“If you aim for nothing, you’ll hit it every time …” So we should probably pick a target.
The Scarborough Town Council has been deliberating areas of focus for the coming year. Getting seven councilors to align can be a challenge, but we agreed on a number of topics. The most prominent goal relates to reinvigorating the Community Center discussion and continuing to partner with the Board of Education on their facility needs.
Our focus really centers around making Scarborough more complete. We have a beautiful Municipal Campus and Library that is a source of pride. Our Commercial Center at Oak Hill is Scarborough’s home for retail, a mix of restaurants and other small commercial businesses. The rest of our Downtown, which includes the entire Scarborough Downs property, is just starting to take shape. How this area develops is critically important.
We envision anchoring the central part of The Downs, also referred to as our Town Center, with publicly funded civic space that will include an area for Community Services and a pool. The Down’s team has been receptive to our involvement and have invested to articulate the vision for Scarborough’s future Town Center. Much more to come on this, but you can refer to the Feb. 9th Workshop for what lies ahead.
We have a history of allowing our neighborhoods to develop with their own unique character and identity. This phase of our development journey is no different. We want to enable The Downs to be a successful neighborhood. A desirable place to live, work and play. A place that will help Scarborough become a more complete community. Will this mean more people in Scarborough? Most definitely … one of them could be a family member or friend just entering the workforce who now has a place in Scarborough that they can call home; or your child’s teacher who no longer needs to commute from three towns away to work here; or a police officer/firefighter/medic who puts themselves on the line every day to make this world a better place … our housing stock will become more affordable, leading to a more complete Scarborough.
We have no intention of placing a major metropolis in the middle of Scarborough. We would, however, like to create a space that is vibrant, welcoming and replicates some of that warmth, vitality, and purpose that you feel when visiting iconic destinations. A place with people. A place to make connections. A place to eat, recreate, swim, gather, shop. A more complete Scarborough.
We adopted several more specific fiscal health and sustainability targets this year. A minimal mil rate increase is no longer enough. We want to reign in spending, contain our debt and optimize the opportunities provided by the State to maximize the funds returned to Scarborough taxpayers. These strategies, along with utilizing the Community Center as a stimulus for economic development, will allow us to offset the cost of construction by 50-60% with subsidy from the State. A fiscally responsible way to realize a more complete Scarborough.
We will also update and modernize our impact fees to ensure that fees assessed to new developments are utilized to mitigate the various impacts that those developments have on our infrastructure. By directing almost all new development into a few central areas of town, we can protect our existing neighborhoods while ensuring that new development will be self-sustaining. The pace of residential growth will be greatly reduced for the majority of Scarborough, but accelerated in our central areas.
Finally, we will work to fully leverage the Community Survey work that was completed last year and to finalize any Charter revisions to be placed on the November 2022 ballot.
It’s going to be an exciting year in Scarborough and I encourage you to engage and be an active participant in making Scarborough a more complete community.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Scarborough Town Council.
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