behind a successful campaign to overturn zoning allowing affordable housing in the town center has launched a new petition drive, this one aimed at creating affordable housing at Gull Crest Fields.
Read MoreCAPE ELIZABETH (WGME) -- A Cape Elizabeth resident has launched a new petition to create affordable housing at Gull Crest.
It started with the proposed "Dunham Court," an affordable housing project by the town hall. After the council passed changes for it to go ahead, Cynthia Dill launched a referendum effort to potentially overturn that.
“Holding the Maine State Police accountable for the unlawful surveillance activity of the MIAC has not been easy but is important,” she said Wednesday. “Changes within the agency to protect citizens’ privacy have been made thanks to Trooper Loder’s courage bringing this case and we expect a trial to fully vindicate him of the unfair smears generated by the state in its shaky defense of collecting and retaining massive amounts of information about law-abiding Maine citizens.”
A Public Forum on “Plan B,” the Cape Elizabeth Citizen Petition to Create Community Housing was held at town hall on March 10, 2022 and broadcast on CETV
Read MoreRegarding LD 2003, An Act to Implement the Recommendations of the Commission to Increase Housing Opportunities in Maine by Studying Zoning and Land Use Restrictions, “the Municipal Housing Development Permit Review Board (Sec. 12 of the bill) should give citizens standing to challenge the approval of applications when the public cost outweighs the benefit. Highly sophisticated, heavily marketed financial transactions are not all alike. As currently drafted, for-profit real estate developers have negotiating advantage and it’s unfair. Left unchecked we will have a landscape of bleak housing.”
Read More“The developer of Dunham Court wanted the rules to be changed so it could maximize public subsidy instead of working within the rules to create housing for families that reflects our community values,” Dill wrote.
Read More“Good riddance Dunham Court,” said Cynthia Dill, a former legislator who has been a vocal opponent. “I could not be prouder of our community for standing up for its values. … We can do better.”
Read More“I drafted the petition and enlisted a group of 25 volunteers to circulate it,” said Cynthia Dill, a Portland lawyer, politician and a Cape Elizabeth resident since 2003. Volunteers included former Cumberland Country District Attorney Stephanie Anderson, a 19-year Cape resident, and Councilor-elect Tim Reiniger, who faced a vote recount this week, after the Forecaster’s deadline.
“I initially tried to convince the Town Council, through advocacy, that approving these housing amendments was a grave mistake,” Dill said in an interview this week. But many members of the council “signaled at every step of the way that they were going to just plow this thing right through,” she said.
Read More“People have increased their wealth by living in Cape Elizabeth,” said former state senator and town resident Cynthia Dill. "And so therefore, we all know that if we want to help people, we need to help them get in the housing market instead of lining the pockets of private developers and serving a very low-income clientele that doesn't reside here.”
Read More“Cape Elizabeth does not have a housing crisis,” said Cynthia Dill, a prominent Democrat who is a lawyer and former state senator. Dill lives in the town center neighborhood, just around the corner from the project site. Her home has an estimated market value of about $882,000 across real estate websites.
“We’re a high-income town and should not be subsidizing a for-profit, low-income housing project because it doesn’t address our affordable housing needs,” Dill said.
The project would only “maximize profits” for the developers and requires “special rules” that would discriminate against other property owners in the town center zone, Dill said.
Read More“In a case that has as a central premise the defendants are keeping information unlawfully secret, they want the court to keep the litigation secret,” Dill wrote in her response. “The plaintiff has no intention of discovering or offering into evidence anyone’s personnel history except his own and any rights of confidentiality are his to waive if he wishes.”
Read MoreThe Maine Attorney General's Office asked the judge to dismiss most claims in a whistleblower lawsuit that says a state trooper was retaliated against for objecting to police surveillance practices. “This would be the case that says, look, if you’re going to take this money and you’re going to do this job to collect this data, you have to abide by the Privacy Act,” attorney Cynthia Dill said. “How much more notice do these people need that they are in fact obligated to comply with the Privacy Act?”
Read MoreIn between stints in Augusta, Bennett supplied data to corporate gadflies and led efforts to reform corporate America. Hear how that experience informs his ideas about changing state government and empowering the Maine Legislature.
Read MoreLet the history books reflect that it was the courage and tenacity of Lynne Nash who first awoke the state of Maine to the epitome of bad governance.
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