PARIS — At the first public hearing of the Paris Land Use Advisory Committee on Thursday, the panel discussed plans to set zoning in town, beginning with Paris Hill.

More than a dozen Paris Hill residents attended. They agreed that the neighborhood, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, should have some standards for new construction but disagreed on how to set those.

The committee proposed a Historic Preservation Commission, with at least two members from the Paris Hill Historic District, to establish guidelines on new construction or alterations to existing homes. The commission would issue “certificates of appropriateness” to residents who want to make changes to ensure the character of the neighborhood doesn’t change.

Many in the crowd were supportive of the idea. Carol and Tony Rice, whose Paris Hill home was destroyed in a fire in 1999, said they spent a lot of money restoring it to its original look. “We could have put a trailer there,” Carol Rice said.

Rice said she wanted to illustrate how the character of the district could change without regulations in place. “I think it’s a very graphic example.”

John Richardson said the committee sounded too much like a homeowners’ association, warning that it could lead to rules about every aspect of people’s homes, from the types of windows to when they could mow their lawns.

“I certainly don’t subscribe to that idea, and I hope that’s not where this is going,” he said.

He argued that the committee’s proposed land management and site plan ordinances would be sufficient to protect the historical district without a committee. Kathy Richardson called the idea of a commission “a solution looking for a problem.”

Committee member Robert Ripley said the point was for Paris Hill residents, not the committee or the selectmen, to decide what was appropriate for Paris Hill. People in other parts of town could do the same, he said, giving residents “home rule” by allowing them to set standards for their own neighborhoods.

Ripley said he lives in a rural area of Paris and would want zoning to prevent a smelting plant or a similar development from ruining his home. Zoning would bring “basic protections” to every area of town, he said, to prevent sudden, unwelcome changes.

Christopher Closs, field service adviser for Maine Preservation, a nonprofit that advocates for historical areas, said he’d heard the same conversation in other towns. He said property values in historical districts tend to be affected less by recession, and rise faster when the economy is good.

He recommended a commission to decide what was appropriate for the district rather than a Planning Board or a specific town ordinance.

Paris Hill residents agreed to discuss the idea further and to report the consensus to the committee.

The Paris Land Use Advisory Committee was formed in May 2011 to create a land management ordinance as recommended in the Paris Comprehensive Plan. Thursday’s hearing was the first of several to gauge the public’s reaction to the committee’s proposals.

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