Blogs

Testimony of Nancy Smith, Executive Director of GrowSmart Maine in favor of LD 825,

Have you heard of "Greendrinks"?  Do you like supporting local businesses, sustainable organizations and making a difference all while hanging out with friends and free local beer (and soda)?  Who doesn't!?!  Please join us this Tuesday, April 9th from 5:30 to 8pm at the Portland Flea -For-All for Portland's April Greendrinks featuring - US! 

As a part of our commitment to strengthening Maine’s economy, GrowSmart Maine is particularly enthusiastic about well grounded, thoughtful and creative proposals which seek to grow the economy in a sustainable manner while at the same time preserving our state’s unique character and quality of place. It is within this context that I wish to speak in support of one program at the Dept. of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

Complete Streets are sound financial investments in our communities that provide long-term benefits from investments. An existing transportation budget can incorporate Complete Streets projects with little to no additional funding, through re-prioritizing projects & allocating funds to projects that improve overall mobility. Many of the ways to create more complete roadways are low cost, fast to implement, and make an immediate difference. According to the National Complete Streets Coalition, building sidewalks and striping bike lanes have been shown to create more jobs than traditional car-focused transportation projects.

As Committee members may be aware, in 2011, GrowSmart Maine was asked by this committee to bring together a stakeholder group to address an issue related to Site Law Review, in LD 159. In our role as convener, GrowSmart Maine invited a diverse group of organizations to evaluate the threshold between state and municipal oversight of regionally significant development. The final report, included with this testimony, outlines two recommendations:

As a part of our commitment to strengthening Maine’s economy, GrowSmart Maine is particularly enthusiastic about well grounded, thoughtful and creative proposals which seek to grow the economy in a sustainable manner while at the same time preserving our state’s unique character and quality of place. We believe this bill has the potential to do just that.

As a concept bill, this legislation provides the opportunity to discuss an important issue and develop ideas to address potential solutions. As this committee looks at the challenges of economic development and opportunity in rural Maine, I encourage members to look to Charting Maine’s Future: Making Headway, an update to the 2006 Action Plan released by GrowSmart Maine just last year. In all components of the plan, rural issues are addressed with proposals for continued investments, outreach, and collaboration.

Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Lautenberg (D-NJ), Inhofe (R-OK), Crapo (R-ID) and Udall (D-NM) introduced legislation last Thursday that could help Maine towns and cities put contaminated land back in to economic use. We urge Senators Collins and King to add their support to this bill.

The Brownfields Utilization, Investment, and Local Development (BUILD) Act of 2013 reauthorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields program and makes several improvements to how the program functions.

6th Annual Jane Jacobs Walks

May 4 & 5, 2013

“The ballet of the good city sidewalk never repeats itself from place to place, and in any one place is always replete with new improvisations.” – The Death and Life of Great American Cities

As a part of our commitment to strengthening Maine’s economy, GrowSmart Maine is particularly enthusiastic about well grounded, thoughtful and creative proposals which seek to grow the economy in a sustainable manner while at the same time preserving our state’s unique character and quality of place. We believe this bill fits that description. This bill will allow for municipal funding of regional efforts in economic development projects. Tax Increment Financing (TIFs) is an extremely powerful economic development tool available to municipalities. It makes great sense to allow this change in the TIF program.