Enabling statute

Maine

Title 30-A (Municipalities and Counties), Chapter 187, Planning and Land Use Regulation; home-rule ordinance power at section 3001

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Summary

Maine delegates zoning power to its municipalities through home rule. The grant flows from the home-rule ordinance power in Title 30-A section 3001, implemented for land use through Title 30-A Chapter 187. Section 4352 authorizes a municipality to adopt a zoning ordinance providing any form of zoning consistent with the chapter, subject to public participation, comprehensive plan consistency, and zoning map requirements, while section 4312 states the purpose of establishing local comprehensive planning and land use management in each municipality. Counties zone only their unorganized territories and the state Land Use Planning Commission regulates the unorganized territory, so the dominant model is municipal home rule.

The delegation

§4352. Zoning ordinances. A municipal zoning ordinance may provide for any form of zoning consistent with this chapter, subject to the following provisions. 1. Public participation required. The public shall be given an adequate opportunity to be heard in the preparation of a zoning ordinance. 2. Relation to comprehensive plan. A zoning ordinance must be pursuant to and consistent with a comprehensive plan adopted by the municipal legislative body, except that adoption of an adult entertainment establishment ordinance does not necessitate adoption of a comprehensive plan by a municipality that has no such comprehensive plan. 3. Zoning map required. A zoning map describing each zone established or modified must be adopted as part of the zoning ordinance or incorporated in the ordinance. 5. Effect on local governments. County and municipal governments and districts are subject to any zoning ordinance. §4312. Statement of findings, purpose and goals. 2. Legislative purpose. The Legislature declares that it is the purpose of this subchapter to: A. Establish, in each municipality of the State, local comprehensive planning and land use management; B. Encourage municipalities to identify the tools and resources to effectively plan for and manage future development within their jurisdictions with a maximum of local initiative and flexibility; C. Encourage local land use ordinances, tools and policies based on local comprehensive plans; F. Provide for continued direct state regulation of development proposals that occur in areas of statewide concern; G. Encourage the widest possible involvement by the citizens of each municipality in all aspects of the planning and implementation process. §3001. Ordinance power. Any municipality, by the adoption, amendment or repeal of ordinances or bylaws, may exercise any power or function which the Legislature has power to confer upon it, which is not denied either expressly or by clear implication, and exercise any power or function granted to the municipality by the Constitution of Maine, general law or charter.

Verification

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All citations verified against the official Maine Legislature statutes site (legislature.maine.gov) and corroborating sources. (a) Real/current statutes: - Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 30-A, sec. 3001 (Ordinance power) — confirmed; this is Maine's home-rule grant: "Any municipality, by the adoption, amendment or repeal of ordinances or bylaws, may exercise any power or function which the Legislature has power to confer upon it, which is not denied either expressly or by clear implication." Liberally construed, with a rebuttable presumption of validity. In Chapter 141 (Ordinances). - sec. 4312 (Statement of findings, purpose and goals) — confirmed; states the purpose to "create local comprehensive planning and land use management in each municipality of the State." - sec. 4352 (Zoning ordinances) — confirmed; opening clause: "A municipal zoning ordinance may provide for any form of zoning consistent with this chapter, subject to the following provisions." Requires consistency with a comprehensive plan and adoption of a zoning map. - Both 4312 and 4352 sit in Title 30-A, Subpart 6-A, Chapter 187 (Planning and Land Use Regulation) — chapter number confirmed. (b) Genuinely the zoning enabling authority: Yes. Sec. 4352 is the direct zoning-ordinance enabling provision; Chapter 187 is the land use regulation framework; sec. 3001 supplies the underlying home-rule ordinance power. None are repealed or unrelated. (c) Authority model accurate: Yes — municipal_delegation (home_rule). Maine is a strong home-rule state (sec. 3001 liberal-construction and rebuttable-presumption language). For the unorganized/deorganized territory, the Maine Land Use Planning Commission (Title 12, Chapter 206-A; created at sec. 683-A) is the planning/zoning authority, and counties may request regional plans for that territory — consistent with the summary's framing that municipal home rule is the dominant model. The summary's characterization of the county/unorganized-territory role is essentially correct (the LUPC, not counties, is the primary regulator there; counties play a requesting/partnering role). No corrections needed.