For more information contact:
Jonathan Piper
jpiper@preti.com

YORK, MAINE - Two businessmen with longstanding ties to the Town of York have sued the Town on the grounds that the Town's new Residential Growth Ordinance threatens their businesses and violates the Town's own Comprehensive Plan by eliminating affordable housing and encouraging sprawl.  They also allege that the ordinance will have the unintended consequence of driving up property taxes.

Under the Town's new ordinance, a limited number of building permits – far fewer than the number issued in recent years – are distributed via a complicated lottery process in which it is possible that an applicant may never "win" a building permit.  Moreover, the system is weighted against subdivisions and multiunit dwellings, thereby encouraging random non-clustered development – "sprawl" as it is commonly known.

David R. Currier, whose family has lived in York since the 1730s, is the owner of Currier Builders, Inc., one of a few building companies that have continued to build affordable housing in York over recent years.  Mr. Currier claims that delay and uncertainty as to the availability of building permits and resulting carrying costs while waiting to "win the lottery" before building will force him out of the affordable housing business in York.  If anything, Mr. Currier points out, builders in York will be forced into building more expensive "high end" houses to recover their costs if an opportunity to build a house eventually presents itself.  That will in turn drive up house prices and property values in town, which will lead to higher taxes.
William Hancock, a restaurateur who was born and raised in York, is a part owner of Cape Neddick Estates, Inc., which owns land abutting his house and invested over $50,000 in planning and site work for an attractive development in York prior to the new growth ordinance going into effect.  Now, under the Town's lottery, it will literally be years before the project can be completed and Mr. Hancock can recoup his investment in the development.  Hancock and his wife Beth had planned on income from the sale of home sites to fund their eventual retirement.  The lawsuit claims that the value of Mr. Hancock's property has been unlawfully "taken" without just compensation by the Town.
Joining Messrs. Currier and Hancock in the 24-page complaint filed in Superior Court in Augusta, is the Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Maine, Inc., a nonprofit corporation headquartered in Augusta.  Home Builders has approximately 330 members, including general contractors, building suppliers and subcontractors, some of whom do business or plan to do business in York and have also suffered as a direct result of the ordinance.  The complaint asks that the ordinance be declared unlawful and that the Town be enjoined from enforcing it.  The lawsuit also seeks compensation for damages as well as the costs of pursuing the suit.

The attorneys bringing the action are Jonathan S. Piper, Michael Kaplan and Michael K. Mahoney, all of the Portland office of Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau, Pachios & Haley.
In addition to the claims that the growth ordinance imposes a "taking" on property owners and violates the Town's Comprehensive Plan, the six-count complaint also asserts that both the lottery system and the ordinance's annual cap on building permits were "randomly and irrationally selected" and violate the due process and equal protection clauses of the Maine and U.S. Constitutions.
Speaking for his clients when the complaint was filed, Attorney Piper said, "Looking into the history of this ordinance, it's fairly clear that many well-intentioned people in York really didn't know what the consequences would be.  It discourages people willing to invest in wise and controlled residential housing growth.  The ordinance won't stop sprawl; it will encourage it.  It will make living in York less affordable and raise property valuations for everyone in Town.

"Now the Town is forced to defend a lawsuit and will probably end up paying considerable damages because an ill-conceived ordinance was forced upon it."
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