By Ward Peck

Editor

    After 20 months of meetings, hearings, and reviewing
correspondence, the Cape Elizabeth Comprehensive Plan Committee is
nearing the end of what Town Planner Maureen O’Meara described as the
“first step” in bringing the plan to fruition.

    On Thursday, the Committee will hold a final public
forum to hear citizens’ comments and concerns about the 145-page draft
plan before submitting it to the Town Council. O’Meara said the
Thursday meeting is billed as a “forum” rather than a “hearing” to
emphasize it’s less formal nature. Participants will be able to remain
in their seats to ask questions or make points, rather than addressing
the committee from a podium.

    The last Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 1993.
O’Meara said she interpreted the new draft as largely a reaffirmation
of the recommendations made in the 1993 plan. It contains 14 chapters
on specific areas of the town’s composition, character and population
including chapters on: demographics, the economy, housing, public
facilities, fiscal capacity, recreation and open space and land use
along with recommendations for public policy in each area.

    O’Meara identified a few areas where the draft plan
departs from its predecessor, including an emphasis on preserving
agricultural land by allowing agricultural land owners to transfer
development rights to other land parcels, allowing the receiving parcel
to increase the building unit density allowance by one-third.

    The draft recommendations would also increase the
town’s emphasis on open space or cluster development in the town’s
designated growth areas, know as “RB districts” by increasing the
density of development and increasing the amount of open space in such
developments in areas served by public sewer.

    The plan also recommends that the town’s sewer
service areas be extended to apply to all RD districts. Currently,
according to O’Meara, developers with land outside the sewer service
area have a disincentive to connect to the public sewer system, which
in turn, restricts the ability for developers to cluster housing.

    The plan makes no recommendations regarding business
districts outside the town center, although there have been appeals to
update those zoning regulations to conform with the Town Center zoning
regulations such as increased density and implementing design standards
as well as requests to expand the boundaries of those districts.

    The new draft also deemphasizes the town’s goals of
historic and scenic preservation. O’Meara said efforts in the 1990’s to
establish preservation schemes revealed there is little public support
for restricting private property rights in favor of preservation.

    Following the public forum the Comprehensive Plan
Committee will meet again on Feb. 1 to discuss the public comments and
again on Feb. 8 to prioritize the 83 recommendations contained in the
plan. The committee will then submit the draft plan to the Town Council
either in March and April. O’Meara said she does not expect the Town
Council to discuss the plan until it finalizes the next budget in late
spring.

    The council will then hold its own hearings before adopting a final comprehensive plan.

    The entire draft plan can be found on the town’s website, www.capeelizabeth.com.