Regulating Tiny Homes

On January 30, the Joint Standing Committee on Transportation heard public testimony regarding LD 1981, An Act Regarding the Regulation of Tiny Homes. The concept draft bill proposes to define a “tiny house” and allow for the titling of a tiny house as a camp trailer or trailer.

This bill comes after the Maine State Bureau of Motor Vehicles ceased registering, assigning vehicle notification numbers, and titling tiny homes on wheels in June 2019, preventing tiny home buyers from securing financing from traditional lenders. Prior to June 2019, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles registered and titled tiny homes as camp trailers or trailers under Title 29-A. Owners could freely move their tiny houses as often as they wished. 

Currently, owners of tiny homes must obtain a one-time transit permit from the Secretary of State in order to move their homes. The Bureau of Motor Vehicles has taken the stance that tiny homes do not fall within the definition of a camp trailer or trailer, nor do they fall within the definition of manufactured housing. 

Tiny homes may present an environmentally friendly solution to the rising cost of housing and, for some, play into a desire to live a more minimalist, “off the grid” lifestyle. However, their ambiguous status under state law has traditionally made it difficult to say where they fall under municipal land use ordinances and building codes, and whether they should be taxed as real or personal property. If tiny homes with wheels can be titled and registered as vehicles, this may provide some clarity regarding both issues.

Social Media and Public Records Laws

Social media is ubiquitous these days. Facebook alone, for example, has nearly 1.5 billion monthly active users. Given social media’s widespread use, it is not surprising that some municipalities have sought to harness its power as an effective tool for communicating with the public. Municipalities that use social media, however, should keep in mind that communications on such sites are not immune from open access laws. On the contrary, communications on municipal social media may qualify as public records that are subject to freedom of information requests.

Where social media is concerned, the key issue that municipalities must remember is that it is the content of the communication that matters, not its format. Consequently, the fact that social media is often perceived as ephemeral does not categorically exempt social media from public records laws. The definition of “public records” in Maine’s FOAA law, for example, makes this clear. That statute broadly defines a “public record” as, among other things, “any written, printed or graphic matter or any mechanical or electronic data compilation from which information can be obtained” and that is in the possession or custody of a public entity. In short, then, municipalities should apply the same record retention principles to communications on social media that they apply to communications in other formats – and look to the content of the communication, rather than its format, to determine their retention obligations. So, for example, a post from a member of the public containing a substantive complaint would likely need to be retained longer than a post containing a simple request for information or conveying other information of short-term value. To help manage their retention obligations, municipalities can take steps to limit the scope of what may be posted on social media, such as by clarifying that social media is not to be used for filing complaints or for other official communications with the municipality. By doing so, municipalities can ensure that their public record obligations do not become a reason to “unlike” social media.     

Governor Certifies Marijuana Legalization Law

Governor LePage has certified the vote on the legalization of marijuana in Maine, which is now going into effect on January 30, 2017. It will be legal to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and grow your own six plants. There is no system in place to distribute recreational marijuana. It will be legal to give it away.

A number of municipalities, including our clients in Augusta, Brunswick and Windham, have enacted moratoria against the development of retail businesses and social clubs. This allows Towns to determine whether to ban retail sales and social clubs and to decide whether there are good reasons to treat retail differently from other retail stores and social clubs differently than bars. At least one town, Oakland, has enacted a ban because it believed it did not have the authority to enact a moratorium because it did not have an adequate Comprehensive Plan.

At this point there is no great benefit nor downside to enacting a moratorium. This is because under the law, the Legislature has nine months to establish a system for legal sales and social clubs and will need to correct some of the errors in the law, including a loophole pointed out by Attorney General Janet Mills, which could be read to allow sales of marijuana to people under the age of 21. There will be an intense lobbying effort in the upcoming Legislature by numerous parties, including the established dispensaries, caregivers and other interested parties, to make changes to the law. The Governor has already proposed a one-year moratorium. Many people think the Department of Agriculture is not the best agency to administer the program. How will the medical marijuana law be affected? MMA has already put in a bill to clarify municipal home rule authority to regulate medical marijuana.

This blog will track the process of the legalization bill and other marijuana and municipal related issues through the Legislature on a weekly basis.