[0:00] All right. Welcome to the Town Council special meeting on Monday, August 24th, 2026.
[0:08] Uh, roll call please.
[0:11] Councillor Anderson here. Councillor Harriman here. Councillor Jordan here. Councillor Skarbek here. Councillor Swasey here. Councillor Thompson here. Chair. Cypress here.
[0:22] Would you please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance?
[0:27] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[0:48] At this time, I'd like to offer an opportunity for discussion of items not on the agenda tonight.
[0:58] Okay. Anybody online? All right. Seeing? None.
[1:05] Because it's a special meeting. I was not actually going to call for correspondences and reports. Is the council in agreement? Mhm. Okay. Be ready next time with all your reports. All right. Item six review of draft minutes.
[1:27] May I have a motion, please? S3:
[1:30] Second.
[1:32] Any discussion? All those in favor?
[1:38] Thank you. All right. Item seven. Agenda items. We're going to have a public hearing for a special amusement permit for the good table. The good table, located at 527 ocean House road, has submitted a special amusement permit application. The Good Table has a current liquor license approved by Town Council on March 10th, 2026. Expiration is February 20th, 2027. The restaurant is looking to have live music on the front porch, dining room or sunroom during normal operating hours. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak on this item? Please approach the podium. Please give your full name and address and you'll have three minutes.
[2:27] Thank you. My name is Gail Schneider. I live at 511 ocean House road, Cape Elizabeth. And thank you for having this public hearing. And thank you for showing up for one item. That's pretty impressive. Thanks for volunteering for Our Town. Um, I love it that this happens. So, um. The proposed muse. Live music at the good table and the front porch, the dining room, the screen sunroom. We feel that it will have a very, very negative noise impact on our nearby residential homes and apartments in the area. Um, we highly value the quiet, rural neighborhood surrounding the good table. It's been this way for many, many years and we hope it will stay very similar to what we're we we know and love. We're concerned that this potential live music change will lower the resale of our value of the house, the property. Um, there's already a significant noise increase at the route school adjacent to our property and neighborhood. Um, this is something new to the neighborhood. We also are concerned that if the live music is allowed, it might set a precedent for the now vacant restaurant at the corner of ocean House Road and Davis Point Lane. Also adjacent to our property and our neighborhood. The prevailing summer winds are from the south off the ocean and blow directly into our neighborhood. This summer, it's been extra special to have that relief, um, carrying any noise along the way. It's quite amazing how strongly these sounds travel. Some early mornings and evenings we can even hear the ocean waves. Um, please. We ask that you consider restricting the live music at the good table to the closed in dining room only. Um, the sun porch has screening in the good weather, and that would be virtually the same thing as the front porch, we believe. We'd also ask that you consider restricting the number of days and hours that the music is allowed. Perhaps a Friday or Saturday, 6 to 9, but something other than just wide open. Um. And we please consider. Would you please consider these restrictions to respect the residential rural neighbors in the area of the good table? And we speak on behalf of several of the neighbors that could not be here tonight. So thank you for giving it some attention.
[4:58] Thank you.
[4:59] My name is Joseph Foley and I live at 511 ocean House road. Also, the only thing I'll add to Gail is we wish that you would have sent out a notice to us. The planning board sends out notices when certain things happen in your neighborhood. We were extremely disappointed to find that the town council doesn't have such a provision in place, and we would really encourage you to have something, because if Gail hadn't been diligent to find out about this, the next thing we know, uh, perhaps you would have approved it and we would have all this noise in the neighborhood without having any knowledge about anything happening. So please take that into consideration.
[5:40] Thank you.
[5:41] Thank you.
[5:49] I'm going to need a motion before we can have discussion.
[5:58] I move that we approve the the special amusement.
[6:02] I'm sorry. I have to close. I have to close the public hearing. I apologize, I apologize. Thank you. I'm closing the public hearing. Thank you. I was ready to talk or listen. All right. Item B is the special amusement permit where we do need a motion before we can begin discussion.
[6:25] I move that we approve the special amusement permit.
[6:32] Second.
[6:34] All right. Discussion.
[6:36] I, I did make the motion. I did the same thing. Last meeting to I made a motion, which I actually didn't support. Um, I agree that, um, that there are concerns with live music in the neighborhood, and I would prefer to see this permit authorizing the music in the dining room only. And is the applicant. The applicant is not here tonight.
[7:08] Doesn't appear to.
[7:09] Be, I don't see.
[7:13] Okay, that's.
[7:16] I think that's inappropriate, but but they should be present to have the conversation.
[7:22] Yeah. I mean, I'd like to know how if that would affect his business plan and to what extent. I think the concern about having the live music outdoors in that neighborhood. I think it's a valid one.
[7:41] I just point. I know, and this is going back to my planning board days. There are restrictions on how loud, um, a certain place can be at the property line. I think it's 55dB. It can't exceed. And so there's already restrictions in place for either live music inside or live music outside. Um, so I think I think the neighbors, um, have coverage because if all of a sudden they the this music starts getting out of hand and getting too loud, then code enforcement can get called. And there's a way to kind of remedy that situation. And I can't imagine that the good table I know it would be nice to have the applicant here so we could address these concerns that the council has. Um, but I would kind of be surprised if they were going to have very loud type of music on the outside porch. I could be wrong on that. But again, there are restrictions that the town already has for noise levels at property lines. So they I hopefully they already know this, but they'd have to adhere to that, which I think really does protect a budding properties.
