GrowSmart Maine Elects New Board Members at Annual Meeting

BRUNSWICK - GrowSmart Maine hosted their Annual Meeting this Tuesday, December 11th at the Inn at Brunswick Station in Brunswick. After guided tours of the newly redeveloped Brunswick Station, most recent addition to the Amtrak Downeaster line, GrowSmart Maine members voted unanimously to approve a slate of nine new Board Members and two returning members. The meeting continued with a celebration of the accomplishments of 2012 including the release of Charting Maine’s Future: Making Headway and Summit 2012, as well as a look forward to the opportunities ahead.

A collaboration between the Maine Forest Service and GrowSmart Maine, Project Canopy is Maine's urban and community forestry program. Our Mission: Create and maintain healthy urban and community forests for or economic, ecological, and quality of life benefits for Mainers.

Over the past three years GrowSmart Maine has actively sought to build a ‘green/brown’ coalition, recognizing the link between our environment and our economy.

How often do you find yourself stuck in traffic on a Saturday morning trying to get errands done? Stoplights at each block, cars cutting you off as they pull out of the numerous strip mall entrances – drives you crazy, right? Is there a better way?

GrowSmart Maine proudly announces the launch of a new community planning project entitled ReEnvisioning the Highway Strip.

How We Can Shape a Sustainable Government and a New Prosperity

Charting Maine's Future, the landmark Brookings Institution study sponsored by GrowSmart Maine, said that to achieve sustainable prosperity we must streamline and restructure Maine government. In doing so, we must free up critical resources to invest in our future.

GrowSmart Maine commissioned a follow-up report (written by EnvisionMaine) called Reinventing Maine Government that gathers viewpoints from varying perspectives.

In 2007, GrowSmart Maine led the creation of the Maine Downtown Coalition, a collection of non profit organizations, town and city officials, Main Street programs, business people and others dedicated to revitalizing Maine communities and fostering redevelopment of some of our most unique assets: our historic Main Streets and downtown districts.

Standish, a growing town of about 10,000, was selected for GrowSmart Maine's Model Town Project in part because of their readiness to implement their new Comprehensive Plan. GrowSmart Maine and its project team facilitated citizen-led efforts to implement "smart growth" strategies from Standish's new Comprehensive Plan. The project's key goals were to revitalize the village area around Standish Corner, attract new businesses, and conserve Standish's open spaces and rural character. On June 8th. 2011, the Standish town Council unanimously voted to adopt Form-Based Code. This makes Standish the first town in Maine to do so.

Thank you to the hundreds of people who helped make the GrowSmart Maine Summit 2012 a success! We've posted videos of the keynote addresses and plenary sessions, speech transcripts, participant list, panelist bios and information on all our sponsors. Thank you for your part in keeping Maine...Maine.

Sponsors help make the GrowSmart Maine Summit happen each year.  The support of these companies and organizations reflects their commitment to sustainable prosperity and to work together with GrowSmart Maine and diverse others for a better Maine.