About Chris

The case for consistency

Take care of what we already own on a regular schedule. It's cheaper, and residents can plan around it.

Conservation is follow-through, too.

The town's build-out study counts room for hundreds of new homes on land that's still open, much of it rural.1 The Town Farm's 150 acres are protected only until 2050. Every other conservation easement in town is permanent.2, 3 A town committee voted in 2023 to keep the farm on its list for future housing,4 and the Land Trust asked in 2025 to make the protection permanent. No action appears in the public record.5

Build housing where the town already is.

Every house on a nearly-two-acre rural lot eats open space, adds a driveway onto a country road, and costs more to build for.6 A 2024 town housing study found that one compact building needed about a seventh of the site work per home that spread-out townhouses did.7 The Comprehensive Plan estimates that on current lot sizes, the rural zone will use three times the land to house one-third of the new homes.8 Reasonable housing in the Town Center, where the water, sewer and sidewalks already are, protects the best parts of Cape and adds to the tax base without adding miles of road to maintain. Voters agreed last year.9 I'll back that approach.

Some of this is the Charter. Most of it is follow-through.

In 2012 voters updated the charter and said they wanted a say on big projects, and I'd keep that.10 But the $1 million referendum threshold for projects was never adjusted for inflation, and it catches things voters never meant. It was one of the reasons the Town Center got an $825,000 intersection instead of the roundabout that survey respondents preferred two to one.11, 12 It's reasonable to exempt street, sidewalk and sewer bonds from its rule.13 I'd push to put that kind of modest fix in front of voters, and keep the vote on new buildings, land and big borrowing.

It shouldn't take a circus.

Getting a school repaired or a better traffic fix for the Town Center shouldn't take a political fight. It should take a plan, a budget line, and a Council that sees it through. Of the 22 roads and projects on the town's five-year priority list, eleven were done on time.14, 15

We all have equity in this community.

In our homes, in our friendships, in our sense of belonging. My job on the Council is to protect that equity.

Sources (15)

Every figure above, with the town document it comes from. We host our own copies so the links keep working.
  1. Cape Elizabeth Comprehensive Plan (2019), build-out analysis (p. 213): excluding land already owned by the town, the land trust or the state, “over 1000 new housing units could potentially be accommodated on the remaining undeveloped land in Cape Elizabeth” (about 700 excluding the two largest private holdings). Document (PDF) Original ↩ back
  2. Maine Conserved Lands database (Maine Office of GIS / Bureau of Parks and Lands), Cape Elizabeth extract: 22 parcels carry a conservation easement; 21 are rated permanent (GAP 2, 3 or 39) and one, the Town Farm, is rated “unsecured” because its easement expires. Campaign summary of the state layer; the full parcel export is posted alongside it. Document (PDF) Original ↩ back
  3. Conservation Easement, Town of Cape Elizabeth to Cape Elizabeth Land Trust (Cumberland County Registry of Deeds, Book 15567, Page 105): approximately 150 acres of the Town Farm, protected “for a term of fifty (50) years.” The Land Trust confirmed in 2025 that it “expires in 2050” (Conservation Committee minutes, Feb 11, 2025, also listed here). Document (PDF) Original ↩ back
  4. Housing Diversity Study Committee draft minutes, June 26, 2023: on reconsideration, the committee voted 7–0 to keep the Town Farm “for consideration to build housing in the future.” Document (PDF) Original ↩ back
  5. Conservation Committee minutes, Feb 11, 2025: the Land Trust's executive director confirmed the Town Farm easement “expires in 2050” and asked that “the next step … be to make the easement permanent.” No follow-up appears in the record through September 2026. Document (PDF) Original ↩ back
  6. Cape Elizabeth Zoning Ordinance, Sec. 19-6-1, Residence A District (RA), Space and Bulk Standards: minimum lot area for “Other uses” 80,000 sq. ft.; in subdivisions, 1 unit per 80,000 sq. ft. of net residential area. 80,000 sq. ft. is about 1.84 acres. Document (PDF) Original ↩ back
  7. Gull Crest housing feasibility study (Nov 13, 2024 Council packet, p. 369): concept-level site-work estimates of $15,621 per home for one 46-home building versus $105,742 per home for 20 spread-out townhouses on the same town land. Document (PDF) Original ↩ back
  8. Cape Elizabeth Comprehensive Plan (2019), p. 213: from 2008 to 2017, 38% of new homes were built in the rural district, and on current lot sizes “three times more land will potentially be developed in the rural areas to accommodate one-third of the total anticipated growth” (about 200 acres for 46 homes, versus 65 acres for 74 homes in the growth areas). Document (PDF) Original ↩ back
  9. Town Clerk unofficial results, June 10, 2025 (hosted copy is the campaign's text transcription of the Clerk's page): voters upheld the Council's Town Center multifamily rezoning 2,688–1,919 (58%). Document (PDF) Original ↩ back
  10. Cape Elizabeth Council–Manager Charter, Article VIII §2 (as amended Nov 6, 2012): any single capital expenditure or improvement exceeding $1,000,000 requires a town-wide referendum. Full charter: town-charter_as-amended-2012_full.pdf. Document (PDF) Original ↩ back
  11. Sept 9, 2024 Council packet, Town Center intersection: resident survey: Peanut Roundabout 139 (48.8%) vs. Squaring-up 69 (24.2%); staff memo: “Any expenditure in excess of one million dollars requires voter approval through the referendum process”; Aug 21, 2024 forum minutes. Document (PDF) Original ↩ back
  12. Sept 9, 2024 Council minutes, Item #145-2024: advance Option 1, squaring up the Shore Road / Route 77 / Scott Dyer intersection, $400,000 PACTS grant + $425,000 TIF = $825,000. 7–0. Document (PDF) Original ↩ back
  13. Scarborough Town Charter §907.1.1: bonds for “streets, sidewalks, or storm or sanitary sewers or other public utilities” are exempt from its automatic capital-borrowing referendum. Document (PDF) Original ↩ back
  14. Town road priorities memo (2015), “Proposed Roadway & Drainage Priorities - FY 2017 - FY 2021”: 22 named roads and projects, each with a planned year. Document (PDF) Original ↩ back
  15. Campaign check of each item on the 2015 list against later budget books, audits, the 2017 pavement study and the town's paving moratorium list (Table 3 of the linked summary): eleven done on time or early (three of them dated only to the year 2017), seven late, four not found done; Shore Road work slid from FY2019 to FY2029. Document (PDF) ↩ back