ENFIELD — Voters rejected changes to the town’s zoning ordinance and a proposed recreation trail along Route 4A during Australian ballot voting on Tuesday.
The new zoning regulations — which residents denied 440 to 378 — would have created three new zoning districts and allowed for increasing housing density in areas of town that have access to the municipal water and sewer systems.
Voters rejected, 539 to 305, putting $517,000 toward a $2.58 million project to build a trail on Route 4A that would begin at Shakoma Beach and end near the Enfield Shaker Museum property near the former La Salette Shrine.
The project, which includes flashing signs at the Shakoma Beach crosswalk, would be partly funded by a roughly $2 million federal grant.
The trail would “more than likely not move forward” without town money Town Manager Ed Morris said in a Wednesday morning phone interview.
Cara Weiner cast a “no” vote on the proposed zoning ordinance after at first thinking she’d support it.
“The more I thought about it, I just felt the potential changes it could offer would change the community in a way I’m not interested in supporting,” she said.
Weiner cited concerns about the town’s water and sewer systems, as well as the health of the town’s lakes if more development came to town.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s a good idea,” she said.
Other voters at the polls Tuesday echoed Weiner’s concerns.
Kim Avery was thinking about the Laramie Farms development — a planned 300-unit housing project that would be Enfield’s largest if it comes to fruition — when she cast her “no” vote.
“We don’t have the water supply for that many housing units,” Avery, 58, said.
Town officials have previously disputed claims that the town does not have enough water to support future development.
“The Town has substantial storage capacity, operational flexibility to increase production if needed, a new well coming online, and additional potential supply through improvements to the McConnell well,” officials wrote in a document about the proposed zoning ordinance update.
But Charles Ippolito voted in favor of the zoning changes in hopes of enabling the town to increase its housing stock.
“I think some positive development in Enfield is desirable,” he said in an interview outside the polls Tuesday.
More housing could lead to more students in the Mascoma Valley Regional School District and help spread out the tax burden. An increase in housing could also help the town’s businesses.
“We’re going to encourage a lot of that Dartmouth-related money,” he said. “Bring it to Enfield.”
Cost was on Avery’s mind when she voted down the recreation trail.
“Even though most of the money” is a grant, “I just feel like the upkeep is going to cost us more than the trail would be used,” she said in an interview outside the polls at the Enfield Community Building Tuesday morning.
Like Avery, Craig Sanborn voted against the recreation trail because he is concerned about the cost.
“It is a large amount for the town to spend,” he said in an interview outside the polls Tuesday morning. “Except for the safety aspects of walking right next to the road, the need for it is not proven.”
While Sanborn understands the safety concerns at the Shakoma Beach crossing, he’d like to see the town address it with the tools they already have.
“We already have a police department and they can make people slow down and go the speed limit,” Sanborn, 74, said.
Other residents, including Ippolito, voted in favor of the recreation trail because the majority of it would be paid for by the grant and it could increase the number of visitors, who then might become patrons at area businesses.
“It will promote the town,” Ippolito, 73, said.
Cara Weiner, who regularly bikes and runs on Route 4A, liked that the trail would be paid for primarily by the grant.
“I think it will be used,” Weiner, 32, said outside the polls Tuesday evening.
Voters also approved a $9.6 million general operating budget, 535 to 300, and reelected incumbents John Kluge and Tracy Young to three-year terms on the Selectboard in contested races. Kluge received 428 votes and Young received 379 votes. They defeated challengers Jason Archambault (312 votes), Mike Diehn (181 votes) and Kyle Hastbacka (167 votes).