By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
    The five members of the Scarborough Town Council present at Wednesday's regular meeting (Shawn Babine was absent) were broadsided by fellow council member Patrick O'Reilly's announcement that he would be resigning his seat on the council, effective immediately.
    Reading from a statement he had prepared, O'Reilly said his decision followed consultation with his family and was due to "ever increasing commitments in my personal life."
    "I am proud to have served the town in various capacities over the past decade and cherish the memories and people that this service has afforded me the opportunity to meet," he said. "I hope that at some point in the future I will be able to serve again."
    O'Reilly also announced his resignation from several other positions including National League of Cities representative to the Governmental Accounting Standards Board Advisory Committee, member of the National League of Cities Finance Steering Committee, member of the Greater Portland Council of Governments Steering Committee and member of the Cities Future Panel and member of the joint committee on Service Efforts and Accomplishment Reporting with the Urban Institute. O'Reilly also resigned from the Scarborough Public Library Board of Trustees and notified the Maine Municipal Association that he will no longer continue as a member of policy and advocacy groups.
    After reading his statement, O'Reilly moved for the meeting to be adjourned and left the meeting without speaking to the council.
    In other business, the council approved a development transfer provision. Despite the council's hesitation earlier this year to move ahead with zoning ordinance amendments regarding development transfer, they unanimously approved a second reading revised set of amendments brought forward by the Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee (CPIC).
    The amendments, which are intended to transfer residential development from rural, limited growth areas to designated growth areas, were remanded back to the committee for more work following a Feb. 21 council meeting. 
The CPIC's revisions maintain a mechanism that offers two approaches for development transfer. Besides the direct transfer of development rights between a land owner and developer, the amendment also calls for payment of a development transfer fee that the town can use to purchase development rights or land for conservation.
    Outlining the changes, Town Planner Dan Bacon said the CPIC added a provision that calls for the council to review the process and the fee once every three years. This will give the town a better idea of how much money is spent on conservation land to balance the additional growth, he said.
    Development transfer fees will go into an existing Land Acquisition Reserve Fund, which is overseen by the Land Board, or a separate account. Another revision calls for priority to be given to conserving land located in the same traffic shed as the development that uses the units that are transferred.
The revisions also offer an incentive for rural landowners who chose to pursue the transfer of development rights option. Each landowner would receive one and a half dwelling unit credits for each dwelling unit that could have potentially been developed on their property. In addition, a registry and landowner assistance program will be created for landowners interested in selling their development rights.
    Council Chair Jeffrey Messer said he thought development transfer was a good idea in theory, but the reality is that it may not be used. He added that the CPIC had addressed his issues of concern including providing a way to limit the process until the town can determine it is actually being used.
    Sylvia Most, who serves on the CPIC, said "the process is working well at this point" and now the town can move forward in implementing its comprehensive plan.