Kenneth Kortemeier, a member of Bristols comprehensive plan committee, speaks at a meeting in the Bristol town office on Tuesday, Feb. 27. The purpose of the meeting, which consisted of members of the comprehensive plan committee as well as the towns select board and planning board, was to find a path forward for the draft comprehensive plan. (Johnathan Riley photo)
The Bristol Select Board, planning board, and comprehensive plan committee held a joint meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 27 at the town office to find a way forward for Bristol’s draft comprehensive plan.
At the meeting, the planning board asked to be given time to review the draft comprehensive plan, which received mixed reactions during a public hearing in December, to discuss concerns and coordinate comments they have about it.
“We can try to make it more readable with a few suggested edits, try to get more people in town on board with the plan, instead of seeing it as an attack on the way they usually do business,” said Benjamin Pendleton, the planning board’s chair.
Comprehensive plan committee co-Chair Jess Yates expressed concerns about the nature of the feedback that could be received from the planning board. She said the document isn’t a reflection of what the comprehensive plan committee believes and is based on feedback from residents of the town and state requirements.
Planning board alternate Andrea Perley said part of the board’s interest in offering feedback on the draft is that they often operate in “gray areas” when interpreting ordinances and a comprehensive plan would be a supportive document to help with those interpretations.
“(The) comprehensive plan isn’t a separate thing from what we do, it very much supports us. We have our black and white rules that we have to follow, but there are gray areas. There always have been and always will be, and we are supposed to rely on the comprehensive plan to try to make those decisions,” Perley said.
She also said that in the feedback process, planning board members could contribute decisions they made over the years in those gray area situations that could be supportive to the plan.
Yates said the plan committee would like to move the plan forward soon because the longer they wait, the less relevant the research will be that the committee gathered about town member’s perspectives to help form the plan.
“We’d like the information in the plan to be reflective of the present,” Yates said. “It’s important that we add this plan to the resources of the town.”
Bristol Planning Board Chair Benjamin Pendleton gives examples of what sort of feedback the board could provide about the draft comprehensive plan during a meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 27 at the Bristol town office. Pendleton said the planning board could have comments and feedback on the plan to the comprehensive plan committee by the end of March. (Johnathan Riley photo)
Pendleton said board members could meet on Thursday, March 21 to discuss comments on the draft, and that there was a possibility of holding a special meeting a week earlier to give the board more time to finalize feedback for the committee.
The joint meeting comes after a public hearing held for the draft comprehensive plan was held on Dec. 7, when Bristol residents voiced concerns and support for the plan.
Prior to the event and during it, planning board members expressed concerns that they weren’t more involved with the drafting process for the plan.
As a result of the public hearing, comprehensive plan committee members felt it appropriate to delay submission of the draft to the state until they could coordinate a joint meeting with the planning board and select board to receive further feedback.
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 plan has been in the works since 2021, when the town formed a comprehensive plan committee after voters approved $60,000 at annual town meeting to fund the effort and hire consultants to assist with the development of the plan.
A meeting for Monday, March 25 has been tentatively set by the comprehensive plan committee to review the suggested changes to the plan that the planning board will have submitted.
Yates said in terms of the state’s checklist for the comprehensive plan development process that the next step is to have her, comprehensive plan committee co-Chair Richard Francis, and Bristol Select Board Chair Chad Hanna sign the document and send it to the state.
Hanna said that if all goes well, the select board could review the changes to the plan and sign it at its Wednesday, April 3 meeting.
“We don’t have any interest in delaying the plan being sent to the state,” said Kristine Poland, a member of the Bristol Select Board.
When submitted to the state, the process of comprehensive plan review can take up to three months, according to Francis.
Hanna said while the draft comprehensive plan will not make it to Bristol’s annual town meeting in March, a special town meeting can be called for when the plan is returned from the state where the voters of Bristol will decide if the draft comprehensive plan is right for the town.
For more information about Bristol’s draft comprehensive plan, go to bristolmaine.org/comprehensive-plan-committee or call the Bristol town office at 563-5270.
