By Ward Peck

Editor

    After 26 months, 29 meetings and three public
hearings held by a committee to draft a comprehensive plan, the Cape
Elizabeth Town Council is set to begin the process of putting that plan
into action.

    The plan, an update to the 1993 comprehensive plan
that has dictated land use policies, spending priorities and town goals
for the past 14 years, will receive its first public hearing on Sept.
10 at 7:30 p.m. in Town Hall. A copy of the draft plan is available on
the town Web site (www.capeelizabeth.com/news/comp_plan/) or at town
hall.

    The plan provides an in depth analysis of the town’s
assets and liabilities as well as who it is that inhabits the town and
how they live.

    While much of the information confirms what most
people already suspect to be the case, such as “historically Cape
Elizabeth has been one of the least affordable towns for the average
working family” (page 35); “single family homes represent over 90
percent of the town’s housing stock” (page 29), and “Cape functions as
a bedroom community in the Greater Portland labor market. The majority
of residents commute outside of the town for work” (page 20), the plan
places the information in the context of how it affects the greater
good, making certain value judgments along the way.

    The plan concludes, for instance, that a town
comprised almost exclusively of single family homes unaffordable to the
vast majority of families is a bad thing, lays out reasons why it is a
bad thing, and offers ways to correct it (pages 41 to 46).

    It is the corrective measure, referred to as
implementation steps in the plan that will likely be the most
contentious elements of the plan as it is debated, for what they
propose as well as what they do not.

    Many of the implementation steps contained in the
plan reaffirm the goals of the previous comprehensive plan, while
others lay the foundation for new ordinances and zoning rules. Those
steps that do propose change are largely incremental and do not
represent any radical change in the town’s character.

    While the plan does offer ways to create a more
diversified housing stock, it also recognizes the trend of building
predominantly single-family homes in Cape Elizabeth will continue.

    The plan reaffirms the 1993 Comprehensive Plan to
continue to target growth in certain areas of town, but it also
concludes the pace of overall development will continue to decline as
it has for the past several decades.

    According to town manager Michael McGovern, state
guidelines require the town’s comprehensive plan to direct anticipated
growth in a sustainable and manageable fashion, even if that growth is
relatively modest.

    “Last year there were 11 homes built in Cape Elizabeth,” he said.

    That the Comprehensive plan largely aims to preserve
the overall character or the town is no accident. A survey conducted in
2005 found that 90 percent of residents were satisfied with living in
Cape Elizabeth, with newer and younger residents more likely to claim a
higher degree of satisfaction than older and longer term residents.

    More than 80 percent of respondents placed
preservation of wetlands, farms and the town’s rural character as
important goals. Less than half placed “encouraging the development of
affordable housing; encouraging the development of a variety of housing
types; improving the Town Center; or “attracting commercial
development” as important goals for the town.

    The survey found that only 25 percent of respondents
were willing to raise taxes to buy parcels of open space or access
easements to such parcels.

    According to Chris Franklin, Executive Director of
Cape Elizabeth Land Trust (CELT) the last finding is misleading and
said it improperly frames any policy of using public money to preserve
open space as one that raises taxes.

Franklin said CELT has proposed the town undertake a study to determine
how much residential development also causes taxes to go up.

    The draft comprehensive plan illustrates Franklin’s
point. While new development adds to the town’s tax base, diluting the
tax liability of existing property owners, it also comes with costs,
especially if there are children involved.

    On page 85, the plan examines the hypothetical case
of a family with two children who move into town in 1989. “By the time
the second child graduates from Cape Elizabeth High School in 2002, the
family has paid a total of $45,178 in taxes. The cost paid by the town
to educate the children is $160,428.” The analysis concludes it would
take another fifteen years of property tax payments for the town to
earn back what it invested in the children.

    Franklin said the town should conduct a study to see
if preservation costs less than development. He said CELT hopes such a
study may help convince the town that preserving open space would be a
fiscally responsible investment.

    “In Cape Elizabeth we really don’t know. We should
compare this side by side and not just assume preservation costs more,”
Franklin said. “The first goal is have people understand residential
development does not make your taxes go down it makes it go up.

    But changing the type of housing also changes the
equation. By building housing other than single-family homes, such as
condominiums geared toward senior citizens, the town realizes the
increase in tax revenue, without increasing education costs.

    How to balance the competing interests as Cape
Elizabeth grows is the purpose of the Comprehensive Plan. In that
balance there are sure to be those who perceive themselves as on the
losing end.

Next week: Increasing density.