FARMINGTON — Voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to adopt a citizen-initiated ordinance regulating mobile home park lot rent increases.

The Farmington Select Board voted Sept. 22 to place the measure on the ballot amid arguments over its legality and how the petition was circulated.

The ordinance will appear on the ballot as written after the town clerk certified enough valid petition signatures, Executive Assistant Leah Giusti confirmed. A required public hearing has not been scheduled, while the town continues reviewing concerns about the petition process and provisions town officials say may need to be amended if voters approve the measure.

The proposal would establish a 3% formula for certain lot rent increases, create a five-member rent stabilization board and establish a process for park owners seeking increases above the cap, according to discussion at the meeting.

Town Manager Erica LaCroix told the board that the town had identified language in the proposal that may need to be reconciled with local policy and the state’s model ordinance, including wording involving committee membership and retroactivity. She said the town is following advice from its attorney by allowing the proposal to go before voters rather than spending money litigating the issue before the election.

At the Sept. 22 discussion, Julie Smith, executive director of the Manufactured Housing Association of Maine, challenged the petition process and argued that the board was not necessarily required to put the ordinance on the ballot.

Smith pointed to an affidavit from a Farmington voter who said he and his wife were not shown the eight-page ordinance when asked to sign the petition. She said the town should determine whether signers were consistently presented with the same ordinance being submitted to voters.

Smith also argued that the proposed ordinance conflicts with state law and cited Maine court decisions she said give municipal officers discretion to reject some citizen petitions.

LaCroix disputed that conclusion, saying the town had consulted with its attorney throughout the process and had been advised that the ordinance should proceed to the ballot. She said attempting to block it before the vote could result in costly litigation.

The town is continuing to investigate the affidavit, LaCroix said. She asked residents who signed the petition without being presented with or given access to the ordinance language to contact the town clerk so those cases can be documented.

LaCroix also said Appendix A will not be published with the ballot ordinance because the town determined it was not included with the petition when it was circulated. If the investigation ultimately determines that too many signatures were obtained without the ordinance being available to signers, she said the town could later seek to invalidate the ordinance.

Lorri Nandrea, who said she had worked with many of Farmington’s mobile home park residents on the initiative, defended the petition effort. Nandrea told selectmen the ordinance had been stapled to every petition and that circulators had copies of additional material and a summary available for signers. She urged the board to allow Farmington voters to decide the issue.

A special town meeting will be held Nov. 10 regardless of whether the ordinance passes, Giusti said, because at least seven days’ notice is required. During the Sept. 22 meeting, LaCroix said that if the ordinance passes, the special meeting could be used to address provisions that conflict with local policy or the state model ordinance.

LaCroix said during the meeting that the town expects significant interest in the public hearing and was considering using the Farmington Community Center because the municipal meeting room may not provide enough seating.

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