Home Rule

It's the right of a town or city to enact laws that are municipal in nature and that do not frustrate or run counter to a state law and/or which the state has not prohibited it from passing.

The concept of home rule is very important to local government because without home rule authority, cities and towns would depend for their governing authority on specific acts of the State Legislature.

Maine has been considered a strong "home rule" state since November 1969, when an amendment to the state constitution delegated broad "home rule" ordinance powers to cities and towns. Such ordinances range from ones controlling the barking of dogs, to the regulation of adult businesses, to the regulation of signs, to the control of a town's growth,  to the review of real estate development projects, to the banning of  herbicide spraying, to the regulation of local timber harvesting.

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Below are links to Maine municipal ordinances online. Please report broken or changed links to the Resource Center.

Acton	Cumberland	Kennebunk [scroll down and click on Ordinances]	Old Town [click on Ordinances]	Swan's Island [click on General Information link]
Alfred	Cushing	Kennebunkport
Appleton	Damariscotta	Kingfield [click on Ordinances]	Orland	Thomaston
Arrowsic	Dayton	Kittery [click on Town Documents]	Orono	Topsham [click on Ordinances link]
Arundel [click on Ordinances]	Dedham	Lamoine	Orrington
Auburn [go to City Departments, Planning & Permitting, Land Use Div.]		Lebanon	Otis	Trenton [click on Comprehensive Plan, Land Use link]
Augusta	Dexter		Palermo	Turner
Bangor [click on Code of Ordinances]	Dixmont [enter "ordinance" in search field]	Lewiston [go to City Information drop-down menu, see City Ordinances Online]	Palmyra	Vassalboro
Bar Harbor [click on Municipal Code]	Dover-Foxcroft [click on Code Enforcement]	Liberty	Paris [see Ordinances drop-down menu]	Veazie
Bath [click on City Clerk's Office]	Dresden	Limington	Perry	Waldoboro
Belfast [click on City Charter & Code]	Durham	Lincolnville [Town Charter]	Phillips	Warren
Belgrade	East Millinocket	Lisbon	Phippsburg	Washington [click on Ordinances]
Bethel [go to Town Code Book section]	Edgecomb	Litchfield	Pittsfield [click on Ordinances]	Waterboro
Biddeford	Eastport	Long Island	Poland	Waterville
Blue Hill [click on Ordinances]	Eliot	Lovell	Portland	Wells [click on Document Center]
Boothbay	Ellsworth	Madison [click on Ordinances]
Bowdoinham		Manchester [click on Ordinances]	Presque Isle [click on City Ordinances]	Westbrook [click on Downloads]
Bradley	Fairfield [click on Codes and Ordinances]	Mariaville	Randolph [click on Doing Business]	West Bath
Brewer		Mexico	Raymond	Westport Island
Bridgton	Falmouth [click on Code of Ordinances]	Millinocket	Readfield	Wilton [scroll down to ordinance links]
Bristol [click on "Links"]	Fort Fairfield	Monmouth [click on Ordinances]	Rockland [click on Downloads]
Brooks [click on Town Government; select Codes and Ordinances]	Fort Kent	Monson	Rockport	Windham [scroll down to drop-down ordinances menu]
	Freedom	Mount Desert	Rumford [large PDF doc]
Brunswick	Freeport	Mount Vernon	Sabattus	Winslow
Buckfield [click on Ordinances]	Frye Island	Naples [click on Ordinances]	Saco	Winthrop [click on Ordinances]
Buxton		New Gloucester [click on Ordinances]	St. Albans	Wiscasset [click on Town Government]
Calais	Gardiner	Newcastle	St. George	Woolwich
Camden	Gorham	Newport  [titles of ordinances]	Sanford/Springvale [click on Document Library]	Yarmouth [go to "Codes & Ordinances" link]
Canton	Gray [click on Codes & Ordinances]		Scarborough	York [go to "Town Ordinances" link]
Cape Elizabeth	Greene	Newry	Sebago
Carmel	Greenville
Casco [select Zoning Ordinance]	Hallowell [click on Ordinances]	North Berwick [see Ordinance links, lower left]	Shapleigh
Castine	Hampden	North Yarmouth [click on Ordinances and Permits]	Skowhegan
China	Hancock	Norway [click on Ordinances]	Smithfield
Corinna [select Code Enforcement]	Harpswell	Oakland [click on Ordinances]	South Berwick
Cranberry Isles	Harrison	Ogunquit [click on Document Center, then Town Documentation]	South Portland [click on Code of Ordinance]
	Hartford	Old Orchard Beach	South Thomaston
	Hermon		Southwest Harbor
	Holden
	Jay		Standish [go to Town Code link]
			Stetson
			Sumner

Maine Municipal Codes Online - the Donald L. Garbrecht Law Library.