Bristol Select Board member Kristine Poland reviews the coversheet of the feedback of town’s draft comprehensive plan from of Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry in the town office on Wednesday, June 26. At the meeting, the select board agreed to reconvene the comprehensive plan committee that was disbanded after the draft was submitted April 3 to address feedback from the state. (Johnathan Riley photo)
Members of the Bristol Select Board convened at the town office Wednesday, June 26 to discuss the town’s draft comprehensive plan’s compliance issues identified in a review completed by the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry.
Bristol Town Administrator Rachel Bizarro said that the feedback centered on the plan’s completeness. In a cover letter attached to the feedback, Tom Miragliuolo, senior planner with the municipal planning assistance program, wrote there were “missing elements that will need to be added or corrected before we can find the plan to be consistent with the Growth Management Act.”
Select board member Kristine Poland said she was surprised to see that the plan was missing elements and wondered why North Star Planning, the consultants hired to guide the committee in the process, didn’t catch the errors.
“I do wonder why there are deficiencies, a few of them feel pretty significant,” she said. “I’m wondering how that happened.”
According to Bristol Select Board Chad Hanna, the town has 90 days to correct the errors and resubmit the plan to the state for further review.
Due to the small window of time for the edits to take place, Bizarro suggested the comprehensive plan committee should be reconvened with fewer members than its original 16. Select board members concurred.
After the submission of the plan on April 3 by the select board, members elected to disband the comprehensive plan committee, with the intention of reforming the committee if needed once feedback from the state had been received.
Richard Francis and Jess Yates, former co-chairs of the comprehensive plan committee that put together the document and its town-specific datasets, were present at the meeting. Francis said the former comprehensive plan committee members “didn’t feel well treated” by the select board by the end of the submission process.
Bristol Select Board member Paul Yates said it was not the intention of the board to mistreat the members of the committee, but that disbanding the committee was believed by members of the select board to be the best way to navigate the possible needs of the plan once the state sent feedback.
“I’m not sure that was clearly explained,” Francis said. “We felt that we should be continuing through to the end of the process, correcting, modifying, working with North Star, making sure it’s correct.”
However, both Francis and Jess Yates said they would gauge the interest of the former committee members and contact the select board about reforming the committee.
Bizarro and select board members said they would seek to appoint a reformed comprehensive plan committee at the next select board meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 3, at the town office.
In addition to reconvening a smaller comprehensive plan committee, Poland said she would also like to include board or committees that “haven’t had appropriate representation,” in the process of putting together the draft.
Poland suggested the town’s planning board and shellfish committee could give valuable feedback.
While the edits need to be submitted to the state by Oct. 30, Poland said the priority of the board is to have a plan supported by residents.
“We want a plan the town will support and if it takes longer it takes longer,” Poland said.
The comprehensive plan is a document adopted by voters that helps guide municipalities toward a collective vision in efforts including conservation, land management, housing, and more.
Towns that adopt a comprehensive plan are given priority consideration when applying for some grants and funding from the state and become eligible for grants they otherwise wouldn’t be.
Bristol’s draft has been in the works since 2021, when the town formed a comprehensive plan committee after voters approved $60,000 at the annual town meeting to fund the effort and hire consultants to assist with its development.
For more information about the draft comprehensive plan, go to bristolmaine.org/comprehensive-plan-committee, email info@bristolmaine.org, call the town office at 563-5270, or visit the town office, at 1268 Bristol Road, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
