Land Use Planning

SMPDC provides assistance to comprehensive planning committees, planning boards, appeals boards, code enforcement officers, and municipal staff with a variety of planning and land use topics. Staff has extensive planning experience at the municipal and regional levels. We stand ready to assist any of our 39 communities, multi-municipal groups, or the entire region.


Land Use Planning Services

  • Planning Board Support
    • First and foremost, we support Planning Boards and planning staff looking to increase expertise or improve processes. Staff can conduct planning board trainings, review your administrative procedures, or support with difficult development review. 

 

  • Comprehensive Planning 
    • SMPDC supports Comprehensive Planning processes in a variety of ways depending on the needs of the community. Comprehensive planning is a fee-for-service contract, with prices varying according to the amount of assistance needed.

 

  • Open Space Planning 
    • SMPDC can help produce Open Space plans, to create a vision for natural resource conservation and outdoor recreation opportunities in your community, and outline policies and guidelines to implement that vision.

 

  • Housing Planning
    • With the ongoing housing crisis in southern Maine, SMPDC has been awarded several grants to support municipalities with taking steps to support housing production in ways that make sense for their communities. This includes ordinance audits, GIS analyses, and regulatory toolkits. 

 

  • Community Engagement 
    • Engaging the community is essential to good planning. Community input provides key local perspectives and contexts that data alone cannot provide. Some community engagement, such as public hearings and public meetings, is required by law. Different types of engagement reach different types of people in a community. Additionally, community buy-in can make or break a project or plan. Successful projects and plans often incorporate public input opportunities early and often in the process.
    • SMPDC supports community engagement processes in a variety of ways depending on the needs of the community. We have extensive experience with moderating discussions, presenting technical information, producing helpful visual tools, and facilitating meetings. Some engagement is covered by member dues, while more extensive work is a fee-for-service contract, with prices varying according to the amount of assistance needed.