Planning Board 10.20.26

The City of Bangor Planning Board meeting on October 20, 2026, unanimously recommended that the City Council approve an amendment removing the floor-area-ratio limit from the Downtown Development District. Staff said the limit is an outdated tool for regulating building form and that historic and façade-district controls address those concerns. The board also unanimously approved a major site development, conditional-use, and stormwater permit for R.H. Foster’s proposed project at 1187 Union Street: a roughly 7,100-square-foot convenience store, fuel and diesel dispensers, and a replacement automated car wash. The site plan reduces seven existing curb cuts to four and includes new utility connections, sidewalk links, landscaping, and stormwater treatment.

Approval of the R.H. Foster project is conditioned on Maine Department of Transportation approval of the applicant’s traffic movement permit and correction of the stormwater narrative to identify the parcels as being in Bangor. Board members discussed traffic and landscaping, but no contract awards, purchasing decisions, or spending allocations were identified. The board also received updates on the ongoing land development code rewrite and a planned public workshop about a growth-boundary change.