Printer-friendly version Reader Comments

Collaboration would save money and promote consistent rules and regulations, leaders say.

By TOM BELL, Staff Writer June 18, 2009

 

The cities and towns in Greater Portland might soon take a regional approach to land-use and transportation planning, a concept that some officials believe will protect Maine's "quality of place" while fostering economic development.

In Maine, where county governments are weak and municipalities wield control over development rules and building codes, planning for generations has been done town by town.

The result is that developers now face a patchwork of rules, and it is difficult for communities to deal with regional issues such as sprawl and traffic congestion, said Paul McKenney, a Cape Elizabeth town councilor and president of the Greater Portland Council of Government.

"Everybody makes up their own rules," he said. "There is a mish-mash of ordinances from town to town. For anyone who wants to do development in the region, they have to go to each municipality and go through their process and get things done. That makes it costly for municipalities and developers."

Founded 40 years ago, the council of government offers a range of planning and municipal services to 25 cities and towns between Scarborough, West Bath and Sebago Lake. It is now working on an agreement with the State Planning Office that would give the council the authority to review local growth-management plans, power that now rests with the state.

The agreement, which could be finalized by the end of summer, would allow a level of regional collaboration that so far has been difficult to achieve, said Neal Allen, the council's executive director. Also, because it would be voluntary, he said, it avoids the conflict with local control.

"We are developing a process that could unify the region with common goals and policies but do it in a way that respects the towns' local involvement in their communities," he said. "They would still have their own plans, but those plans would be consistent with a regional plan."

He said regional collaboration would save municipalities on consulting fees, and promote consistent zoning rules and building code regulations across the region.

Allen will talk about the effort at the council's annual meeting at 5 p.m. today at the Glickman Family Library on the University of Southern Maine campus in Portland.

The regional planning would be based on the council's "sustainability principles," which its executive committee adopted last year.

Those principles include protecting southern Maine's traditional resource-based industries and analyzing development opportunities "based on the long-term effect on the regional economy, environment and community."

McKenney said that all of the region's communities agree on the need to lower planning and development costs, reduce congestion, improve roads and use land more efficiently.

"If we work together to work out best practices and best plans to support and agree on principles, I think we can come to an agreement," he said.

The regional approach would take several years to develop and initially begin with a pilot project in a small number of communities, said Standish Town Manager Gordan Billington, who will be the council's president after tonight's meeting.

State law requires towns to update their growth-management plans every 10 years. Falmouth, South Portland and Freeport, which are all due to start work on new plans, could be part of a pilot program, Billington said.

Ed Suslovic, who worked on the issue with the council last year when he was Portland's mayor, said that Maine communities sometimes make plans that effectively undo the plans of neighboring communities.

For example, Biddeford's efforts to attract big-box stores to the land near the Maine Turnpike have hurt Saco's efforts to revive its downtown, he said. Another example, he said, is the construction of the Gorham bypass. It will relieve congestion in Gorham but create sprawl in rural communities west of...