With the bulk of the work completed on Camden’s 2017 Comprehensive Plan, it is time for citizens to weigh in on the recommendations of how the town shapes its future. It’s no small exercise, and there is much for the Camden to talk about. Since 2003, Camden’s population has continued to shrink, a trend attributed to the lack of well-paying jobs combined with the price of housing. The average age of the Camden resident is getting even older, and the streets have become darker as more homes are occupied but during the summer.

“The town needs to think about what it wants to be in the next years,” said Camden Planning Board Chairman Lowrie Sargent, who, with a group of 14 volunteers, took on the 4.5-year task of updating the town’s comprehensive plan. The committee included Planning Board members Richard Householder, Richard Bernhard, John Scholz, and former board member Jan McKinnan. Jean Freedman White oversaw the plan’s organization and Deb Dodge edited it.

The committee is holding three informational sessions over the next several weeks to focus on chapters of the plan. The chapters are being posted on the town’s website as they are completed. (Click here to read the chapters.)

Each chapter is accompanied by a list of recommendations, and depending on the topic, they range from limiting floats and moorings on Megunticook Lake and Norton Pond to allowing increased densities to encourage development of affordable housing in residential zones, as well as conducting a town-wide historic archaeological survey that includes a search for Native American and European settlements prior to the late 1760s. 

The review sessions begin January 5, at 6 p.m., in the Washington Street Conference Room in Camden. 

The review begins with Chapter 1 (History), Chapter 5 (Natural Resources), Chapter 6 (Natural Opportunities and Restraints), Chapter 7 (Sewer and Water Utilities), Chapter 8 (Solid Waste), Chapter 11 (Housing), Chapter 14 (Historic Resources) and Chapter 15 (Public Facilities).

At the January 19 information meeting, the review will cover Chapter 9 (Transportation), Chapter 10 (Land Use Patterns), Chapter 12 (The Harbor), Chapter 13 (Recreation and Open Spaces), Chapter 17 (Education), Chapter 21 (Capital Improvements) and Chapter 24 (Town Government).

At the Feb. 2 information meeting the following chapters will be discussed: Chapters 2 (Population), Chapter 3 (Economy), Chapter 4 (Downtown), Chapter 16 (Fiscal Capacity), Chapter 18 (Future Land Use), Chapter 19 (Land Use Regulations ), Chapter 20 (Future Planning), Chapter 22 (Regional Cooperation) and Chapter 23 (Other Vehicles for Implementation).

There will be a public hearing on the proposed revised comprehensive plan in February or March 2017, and the document is expected to get before voters at June Town Meeting.

Municipal comprehensive plans have become a tradition in Maine communities over the last 40 years, and were updated every 10 to 12 years. In the 1980s and 1990s, comp plans became pro forma, as the Maine State Planning Office, which had been established in 1968 by then Gov. Ken Curtis, became a vital part of the state’s executive branch.

The state planning office, over its 48 years, had bee tasked to help build a sustainable future for Maine's communities. Its duties, assigned by statute, were to coordinate development of the state's economy and energy resources with the conservation of its natural resources; provide technical assistance to the Governor and Legislature; provide technical assistance to towns and regions; and conduct continuing economic analyses, including economic forecasting.

With the LePage Administration, the planning office was reduced in size and scope, and eventually eliminated in July 2012.

Nonetheless, comprehensive plans are still encouraged, if municipalities want to have an edge on receiving state and federal grant.

Some municipalities, including Camden, have continued with the comprehensive plan tradition. The last update of the Camden comp plan was in 2005, and approved that year by voters at annual town meeting. 

But things have changed since then.

In 2004, Camden’s economy rested on a three-legged stool: one third on the credit card bank MBNA, which had headquarters at the Knox Mill; one-third was dedicated to the hospitality industry; and one-third consisted of small business.

Since MBNA’s departure, a larger chunk of the local economy has come to depend on hospitality.

“Is that the direction the town wants to go?” said Sargent.

Over the last 10 years, the average age of the Camden resident has increased by seven years. Given that Maine is among the oldest states in the union, right up there with Arizona and West Virginia, and the whitest, Camden is reflecting the state.

But does Camden want to continue on that path? Market forces determine how an economy gets shaped, but so does public policy, and that’s where Camden citizens hold some sway over the future of their community.

“It’s important to plan for the town’s future,” said Sargent. “Things will happen that you don’t anticipate, but there are questions to answer. Do we want to continue to attract young people to town now?”

If so, how? 

It is time, said Sargent, to address those fundamental issues, to agree on a plan, and to get the comp plan implemented. He and the committee are recommending that the Select Board form an implementation committee for the plan, if and when voters approve it.

The plan is It is a guidebook, not a set of rules, wrote the comp plan contributors. But, it reflects the direction the town collectively wants to take.

“Information contained in the plan's 25 chapters is based on facts and opinions solicited from many local citizens and state and federal statistics,” the introduction said. “As with any opinion and fact exploration process some differences of opinion are revealed. The plan has attempted to identify those differences, realizing that these differences create beneficial discussions and ultimately better planning.”

Comp plans also direct how municipalities refine their land use ordinances.

Camden laid outs its major zoning map in 1992, with 17 zones. The recent comp plan update reviewed all 17 zones, with planning board members each spending time in individual zones investigating their characteristics.

“Have they accomplished what was intended in 1992?” said Sargent. “How are we doing?”

For a large part those zones have fulfilled their intended mission, he said.

“This Committee has modified the approach from the previous Comprehensive Plan revisions in 2005,” Sargent said, adding that: “chapters were added on covering Education and Town Government. Efforts were made to make the plan more user friendly so that is more likely to be referenced over the next 10 years. All the chapters were reviewed and revised instead of just making changes to bring the plan in line with state standards. All zoning districts were reviewed to assess whether development in those districts had progressed as anticipated in the 1992 Zoning Ordinance.”

He said: “Each chapter ends with a Recommendations, Questions and Strategies section to identify individual issues requiring consideration and the groups or individuals most likely to be responsible for those issues. We look forward to additional public input at these meetings.”

As for the value of the comp plan, Sargent said it is important for Camden to be proactive, not reactive. 

“We can’t allow the urgency of every day events to overcome our view of the longterm,” he said.