Success in the State House!

GrowSmart Maine's work in Augusta this year was focused on passing a Maine-based economic recovery package: a new Communities for Maine's Future Act for revitalizing Maine's village centers, downtowns, and Main Streets, plus renewed investments in research and development to grow the state's most innovative and promising industries.

Thanks to your grassroots support, legislators this year made landmark committments to these important investments in our future, in spite of a very difficult budget situation. We'll have more details here in the days to come...

Standish Model Town

GrowSmart Maine and its project team is facilitating citizen-led efforts to implement "smart growth" strategies from Standish's new Comprehensive Plan. The project's key goals are to revitalize the village area around Standish Corner, attract new businesses, and conserve Standish's open spaces and rural character.

A public meeting and open house focused on new development rules for Standish Corner will be held on Thursday evening, May 13th, a 7 pm in the Town Offices. Visit www.growsmartmaine.org/standish/ for details.

Governing Maine in the 21st Century

Instead of reacting to persistent budget shortfalls with divisive, annual program cuts, we need to get behind a productive, long-term plan for reorganizing Maine government, at all levels.

The "Governing Maine in the 21st Century" project will present Maine with an action plan to provide better government services at lower costs.