Community Planning and Revitalization
Educational Briefs | Maine Downtowns Coalition | Model Town Project | Plum Creek
Model Town Community Project
For the past five years, GrowSmart Maine has been
talking with the leaders and residents of Maine
communities about the increasing growth pressures
that many towns are facing. We've learned that many
towns feel unprepared to deal with these often rapid
changes in a way that is both effective and fair. We've
also found that where residents are more fully engaged in shaping
the vision of a town's future, fewer problems arise when it
comes time to implement changes or enact ordinances.
We initiated the
Model Town Community Project to provide tools and advice
that will help a growing Maine town shape its future. The project
will mobilize local, state and regional resources,
enable local leaders to explore new growth strategies, and
fully engage local residents by combining the best
elements of New England town meetings with groundbreaking new technologies.
In 2007, GrowSmart Maine selected Standish as the first Model Town Project community.
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. Visit www.GrowSmartMaine.org/Standish to learn more about our work there.
Educational Briefs
GrowSmart Maine works to help educate concerned citizens and municipal governments about constructive approaches to development. Our "Educational Briefs" are designed to help citizens understand the issues of growth and some of the possible tools, techniques, and resources available to grow our communities' economies while also protecting our quality of life and the unique character of our State.
Below is a sampling of our most frequently-downloaded Briefs. For a complete listing, click here.
All GrowSmart Maine Educational Briefs are dedicated to the Public Domain. Please share and distribute to your neighbors, town officials, and others.
Maine Downtowns Coalition
In 2007, GrowSmart Maine led the creation of the new Coalition to Revitalize Maine's Towns and Cities, 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.
Learn more about the Maine Downtowns Coalition at www.growsmartmaine.org/downtowns
Planning Moosehead's Future
GrowSmart Maine registered as an intervenor in 2007's hearings on the Plum Creek development proposal for the Moosehead region. Working with Environment Northeast, GrowSmart advocated "neither for nor against" the proposal, but instead urged developers and opponents to work together to create a plan that would address the region's economic development needs, minimize energy costs and climate impacts, and preserve working landscapes.
www.growsmartmaine.org/plumcreek contains a comprehensive index of testimony from the Land Use Regulation Commission's hearings, details on Plum Creek's proposed developments, and more information about GrowSmart Maine's position on the issue.