[8:49] I agree with Jonathan. There's there are ordinance in place to address, uh, decibels and things like that. I think one of our steps here tonight is going to be maybe a review of the, the licenses etc., so and moving that along. But I think at this point in time and the fact that I believe it's a commercial zone, um, and so it's a commercial business and a commercial zone. I also agree with Jonathan that I can't imagine that they're going to have rock bands. I think it's probably music that is kind of supports the the business type of business that they're doing, such as, I don't know, maybe jazz or something along those lines. Uh, but I, I don't have a problem with the approving the application.
[9:51] Tim.
[9:52] What made me think about when I was trying to get into this a little bit today, um, right. A little bit just down the street. We've got the in by the sea. And this time of year, almost every weekend night and sometimes even more. There's a wedding going on there or some kind of every weekend. And certainly there's music. Um, all of those events. And I just wonder, like, like Penny says, this is a commercial zone. We do allow that at the end by the sea. Um, and I'm not sure how we would be in a position to be able to restrict. There may be some ability for us to, to suggest, um, you know, maybe they, they try to keep it under control by maybe just using the dining room. I'm not sure. I'm trying to remember if that was one of the three, if they specifically talked about outside the dining room. Yeah, they did, they did. They were going to use all possibly all three. Yeah. Um, but I don't I'm not sure if we're really in a position where we could, if we're treating that all the businesses in that area with similar kind of an understanding how we can allow the live music at the end by the sea and not allow them to have some kind of a musical event, a music event at the good table. So I'm inclined to be willing to approve this, and maybe with some suggestions of them being careful with it. And, uh, we can we can always, can always be brought back to our attention if it does get abused. And we can address it when that that happens, but I'm inclined to give them the opportunity to to prove that they can do this in a way that doesn't. Isn't offensive to the neighborhood.
[11:43] I was just going to agree with the fact that the N uses the same. I may have to follow the same noise standards, and there's neighbors closer to them by the sea than on the couple that spoke to us are as close to the good table, and we don't receive numerous in by the sea complaints. So I would imagine the good table would find a way to keep their decimals at an appropriate level if they want to continue providing this option.
[12:17] Any further discussion?
[12:18] Well, just to address the other point, why nobody is here representing them tonight, I wish they were, but I think if you remember how we were pretty, pretty enthusiastically interested in trying to help him in any way we could, including having this special meeting for them. They probably didn't get the sense that there was going to be a big reason for them to be here tonight, but it would have been nice if somebody showed up.
[12:42] I know this is a little off the subject, but I think that we should any, any business that is applying for any type of license or permit should be required to be at the meeting. So the council has an opportunity to, uh, kind of kick the tires and ask questions. I'd like to kind of put that out there as a policy at some point in time. I just think it's it's not a professional. I mean, I know as a business owner I would be sitting out there. So it it's not really professional for my perspective for them to not be here. But.
[13:30] Thank you. So I too am inclined to approve this special amusement permit based on the fact that we already have current ordinances. And, um, again, I don't think that we I have to agree, we can't treat businesses in the same district differently. And so I agree that we need to give them the chance to prove that they can be good, responsible business owners follow the ordinances. And, um, if if they start, you know, disrupting the neighborhood and getting complaints, then we may have to address it. But I think, um, other councilors have made appropriate points where we I think we have to abide by the rules that we have essentially, and not treat people differently. So that's kind of where I'm going to fall.
[14:29] I think where that comes up, Elizabeth, is that, um, you can have a commercial zone where a business isn't as closely, um, uh, a budding, a neighborhood. So I think that's why it's really important, as we look at the next agenda item, that I know that that's really what was addressed when, uh, rudis was in that area. It had to do with distance from the houses. And we really need to be cognizant. And, and Jonathan mentioned ordinances that are in place. I think it's, uh, those are the things that we need to look at is how close is a commercial business to abutting properties and what we put in place relative to that.
[15:27] Thank you. Is there any further discussion on this item? Yes.
[15:33] Thank you. I'm, uh, I'm looking at the application, and it is, um. It's thin, to say the least. Um, looking at the noise ordinance, it does allow, um, amplification up until, um, 10:00 Sunday through Thursday and 11:00 on Friday and Saturday. I wish the owner were here. I would like to know how restricting this permit to the interior would affect this business plan. Um, there is a purpose in the town council reviewing the application, and I think the purpose in reviewing the application is obviously to make sure that the our ordinances are being upheld, but also to assess the impact that it might have on the community, I would support this. I would support this if it were limited to the inside. But because he is it includes the porch. I'm going to be voting no.
[16:43] Currently the hours of their operation only go to 8:00 anyhow.
[16:47] So yeah.
[16:50] They close it.
[16:52] Yeah.
[16:54] Yeah.
[16:55] So.
[17:01] Okay. Any further discussion?
[17:05] All those in favor?
[17:09] All those opposed?
[17:12] Thank you.
[17:17] All right. And now on to item seven C Ordinance committee referral.
[17:30] Let me see here. I was reading the background anyway. Are council resources.
[17:43] Councilor Anderson, would you mind reading the background on this agenda item, please? S5:
[18:41] Second.
[18:42] Before we move forward, I just want to I know that nobody's in the chamber, but is there anybody online that may want to speak on this? No. Okay. Just want to check. All right.
[19:00] Any discussion on this item? All those in favor? S1:
[19:04] Yes. Motion to adjourn.
[19:06] Second. That.
[19:08] All right. All those in favor? Thank you.