The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Maine Town Documents Maine Government Documents 2016 Town of Gorham Maine Comprehensive Plan Gorham, Me. Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/towndocs Repository Citation Gorham, Me., "Town of Gorham Maine Comprehensive Plan" (2016). Maine Town Documents. 7357. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/towndocs/7357 This Plan is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maine Town Documents by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 2016 Town of Gorham Comprehensive Plan Update 2016 Adopted by the Town Council on September 6, 2016 Acknowledgements The 2016 Update of the Gorham Comprehensive Plan was prepared under the direction of the Gorham Town Council. The members of the Council changed during the process of developing the Update. The members of the Town Council at the time of adoption of the Update were: Matthew Robinson, Chair Sherrie Benner Marla Stelk Michael Phinney Ronald Shepard Bruce Roullard Benjamin Hartwell The Town Council was assisted by the Comprehensive Plan Review Committee. The Committee reviewed the Town Council’s draft of the Update, solicited public feedback on the draft, and proposed a number of revisions to the draft that were incorporated into the adopted Update of the Comprehensive Plan. The members of the Review Committee were: Kathy Garrard, Chair Douglas Carter Dede Perkins Virginia Wilder Cross Dale Rines Tiffany Cupps William Rust Dan Nichols Jon Smith Staff assistance to the Town Council and the Comprehensive Plan Review Committee was provided by: David O. Cole, Town Manager David C.M. Galbraith, Zoning Administrator Thomas M. Poirier, Town Planner Barbara C. Skinner, Clerk Planning Decisions, Inc. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Section I Chapter 1 Past Plans 4 Chapter 2 Development Profile 13 Chapter 3 Summary of Inventories 21 Section II Chapter 4 Vision 29 Chapter 5 Community Goals & Policies 31 Chapter 6 Land Use 44 Section III Chapter 7 Regional Coordination 73 Chapter 8 Implementation Strategy 76 Chapter 9 Capital Investment Strategy 84 Appendices I: Inventories 87 II: Capital Improvement Planning Document 165 III: Public Participation 181 Introduction INTRODUCTION The Town of Gorham has a long history of planning for its future growth and development. It began over a half-century ago in the 1950s and continues to this day. Chapter One provides an overview of the Town’s past planning activities. The Town’s current Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 1993 with minor amendments in 1994. The background chapter in the 1993 Comprehensive Plan included a section on the “Community Character” of Gorham to provide a context for the Plan and its recommendations. The following excerpts are taken from that section: “To understand the issues facing Gorham and the opportunities facing Gorham, it is desirable to understand the history of land development as a rural market town with a compact village of homes and businesses, agricultural and rural residential markets, and serving activities associated with the mills along the Presumpscot River. “This pattern of compact villages surrounded by rural countryside prevailed until the post- World War II era. After that war, the Town began to feel the pressures of suburbanization. “The 1970’s brought a significant change in the Town’s development pattern. Rather than compact development in and near Gorham Village and Little Falls, the Town began to see its first low density residential subdivisions within the rural countryside. At the same time, a significant amount of lot-by-lot residential development was occurring throughout the Town, primarily along existing roadways. “The late 70’s and 80’s saw this trend of dividing up the rural countryside . continue and even accelerate under the growth pressures of Greater Portland. “During this same period, Gorham Village and, to a lesser extent, Little Falls Village saw livability decline as more and more traffic was funneled through these built-up areas.” Since the current Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 1993, Gorham has continued to face many of these same issues. Over the past twenty years there has continued to be pressure for lower-density suburban and rural residential development. The recent development profile in Chapter 2 documents this trend. Since the adoption of the development transfer provisions in the mid-2000s, there has been some change in this pattern with considerable residential subdivision activity on the fringes of Gorham Village. The construction of the Bernard Rines Village Bypass proposed in the 1993 Plan has mitigated some of the traffic problems in Gorham Village but through traffic remains a concern for the quality of life in the Village. This update to the Town’s Comprehensive Plans attempts to address the issues now facing the community. 