Earlier this week, GrowSmart Maine was in Brewer for the Public Hearing of the Land Use Planning Commission, which acts as the Planning Board for 10 million acres in the Unorganized Territories. The public hearing on rules related to adjacency, which dictates that new development must be “adjacent” to similar sites, was nearly four hours…
Category: planning
GrowSmart Maine Weighs in on Proposed LUPC Rule Changes
June 20, 2018 To Members of the Maine Land Use Planning Commission, In testimony from the April hearing, attached here, I outlined GrowSmart’s concerns related to proposed revisions to the LUPC adjacency rule. While GrowSmart appreciates the need to improve the current adjacency “one-mile rule” we offer recommendations to minimize development outside of areas not…
Supporting Farms in Maine Matters – What You Can Do
Our March forum ‘Growing Farm Friendly Communities‘ has been postponed due to snow. Join us at the new date: Monday March 26, 8:30-11a, Bowdoinham. Click here to visit the event page for all the details and registration! This Forum is a chance to learn from and discuss with leading Mainers the subject of farm friendly…
New Auburn’s Village Center Renaissance
By Ethan Boxer-Macomber As advocates of Smart Growth, we are all encouraged and delighted by the current national trend toward redirection of resources to traditional city and town centers abandoned and neglected over 60 years of urban flight and suburban proliferation. This reinvestment trend is readily apparent in Maine cities such as Bangor, Lewiston, Portland…
‘More action; less talk’ – GrowSmart Maine is Listening
“I don’t ask you your age, don’t ask mine.” Earlier this year GrowSmart Maine asked members, colleagues and total strangers to take a survey. We wanted to know which issues matter to them, how they thought we should address them and, oh yeah, how they thought we were doing. As our staff and board members…
Letter to the Land Use Planning Commission from GrowSmart Maine
To the Members of the Maine Land Use Planning Commission August 10, 2017 As noted in my testimony yesterday, I am providing a written summary of my remarks. I was encouraged to hear the Chair of the Commission state that it is not the goal of the Commission to eliminate the adjacency rule, but to…
GrowSmart Maine Testifies in Favor of LD 328: An Act to Provide Funds to the Local Government Fund to Encourage Regional Planning and Reorganization
Testimony of Nancy Smith, Executive Director of GrowSmart Maine in support of LD 328 “An Act to Provide Funds to the Local Government Fund to Encourage Regional Planning and Reorganization” March 1, 2017 Senator David, Representative Martin and members of the Joint Standing Committee on State and Local Government. My apologies for not being able…
Update on Making Headway in Your Community: Will We Be in Your Town Next?
Making Headway in Your Community is wrapping up its first full year as a community engagement program, a partnership of the Maine Downtown Center and GrowSmart Maine. GrowSmart Maine and Maine Downtown Center are engaged with communities on the public meeting components of Making Headway. Projects are underway in several towns while the rest are…
GrowSmart Maine Testimony in Opposition to Cuts to 2016 CDBG Program Statement
Deborah Johnson Director, Office of Community Development Maine Dept. of Economic and Community Development Augusta, Maine Oct 29, 2015 Dear Ms. Johnson, I am writing to address one component of the Draft 2016 CDBG Program Statement. I am writing both for GrowSmart Maine and in my role as a member of the Advisory Council of…
Your Voice Matters! Vote Tomorrow!!
We all have our opinions. Only twice per year do we have a concrete way to voice them. Tomorrow is one of those chances – don’t let it pass you by. Your vote matters, your voice matters. And tomorrow, across the state, you get a say in what happens with your tax dollars and in…