Lincoln County Planner Bob Faunce led a discussion on Gateway 1 at a meeting of the Constitutionalists of Maine in Waldoboro, Feb. 21. The meeting served as a follow-up to a similar Feb. 7 meeting, during which Faunce addressed the group’s concerns about planning, land rights and economic development.
About two-dozen local residents attended the meeting to ask Faunce questions and voice their – almost unanimously skeptical – views on the proposed interlocal agreement.
“I’m not here to defend Gateway 1,” Faunce said at the beginning of the meeting. In his capacity as Lincoln County Planner, Faunce has watched and been involved with Gateway 1 since its inception and said, “I kind of like the project, but I’m only here to answer questions.”
Gateway 1 is a proposed agreement between towns along a 100 mile stretch of Rt. 1 between Brunswick and Stockton Springs. Under Gateway 1, a coalition formed of representatives of all the participating towns would decide how Maine Dept. of Transportation funding for non-safety, non-maintenance projects would be apportioned between the towns.
The project originated at the request of DOT as a means of ensuring that funding for local projects more closely reflects the desires of the towns, Faunce said.
“Instead of DOT staff deciding which project gets funded, the towns will be able to decide,” Faunce said.
Another goal of Gateway 1 is to help towns direct growth in order to maintain “the individual character of the towns,” Faunce said. “There’s going to be significant amount of growth in Lincoln County in next few decades, with planning we can preserve the important characteristics of Lincoln County.”
As an example, Faunce said that in recent years the distinctions between the five villages that Bristol are known for are “eroding away” as development in Bristol expands. “The goal of planning is make sure that in 30 years Bristol still looks like Bristol,” he said.
Although Bristol is not member of Gateway 1, “it’s a good example of the general goals of planning,” Faunce said.
At the meeting, many in attendance expressed concerns that the Gateway 1 Coalition would mandate development in towns and control how towns manage their zoning and land use ordinances. The concerns focused largely on a fear that towns and individual property owners would be stripped of their rights.
According to Faunce, if the residents of a town vote to sign on to Gateway 1 now, their town will have three to five years to decide whether they share the coalition’s overall vision for planning in the decades to follow. During that same three to five year period, the town has the time to make any key changes to their local land use ordinances, zoning, etc. necessary to move forward with the overall vision.
As Gateway 1 progresses, the coalition will vote on all particular projects to decide where DOT funding will be apportioned and ensure that development along the Rt. 1 corridor remains in line with the overall vision, Faunce said.
If an individual town disagrees with a particular project or ordinance change requested of their town by the coalition, but wants to remain in the coalition, their recourse will be to propose an alternative means of accomplishing the same goal, Faunce said.
If the town either does not support the overall vision or cannot agree with the coalition on the specific projects being recommended to the town, the town will – at any time – have the option of withdrawing from Gateway 1, Faunce said.
Unfortunately, by withdrawing from Gateway 1, the town is “giving up their seat at the table” when the decision is made as to which non-safety, non-maintenance projects will receive DOT funds, Faunce said.
There are provisions written into the proposed Gateway 1 Interlocal Agreement intended to ensure that towns in the Midcoast corridor of Rt. 1 that are not part of Gateway 1 still receive DOT funds for non-safety, non-maintenance projects, but Faunce acknowledged that there is a legitimate concern about whether towns not involved with Gateway 1 will receive a fair apportionment of those funds.
“I’ll still be there” and other regional planners and county officials will be at the coalition meetings “to explain the importance of projects in towns that aren’t part of Gateway 1,” Faunce said, but all DOT funding for non-safety, non-maintenance projects will go through Gateway 1, and towns that are not part of the coalition will not be present to discuss their need for the money or vote on the money’s allocation.
The residents present at the Constitutionalists’ meeting were greatly concerned about the influence that this will allow the Gateway 1 Coalition to exert over towns.
In response, Faunce pointed out that the coalition is formed from representatives appointed by selectmen – in Faunce’s estimation, they will likely be selectmen in most cases – and the overall vision was created by town representatives using comprehensive plans created by the people in each town, surveys, public meetings and a host of other methods of attempting to determine what the residents of the towns on Rt. 1 want.
At the meeting, Faunce acknowledged that similar interlocal groups have been tried with limited success in other parts of the country, but said in a telephone interview on Feb. 22 that Gateway 1 is set apart from those efforts by the amount of direct input from citizens involved in the process of creating the overall vision.
Gateway 1 is also unique among similar projects in that it deals with a significantly more rural, less populated area than similar projects have dealt with, Faunce said.
“The town meeting form of government provides a much more direct interaction with the public,” Faunce said. In other parts of the country there are “layers of bureaucracy” between the people affected by the plan and people designing the plan, he said.
Attendees of the Constitutionalists’ meeting remained largely unconvinced by Faunce’s presentation. As many towns around Lincoln County vote at their respective town meetings this year, they will need to decide whether they agree with the overall vision presented by Gateway 1.
That vision, as well as several concerns about Gateway 1 voiced frequently at meetings around the county, will be explored in more detail in The Lincoln County News in the coming weeks.