|
Public Facilities & Utilities Goal
To provide safe and efficient public utilities and facilities to Mount Desert’s residents and businesses, and use the public utility infrastructure as a tool to decrease the impact of land uses on the natural environment.
Providing adequate public facilities is important for allowing the community to survive year-round. Facilities such as schools and community centers, in addition to providing necessary services, provide opportunities for interaction among residents and are a part of the fabric of the year-round community. All public facilities contribute both to creating an environment that encourages growth, and to the quality of life of the town’s residents.
Public utilities must be maintained and, where necessary, enhanced, to contribute to the well-being of the town’s residents. The long-term sustainability of the town’s utilities must be ensured, while achieving economic efficiency. Public utilities have the ability to influence land use patterns, and therefore attention must be given to how they will do so, and how they will impact the environment through the land uses the utilities are encouraging or discouraging.
Objectives:
1. Promote efficiency in and encourage expansion of public services and utilities in order to manage and accomodate growth.
Strategies
a. Work with the public utilities to create a capital recovery program for individuals or entities that extend the public water and public sewer networks. This capital recovery program will create more financial incentives for privately-financed utility extensions by allowing those that extend public utilities to recoup some of their investment from new utility users.
b. Require all subdivisions either to connect to public sewer lines, or to install alternative state approved community sewer systems.
c. Pursue alternative financing methods such as impact fees and special assessment districts for expansion of the public utilities in areas of need.
d. Create performance standards for new sewer system.
2. Plan for the town's future to ensure that improvements and upgrades to our town's public facilities and services are proceeding efficiently and will provide adequate services to residents and businesses in the future.
Strategies
a. Work with the other communities on the island to create a regional public safety strategy that will better coordinate facilities and services across the island. This strategy should include approaches to volunteer recruitment for the fire departments and staff retention for all of the departments
b. The Public Works Department, Harbor Master, and Police Department should create a Northeast Harbor downtown parking survey to identify ways to improve upon the parking situation during the season in Northeast Harbor.
3. Provide adequate education facilities for the town’s residents.
Strategies
a. As elementary enrollments decrease, the Town of Mount Desert should examine how it can make the most efficient use of its recently renovated elementary school.
b. Work with Consolidated School District 17 to ensure that the Mount Desert High School is used efficiently and that a full range of educational services continue to be provided even if enrollments decline in the future.
| 
