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Goal of the Updated Comprehensive Plan:
The intent of this Comprehensive Plan is to promote and sustain a diverse year-round community, by managing change through conservation of the town’s predominant resources. This management first recognizes the community's essential attributes, and then builds upon them, creating an environment that allows the town and its individual villages to grow and flourish. In order to provide for this continuing change within our community, five interrelated issues need to be equally considered and weighed as a whole:
- Community
- Economics
- Environment
- Health
- Civic Participation
These five issues are integral to the structure of our community and need to be acknowledged and accounted for within each of the Comprehensive Plan’s subgroups and in consideration of new initiatives within our community.
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Updated May 25, 2006
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What exactly is a Comprehensive Plan?
A comprehensive plan, also known as a “master plan” or “general plan,” is a tool to guide the constant change and evolution that every community faces. It is comparable to a contractor’s blueprint. By outlining a vision for the community, and strategies for achieving that vision, a comprehensive plan acts as a foundation for any policies and actions a community wants to implement in the future. Any regulations set forth in the Land Use Ordinance must directly reflect the policies outlined in the comprehensive plan.
Why is Mount Desert rewriting their Comprehensive Plan?
Like many Maine towns, Mount Desert developed a comprehensive plan in 1990, in response to the state’s requirements set forth in the Growth Management Act. As defined in the statute, comprehensive plans generally need to be reviewed every 5 years and thoroughly updated every 10 years, as the stated projections, issues, and strategies become outdated and less relevant. In 2003, Mount Desert realized that the existing comprehensive plan was out of date, and while it outlines a vision for the town, it lacks the specific policies that are needed to guide the town into the future.
Is it finished yet?
The Comprehensive Plan Committee has completed the data gathering stage of this update process, including a draft of the inventory and analysis section of the comprehensive plan, along with a set of maps representing this inventory of current resources and conditions. To wrap up this stage, the committee held a well-attended public meeting in May 2005 focusing on land-use, to
build on some of the public opinion gathered previously from a town-wide survey.
Now that the current conditions in Town of Mount Desert have been determined, along with an analysis of the issues the town faces, the committee is addressing the next part of the plan – what should the town be like in future, and how can we achieve this future?
A series of goals for the town have been drafted, reflecting the different issues the town is facing and the concerns of the residents gathered from the survey and public meeting. The committee is currently in the process of working on the specific strategies and objectives that will facilitate achieving these goals. The intent is to bring the updated Comprehensive Plan to Mount Desert voters in 2007.
If you have questions about or suggestions for
Mount Desert's comprehensive plan update,
Click Here!
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Comprehensive Plan Update prepared with assistance from Planning Decisions, Inc
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