Standish Corner Village Design Implementation
“Growth” areas:
- Have, or can efficiently obtain, public facilities and services.
- Have natural characteristics suitable for development.
- Are large enough to accommodate the expected growth over the next 10 years and to allow the market to function.
- Are large enough to accommodate a variety of types of housing.
- Must be limited to a size and configuration that encourages compact rather than sprawling
development.
Source: SPO Comprehensive Plan Manual, 2005. Below: Designated growth areas (in red) defined in the Standish Comprehensive Plan. Click to enlarge for detail:
A major goal for Standish is to retain its rural character. To do this the Town’s 2006 Comprehensive Plan recommends directing a large majority of its future residential and commercial growth into its village centers and the immediately surrounding areas.
The Comprehensive Plan identifies three village centers as Growth Areas (defined at left and shown in red in the map below) where the majority of the town's development should take place: Steep Falls, Standish Corner, and Sebago Lake Village. The St. Joseph’s College campus is also designated as a Growth Area.
The Comprehensive Plan recommends that Village Master Plans be developed for each village over a three- to five-year time period.
Standish Corner Village Master Plan
In November 2007 the town completed the first of these master plans, a Village Design Master Plan for Standish Corner. This Plan sets the overall direction for how the village should evolve over time. It recommends:
- Creating of two new Village Mixed Use districts and a Residential Professional district (to replace the existing Village Commercial and Residential districts),
- Retaining the Business Commercial and Industrial districts
- Developing Design Guidelines to guide the scale and design of village architecture, signage, buffering/landscaping, and the streetscape
- Revising minimum lot size requirements for residential development in the village center (currently 1.5 acres per single family home) and possibly establishing maximum lot sizes in the village
- Revising the Dimensional Standards that govern the minimum and maximum front, side and rear setbacks from property lines and the placement of buildings on each lot
- Creating a local street network to organize future development in accordance with the Access Management and road layout principles of the village Roadway Plan.
Below: Standish corner existing zoning (left) and proposed Master Plan zoning (right). Click either image to enlarge for detail:
The Village Design Implementation Process
While the Master Plan set the long term direction for Standish Corner, many specific details remain concerning the many issues listed above. For instance, the Master Plan recommends consideration of a range of reduced minimum lot sizes in the village center but does not recommend a specific minimum size.
In March 2008, the Town Council established the Village Implementation Committee. The Committee is chaired by Town Councilor Carolyn Biegel, council representative for the Standish Corner village area.
The work of the Village Implementation Committee will be to provide the Town Council with recommendations on these many design questions, including which will lead to recommendations on specific changes to the zoning ordinance and other regulations in Standish Corner. Phase I will make specific recommendations to the Council prior to developing ordinance language. A Draft Work Plan for Phase I has been developed. This phase is expected to last through December 2008. Following review by the Town Council, the Planning Board and others, Phase II will move to making zoning change recommendations by June 2009.
The Committee will be hosting a wide variety of public events to engage Standish citizens and business owners and get their input. Stay tuned for more information on these upcoming events.
Standish Corner Village Implementation Committee: Meeting Materials
Meeting #1. March 20, 2008
Work Plan | Agenda | Meeting Notes
Meeting #2. April 17, 2008
Agenda | Cover Memo | Issues Matrix | Issues Visuals | Meeting#2 Presentation |
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