David J. Homa, 29, is a political science major at the University of Southern Maine making a run for Gorham’s Town Council.
“I have decided to take the plunge into local politics to make my voice heard,” he said.
He said he’s constantly learning. “I take an academic approach to things,” he said.
Work on traffic solutions in Gorham is addressing only the “tip of the iceberg,” he said. According to Homa, the bypass is a good idea to divert downtown traffic from a “bottleneck,” but he questions its long-term impact on Gorham. “If we don’t deal with sprawl, the bypass is inviting more growth and won’t be effective,” he said.
In dealing with traffic, Homa is a proponent of looking at public transportation to serve Gorham. He recommends more buses to shuttle university students between the Gorham and Portland campuses and commuter lots for carpooling.
He wants to address sprawl, which he said is a root cause of Gorham problems including traffic, a growing need for more town services and an increase in school enrollment. If the town continues to grow, he worries about providing future services.
He would have open forums to discuss sprawl. “My commitment is to serve the town and to protect against shortsighted policy making that will only mask problems or create new ones,” Homa said.
Growth in surrounding towns, he said, has contributed to problems in Gorham. In Gorham, he said smart growth would be a solution. “We can’t force policy on neighbors, but we can control what’s in our town,” Homa said,
Homa describes himself as an environmentalist. He advocates historic preservation and conservation of open space. With the town’s ordinance committee talking about a transfer of development rights program aimed at saving green space, Homa said it is a step in the right direction.
“It might be too late for Gorham,” he said.
He favored the Shaw School project to reuse an existing building for town and school offices. But he was disappointed in the low voter turnout that approved the March referendum.
Following the voter turnout for the dispatch referendum, Homa favors a charter change, which would allow for “a more reasonable” percentage of voters to overturn a council decision. Homa opposed consolidating dispatching and was frustrated by how the town handled it.
Not in favor of big box stores in Gorham, Homa would like to revitalize areas of town, such as Little Falls, to provide locally owned businesses. He wants Gorham consumers to shop in Gorham stores and favored continuing sewer lines, if it’s part of revitalization.
Homa expects to graduate with honors next spring from the University of Southern Maine and will start work in the fall on a master’s degree in American and New England Studies there.
He has taken geographic information system courses at the university and understands maps. If elected, he sees that as an additional asset in doing research for council projects.
Homa is a stay-at-home dad. His wife’s name is Carlye and they have three children. MacKenna is 2 years old and twins, Ethan and Emerson, are one month old. They live on Fort Hill Road.
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