1 INTRODUCTION This 2016 Update of the Town of Gorham’s Comprehensive Plan serves as a guide for the decisions the Town must make about growth, development, redevelopment, investment, and change over the coming decade. The Plan continues the Town’s established long-range planning process, and creates a framework for managing future development. In many cases, the recommendations of the 2016 Plan continue the basic policy directions set by the 1993 Plan and subsequent planning since then. In other cases, the 2016 Plan addresses emerging issues or provides a fresh look at ongoing issues. The 2016 Plan is divided into three sections. Section I presents background information about existing conditions in the community and past trends and activities. Chapter One summarizes the Town’s past planning activities, including the key elements of the 1993 Plan, and outlines major planning activities since 1993. Chapter Two contains a detailed profile of the past twenty-five years (1990-2015) of residential and commercial development activity in Gorham. Chapter Three summarizes the findings of the Plan’s eleven inventory sections. Full versions of the inventories are contained in Appendix I. Section II of the Plan sets out the Comprehensive Plan’s vision, goals, and policy recommendations. This is the core of the Comprehensive Plan. Chapter Four sets out the Town’s Vision for its future – what we want our community to be in ten or twenty years. Chapter Five presents goals and policies for addressing the issues facing the community related to all plan elements aside from land use. Chapter Six contains goals and policies for land use, including a Future Land Use Map, and detailed summaries of preferred use and development patterns for each land use designation. Section III lays out the actions needed to achieve the goals and policies proposed in Part 2. Chapter Seven addresses how Gorham should coordinate its planning activities with neighboring municipalities and regional organizations. Chapter Eight sets out a detailed program for carrying out the various strategies, and assigns responsibility for the implementation of each strategy to a particular department, board, or agency. Chapter Nine identifies the capital investments needed to both support future growth and development and to enhance the community’s quality of life. The appendices to the Plan include the full inventories for the eleven Plan elements, a copy of the Town’s present Capital Improvement Plan, and a summary of public participation in the development of the Plan. The Comprehensive Plan is intended to conform to the requirements of the State’s Growth Management Law for comprehensive plans. As provided by state law, the Plan, when adopted by the Town Council, will also serve as the basis for the Town’s zoning and land use regulations. 2 Section 1 Chapter 1 Past Plans Chapter 2 Development Profile Chapter 3 Summary of Inventories 3 CHAPTER 1 PAST PLANS Chapter 1: Past Plans The Town of Gorham began actively planning for its future in the 1950s and 1960s when it prepared its first comprehensive plan and adopted a town-wide zoning ordinance. During the 1970s, the Town advanced its planning effort with the preparation of the Dickson Report that was adopted as the Town’s comprehensive plan. This was followed by the hiring of a part-time Town Planner and the preparation of the Village Study and Rural Land Use Program. These efforts established major elements of the Town’s land use policies that were incorporated into the Town’s land use ordinances. Many of these policies continue to guide the Town’s land use program. In 1986, the Town prepared and adopted an updated Comprehensive Plan. This plan reaffirmed many of the policies established in the 1970s while establishing some new directions for the community. In 1993, the Town undertook a full re-evaluation of the policies included in the 1986 update of the Comprehensive Plan. This resulted in a new plan that continued many of the prior policies while at the same time, modifying or eliminating some of the policies from the earlier plan. In addition, this plan addressed a number of new issues and concerns that had emerged in the community. The following sections provide an overview of the 1993 Comprehensive Plan as amended in 1994 as well as three major plans undertaken since then. A. The 1993 Comprehensive Plan as Amended in 1994 A major focus of the 1993 Comprehensive Plan as amended in 1994 was on balance. The major objective of the Town of Gorham as set out in the Plan was to assure that the Town continues to be a balanced community. The Plan defined balance as taking many forms: x The balance between the anticipated growth and development of the Town and the continuity of traditional lifestyles and values. x The balance between the rights of the property owners and governmental regulation of land use for the overall good of the community.