A couple that wants to create a small wedding, event, and community recreation venue on a property near Webber Pond in Vassalboro is learning just how much negativity and difficulty can come one’s way by trying to create a business and improve their community.
Ratesha and Keith Rosell have been open and transparent in presenting their plan to create Rosewood Hills, a wedding and event venue with the capacity for 75 guests that will focus on waterfront ceremonies and receptions in an existing airplane hangar, and end all events by 10 p.m. The Rosells also intend to use their space to host some community events as well, such as setting up a Christmas Santa’s Village, hosting a fright night for Halloween, and hosting fun activities on Mother’s Day.
Instead of receiving cooperation and support for creating a new local business that intends to give back to the community, the Rosells have had to deal with neighborhood objections, uncertainty as to whether their plan abides with town ordinances, several discussions with the Planning Board, and extensive 19-point requested changes from both that board and the code enforcement officer.
All of this leaves the Rosells with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line before they can even open their doors. That should concern everyone that wants a robust and healthy free-market society.
Regulate Problems, Not Possibilities
Opposition to the wedding venue boils down largely to noise and traffic. Neighbors aren’t thrilled at the idea of music, dancing, and drinking taking place. They are also concerned about the effect a wedding venue could have on the character of Webber Pond Road.
Those things are all reasonable concerns and questions, because it is a town’s job to set and enforce limits on things like noise, public safety, road suitability, and whether businesses fit into the land use rules.
But there is an important difference between regulating an actual nuisance and assuming one will exist before a business even opens. Mr. Rosell and his wife have made every attempt to reach out to their neighbor and mitigate her concerns. They are voluntarily committing to closing at 10 p.m. They even conducted a test with a decibel-measuring app to test anticipated music level to show that the music will be within the town’s limit, and they went as far as getting a letter from the Vassalboro police chief who noted a lack of accidents at the many businesses that used to be located at their proposed location, stating in his opinion that there are no public safety concerns with the property being utilized as a wedding venue.
Given what already exists on Webber Pond Road, including a golf course, a community school, a paintball business, and a heavily used boat launch, it is hard to see why another business in the area should be treated as inherently disruptive. Of particular and perhaps ironic note, the property being purchased by the Rosells is currently being used as a gun range and private air strip. It is therefore hard to grasp why a wedding venue would have neighbors believing that noise will be a problem.
It’s also important to note that the existing property owner stated during the planning board meeting that he had never received any noise complaints from either his planes or gun range.
Of course, as with any proposed use, residents should have an opportunity to be heard on the potential impact of the venue. But the town shouldn’t treat hypothetical inconvenience as proof that the business is incompatible with the neighborhood. A 75-person wedding venue that ends its events at 10 p.m. shouldn’t have a presumption of failure simply because some neighbors prefer that property remain unchanged.
The Rosells Are the Ones Taking the Risk
One detail in this story deserves far more attention, and that is the financial risk of the entrepreneur.
The neighbors are not purchasing the property. The Planning Board is not financing it. The code enforcement office is not putting its savings on the line.
But the Rosells are. They have invested months of work and thousands of dollars trying to make this project happen. This is the couple’s third attempt at acquiring a venue. The earlier plan, for a property in Freedom, fell apart when the Rosells correctly concluded they would not be welcome there. It was sidetracked again when the couple sold their home and got prepared to purchase another property in Oakland, but that deal also fell apart, again at the last moment and due to no fault of the Rosells.
So here they are again, hoping to buy a piece of property in Vassalboro. If the couple walks away from the project as their opponents want, they stand to lose about $10,000. If they go through with the purchase and later can’t operate the venue there, they’ll lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.
That’s what entrepreneurship looks like. We often talk abstractly about wanting more small businesses and more jobs to create a stronger rural economy, but too often the attention turns to the problems and not the people willing to risk their own money to try to make things happen. We need to appreciate the entrepreneurs who are willing to take chances.
In order to get the benefits that entrepreneurship brings us, we have to give entrepreneurs room to work.
The Permitting Process Should Not Be Another Gamble
But instead of giving them that room to work we instead burden them with more and more permitting. When it comes to controversial development proposals, nothing creates more friction than a sense of uncertainty, and too many towns in Maine have embraced a permitting process that is filled with uncertainty.
When the Rosells appeared before the Planning Board on July 7, they brought maps, photographs, a presentation, and references to town ordinances explaining how they believed the project would comply.
