GrowSmart Maine regularly testifies in Augusta on relevant smart growth legislation.  This is one of the most important ways that we represent our members’ interests.

As we weigh in on key issues, we will post our progress and views here.  We encourage our members to engage in the process as well.

We advocate by weighing in on legislation others propose, as well as engaging with legislators to submit bills and resolves that will meet our key priorities:

• That development supports mitigating the effects of climate change;
• That rules and regulations for land use are fair, sustainable and equitable; and
• That communities are fiscally sustainable while providing amenities including affordable and responsible housing and transportation choices.

To achieve these goals, we will advocate within the following four areas:

2023 POLICY ACTION

PROBLEM STATEMENT: Maine’s current uncoordinated approach to building places is causing real, unintended, and significant social, environmental, financial, economic, and cultural challenges and requires the creation of a cohesive approach to land development, redevelopment, and placemaking.

Policy Action 2023 is a set of sixteen proposals aligned within eight working groups, each of which provides a single step—some incremental, some quite significant—toward the shared goal developed within the Policy Action 2023 process last spring: to address barriers to and create incentives for equitable, sustainable growth and development that strengthens downtowns and villages of all sizes while pulling development pressure away from productive and open natural areas. We do so acknowledging that Maine has urban, rural, and suburban settings for which any solution may or may not be a fit and a variety of people who deserve to be welcomed into their communities.

PLANNING FOR AG

Planning for Ag provides an opportunity to prioritize farmland protection and farm viability as essential smart growth outcomes equal to and directly related to directing growth to where development makes sense for the long term.

SMART GROWTH

There are legislative proposals critical to our mission in addition to our three tracts for advocacy. These include our participation in the Wabanaki Alliance Tribal Coalition to support sovereignty, portions of the budget and bonds, bills that either align with or run counter to Policy Action 2023 proposals. We monitor several dozen such bills, and will testify when we believe GrowSmart’s voice is needed, either in support, opposition, neither for nor against but with information for the committee.

MAINE BROADBAND COALITION

The Maine Broadband Coalition serves a vital purpose, as the voice of Maine’s internet users, working to enable better service for everyone. The internet has relevance to every legislative committee and often intersects with numerous bills. Learn more about the Maine Broadband Coalition. For the 131st Legislature, the Coalition Policy Committee, chaired by GrowSmart Maine, is focused on just a few related to the Maine Broadband Coalition’s guiding values including:

• Protection of Maine’s digital privacy law, passed in 2019, to ensure our online data is not used without our express permission;
• Closing the loophole in municipal campaign reporting to prevent the kind of unreported spending by out-of-state entities in opposition to municipal broadband proposals seen in several communities last year;
• Addressing barriers to municipally-owned broadband infrastructure so that all options for delivering affordable, high-speed internet are possible statewide.