Municipal/Regional Planning
SMPDC Planning staff provides assistance to comprehensive planning committees, planning boards, appeals boards, code enforcement officers and other municipal officials with a variety of planning and land use topics. SMPDC has also developed a series of planning board and appeals board workshops that can be presented at a local or regional scale for educational purposes. Staff also develops regional plans studying open space, sea level rise, and conservation efforts. Staff has over 100 years of planning experience at the municipal and regional levels and stands ready to assist any community or regional group as needed.
The Land Use Planning division at SMPDC offers an array of services to the 39 municipalities and numerous other organizations within our jurisdiction. Services include: Comprehensive Planning and Land Use Ordinance assistance, Planning Board and Technical Planning support and Board workshops.
Comprehensive Planning
Municipalities are often seeking to update their Comprehensive Plan in order to assure that they are best situated to achieve the type of growth they are seeking for their community. We are able to assist our member communities going through the revision process and welcome the opportunity to provide professional assistance in any way that we can or we can take the lead role in preparing a plan for the committee. We can accommodate the Towns’ needs however you wish to proceed.
Ordinance Revision
Communities have a number of tools that they can use to implement the Goals and Policies identified in their Comprehensive Plan. Examples include the Land Use Ordinance, Subdivision Ordinance and Shoreland Zoning Ordinance. We can assist with the development and rewriting of these and other ordinances to make sure that that the municipality is achieving their identified objectives. SMPDC has a great deal of information in our tool box that we can share with municipalities to help them with their desired outcomes.
Planning Board Support
Staff at SMPDC often provides Planning Board support for our municipalities. Whether it is on a continuous basis or for a special project, we can serve as “staff” to the Planning Board to help facilitate a smooth review process.
Technical Assistance/Facilitation
We are happy to provide support for Planners, CEOs, Town Administrators and Elected Officials. Regardless of whether it is a quick question or an issue that requires more engagement, we can provide guidance to help addresses issues that arise. Often members of the Land Use team are engaged to facilitate a series of meetings to work on a particular problem that a community needs to solve on a short term basis. Given our experiences with a variety of Towns and Cities, and our "out-of-town" status, our planners can provide the leadership needed to conduct a productive public discussion.
Board Workshops
We are always happy to help facilitate training opportunities for groups such as the Planning Board, Board of Appeals and other special purpose committees. Training approaches vary and range from one or two-hour workshop to all-day sessions.
Culvert Prioritization Tool