Michael Martone, the new full-time planner for the towns of Damariscotta and Newcastle. Martone was hired unanimously by the select boards of both towns early in July. He has been a contracted, part-time planner in the same position since March. (Dylan Burmeister photo)
The Twin Villages have a new planner with the full-time appointment of Michael Martone, who has filled the interim role in both towns since March.
Martone received unanimous appointments at the Damariscotta and Newcastle select board meetings on Wednesday, July 5 and Monday, July 10, respectively.
“It’s a very interesting, special place,” Martone said of the Twin Villages. “There are a lot of important issues that hopefully I can help with and steer the planning aspects in a positive direction.”
Martone replaces Isabelle Oechslie, who was hired in June 2022 and departed in February. He spent the last year working as a redevelopment planner for the Midcoast Council of Governments and was contracted to serve as acting planner for the twin villages after Oechslie’s resignation.
Martone holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in design studies from Arizona State University’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design. He earned his master’s degree in city and regional planning from Rutgers University’s school of planning and public policy and has American Institute of Certified Planners accreditation.
He moved to Bristol from Jersey City, N.J. during the pandemic after spending summers in the areas.
“It was going to be temporary, but I guess I loved it and made it work,” he said.
Martone said his new position is an opportunity to become more deeply involved locally after spending short periods of time with communities across the region through Midcoast Council of Governments.
He is now formally an employee of Damariscotta, according to his contract, with Newcastle reimbursing the town for his time. His hours will be split equally between the two towns.
Martone said his first steps will be getting familiar with the ordinances, processes, and administration in both towns. After that, he looks forward to focusing on community involvement and conversation.
“One of my personal values is community,” he said. “I think a planner should be implementing the community’s vision; I think it should be bottom-up.”
He said the two towns are in different places from a development perspective.
Newcastle has a relatively new zoning code with ambitions to grow its downtown area and invest, according to Martone, while Damariscotta has an established zoning code and history of development.
Damariscotta is also in the process of developing a new comprehensive plan, which he said will likely lead to zoning updates.
Despite their differences, “they’re tied together very much,” he said. “They share the same sewer and water district, Main Street goes through both and the river connects them. They’re facing same issues from different points of view.”
He said he foresees housing as another focus area in his new position.
“Housing is a big issue for the whole state,” Martone said. “I’m excited that we get to try and address that, and do it in a positive way.”
He said Newcastle’s new zoning code is form-based, rather than Euclidean, while Damariscotta has been attracting attention as a developable area, presenting different angles to approaching proposals.
“People understand that development is going to need to happen,” he said of housing pressure, “but not all development is good development. To manage that will be interesting.”
Regardless, he expects to be busy.
“I don’t think it’ll be a quiet position,” he said. “It’s a challenging time to find these solutions to these problems, but it will be interesting to do it.”
Both select boards extended their congratulations upon his hiring.
“We’ll give you plenty to do, so welcome aboard,” Damariscotta Select Board Chair Daryl Fraser said.
Newcastle Select Board member Tor Glendinning and former member Rob Nelson participated in the search and negotiated Martone’s contract alongside Dorr while their town was without a manager.
“I think this worked out to our best benefit. I think we’ve got a good planner coming aboard,” Glendinning said.
(LCN Editor Maia Zewert contributed to this article.)
