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Regional Open Space
|
| A regional approach to preserving
open space |
|
letters@TimesRecord.Com |
| 02/25/2005 |
By Katrina Van Dusen, Liz Hertz and Eileen Johnson,
Times Record Contributors
In January 2004, more than 65 local officials from the 10 Sagadahoc
County municipalities, plus Brunswick and Harpswell, attended a
regional meeting organized by the MidCoast Council for Business and
Economic Development and Planning (MCBDP). The discussion focused on
the economic development and land use planning issues each
municipality faces and how these issues could be addressed in a
cooperative way. The most common response to the question "What are
the top planning challenges facing your community?" was "open space
preservation."
Maine's "smart growth" dialogue in recent years has defined the
concept of "service center communities." Sagadahoc region residents
rely primarily on Bath, Brunswick and Topsham as their service center
— towns where they shop for groceries, make use of the library and go
to the doctor's office. The "rural resource region" that complements
these service centers has received less attention — where we pick
apples, cross country ski, canoe, or enjoy the beach; where the
vegetables for our farmer's markets are grown.
The Sagadahoc region's rural areas still have large unfragmented
tracts of land where both wildlife and rural enterprises thrive. It is
a rich fabric, woven together by shared resources that rarely honor
municipal boundaries. However, residential development is rapidly
spreading out from the service centers into the working rural areas,
where land is less expensive. As farms and other large lots are
divided up, the ecological functions and rural values of the area are
put in jeopardy.
A small group discussion at the January 2004 meeting produced several
good ideas for collaboration to preserve open space and natural
resources. A core group of interested people continued to meet and
ultimately formed a new consortium, the Sagadahoc Region Rural
Resource Initiative (SRRRI). The SRRRI working group, financed by the
participating communities with help from Maine's State Planning
Office, has been meeting since spring 2004 to explore how the 12
participating communities can work together to preserve the rural
character and resources of the region that we share. The participants
are Arrowsic, Bath, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Brunswick, Georgetown,
Harpswell, Phippsburg, Richmond, Topsham, West Bath and Woolwich.
Membership in the SRRRI comprises a broad array of stakeholders:
Planning Board, Conservation Commission and Comprehensive Plan
Committee members; a town councilor, selectman, municipal staff
person; land trust leaders and Nature Conservancy staff; the Bowdoin
College Environmental Studies Program as well as state and federal
agency representatives.
Many of the towns are updating their comprehensive plans. The
individual town plans could conceivably meet the communities' needs
and the state's minimum requirements. But without regional
collaboration, sprawling development and the gradual loss of rural
character and ecosystem services are inevitable. Unless the towns pull
together to protect resources that cross municipal boundaries — such
as trails, water bodies and water courses, and large tracts of
undeveloped land — the future of these resources will be assessed and
planned in a piecemeal fashion.
SRRRI is currently conducting an inventory of the region's rural
resources. It will then propose and encourage implementation of
appropriate measures to protect open space and natural resources so
that crucial rural functions will continue to thrive. To enhance
resource stewardship and preserve the values and functions that define
the region's rural character, SRRRI will develop new mechanisms to
promote collaborative regional decision making and action.
The group has initiated several projects since last spring. One is
mapping and developing protection strategies for valuable habitats and
wildlife corridors that cross town boundaries. The group has also
begun to develop a regional trail map that will show the multiple
recreational re-sources available to residents of this region. A third
project will be to review the consistency of town ordinances as they
apply to the protection of a shared resource, for instance shoreland
zoning to protect Merrymeeting Bay. A goal is to provide communities
with model language for their shoreland zoning ordinances.
Residents of the 12 communities are invited to participate in a
Visioning Session on April 11 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Morse High School in
Bath. The purpose of this meeting is to discover which special places
and landscape qualities are most highly valued by the region's
citizens. Then SRRRI can begin to identify the most effective ways for
us to collaborate to protect these resources.
The special rural character of our region reflects a mosaic of land
uses spread across a varied and beautiful landscape. Through the SRRRI
project, we hope to gain a better understanding of how the pieces fit
together, so we can ensure that the rural fabric remains intact for
future generations.
Katrina Van Dusen is the planner for MCBDP. Liz Hertz of Topsham is
a planner with the Maine Coastal Program at the State Planning Office.
Eileen Johnson, who lives in Bowdoin, is program manager of the
Environmental Studies Program at Bowdoin College. For more information
on the SRRRI project and the visioning session, contact Katrina at
443-5790. |
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