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Community Guided Planning and Zoning committee meets
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NMDC Senior Planner Jay Kamm, standing, gives a brief overview of the Community Guided Planning and Zoning process to steering committee members.
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CARIBOU - Another step in the Community Guided Planning and Zoning process has been taken as the recently formed steering committee held its first meeting.
Gathering Wednesday morning at the Caribou Inn and Convention Center members discussed the scope of work they would like to undertake in Phase 1, which is fact finding and general information gathering.
In February, the Maine Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC) selected Aroostook County as the initial region to participate in a series of local workshops, coordinated by Northern Maine Development Commission (NMDC), to help determine overall regional interest and further develop a framework for the community guided planning and zoning process. Recent efforts to improve the effectiveness of managing land use in the unorganized and deorganized areas of Maine have focused in part on the need for more locally guided and proactive planning for these areas.
"I think this was a productive initial meeting," said Jay Kamm, senior planner NMDC, who is facilitator of the effort. "The steering committee is comprised of large and small land owners, business people, folks from agriculture, forestry, recreation, conservation and public officials. It is a good mix and there is a lot of expertise in the room.
The members of the committee are Ned Berce, farmer
St. Agatha; Mark Draper, Tri-Community Recycling and Sanitary Landfill; William Patterson, The Nature Conservancy; James May, former LUPC Commissioner and retired forester; Sarah Medina, Seven Island Lands Company; Ked Coffin, Irving Woodlands; Cheryl
St. Peter, small leaseholder Cross Lake; Doug Beaulieu, County Administrator; Ralph Dwyer, Town Manger Ashland; Candis Nevers, Town Manager Smyrna/Merrill; Fred Corey, Aroostook Band of MicMacs; Kathy Mazzuchelli, Recreation, City of Caribou; and David Cambridge, small landowner and business representative from Presque Isle. After a brief history of the Community Guided Planning and Zoning effort by Kamm, steering committee members took a few minutes to discuss their expectations.
"We need to look at current activities and potential economic development plans," said Beaulieu.
"The economics of The County are based on natural resources," said May. "That has to be foremost on our thoughts. Not only forestry and farming, but also recreation and what are the chances for expansion.
Four members were nominated to serve as committee chair: Beaulieu, May, Draper and St. Peter. From the nominations, the NMDC Executive Board will select the chair.
The group also decided to use a three-region strategy going forward in the planning and zoning process. The boundaries of the three focus areas are:
Northeast Aroostook County which includes all unorganized townships in the area located north of Bridgewater extending westerly to the western township line of Oxbow Plantation then north to T15R6, west to include Winterville Plantation then north to the Wallagrass/St. John Plantation townline then westerly to Allagash. This area included the New Brunswick border to the east.
Southern Aroostook County which includes all of the unorganized townships located south of the Bridgewater/New Brunswick border extending westerly to the Oxbow/Aroostook CountyLine and then south to the Molunkus/Penobscot County line and easterly along the Aroostook/Penobscot/Washington County line to the Weston/New Brunswick border and then north along the New Brunswick/Maine border to Bridgewater. Western Aroostook-Big Woods which extends from the western boundary of the Oxbow Plantation township line extending westerly along the Aroostook County border to the Quebec Border, northerly along the Quebec/Maine Border around the Big Twenty township and then south to Allagash.
For more information about Community Guided Planning and Zoning, contact Kamm at 498-8736 or by email at jkamm@nmdc.org.
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