But some board members said they hadn’t seen the material beforehand and signaled they didn’t understand parts of the proposal. One member did not recognize the ordinances included in the presentation. Another board member said he had difficulty reading the presentation slides. The couple was asked to return with the information organized on a single piece of paper. The prospective business owners thought they’d done their homework in preparing to explain their proposal and demonstrate their compliance with town rules. But rather than being given an opportunity to shine, they were met with confusion and a seemingly dismissive response of “simplify the presentation and come back with a proposal on a single piece of paper.”
Before the next meeting the Rosells received a 19-point list of requested changes from the code enforcement officer and Planning Board. It included requests that apparently don’t at all match the project they are proposing. There was one concerning drainage from a gravel parking lot, which they are not constructing, and another concerning lighting, which the decision claimed wasn’t on the map but which the Rosells claim it clearly was.
This could simply be a mistake by a volunteer-run board working through a complicated application. Planning and code-enforcement questions can be difficult, and officials have an obligation to make sure applications comply with the law. But from the applicant’s perspective, the process appears remarkably difficult to predict.
A business owner can account for a $500 permit fee. They can adjust a plan to comply with a clear setback. They can install required lighting, follow a measurable noise limit, meet fire codes, or agree to a closing time. But what is much harder to account for is uncertainty over what will be required at the next meeting, what standard even applies, or whether a technically compliant project will ultimately be rejected because people simply do not like the idea.
Maine Policy Institute has raised this same problem in the housing context. Our Under Construction report argues that discretionary approvals create uncertainty even for projects that satisfy ordinary regulatory requirements. It also recommends more “specific and objective” criteria so applicants know what is required before investing their money.
The principle is just as applicable to a wedding venue as it is to an apartment building.
Government rules should be clear enough that an ordinary person can understand what must be done to receive approval. Obtaining permission should not itself become a speculative investment.
This is How Communities Slowly Become Hostile to Business
Maine’s future will not be determined by the outcome of one individual permit dispute. But hundreds of disputes like this one could. Every new requirement that a business owner has to meet adds a cost. Every postponed meeting means another day of delay. Every vague standard creates another risk. The entrepreneurs watching this fight play out don’t want to be caught on the wrong end of an uncertain permit process. Even if the Rosells ultimately make it through the process, the next entrepreneur watching from the sidelines may simply decide it is not worth the risk.
That cumulative effect is exactly what MPI has warned about in Portland’s business climate. Businesses rarely confront one gigantic regulation that single-handedly makes a project impossible. More often, they confront licensing, zoning, inspections, fees, hearings, special rules, delays, and uncertainty piled on top of one another until an otherwise viable investment is no longer worth making.
Eventually, the damage extends beyond the businesses that are denied or delayed. It changes the calculation for people who have not invested yet. Someone considering opening a restaurant, converting a property, expanding a small business, or investing their savings in a new idea may simply decide that another town or another state is easier. This is exactly how a community can become hostile to business without ever passing a law that explicitly says so.
A Reasonable Middle Ground
A reasonable middle ground can, and should, be found in the Vassalboro case. While residents should be protected from genuine nuisances, and some rules regulating things such as traffic and noise are appropriate, so is allowing the Rosells fair opportunity to establish and operate their lawful business.
The town can establish reasonable operating hours and objective noise standards. It can say that if the business operates within those standards then it should hear no complaints or requirements to change. The town should also be able to require sensible traffic and parking plans. Only if Rosewood Hills creates problems should the town seek to address them.
But it should not be able to effectively require the business owners to guarantee that nobody will ever hear music or encounter traffic on the road.
Town rules should not only protect existing property owners, but it should also encourage new entrepreneurial ventures for those with good ideas. Towns throughout Maine should ensure their rules and their permitting process support rather than interfere with potentially great business ideas and the significant financial risks their proponents are willing to accept.
Update:
Since this writing was originally drafted, the Rosells returned to the Planning Board for another lengthy meeting, seemingly with encouraging progress. It sounds as though the board is getting closer to an approval of the proposal, and it has focused the remaining issues on three points: traffic, vegetative buffering, and noise. These are positive developments, and the board should be credited for narrowing the dispute to more specific and measurable issues.
But it has become apparent on some aspects of the proposal, especially regarding traffic and music, for example, that no matter how much the Rosells attempt to address concerns and problems, there is a subset of neighbors who simply do not want the activity to take place, and there are no standards that could satisfy them.
Months of lengthy procedure, meetings, and unwarranted uncertainty is not the way the process should work. But it is the situation the Rosells have found themselves in for simply trying to pursue their dream of opening a popular type of Maine business. No prospective business owner should have to endure that simply to open a wedding venue, and Maine Policy Institute hopes that one day towns across Maine will embrace more business-friendly planning and permitting processes that allow our business to thrive.