We set out on a very ambitious agenda this year. I’m happy to share with everyone that the council, town staff and our citizen committees have made significant progress on our council goals. We plan to have a mid-year checkpoint to reaffirm our commitment to our existing goals or modify them further for the rest of the year at our June 7 council meeting.

If you think we are missing the mark, let us know so we can recalibrate and refocus to best serve you.

Strategic capital and facilities planning: We committed to support progress towards addressing school-wide facilities needs, a Community Center and land acquisition to meet both municipal and school facilities needs.

Councilor Sither and I have been actively partnering with the schools on evaluating the K-8 Strategic School Solution and had a workshop scheduled with the council on May 17 to further understand the K-3 unified school solution they are recommending. We have started the recruitment process from our Appointments and Negotiations Committee under councilor Shupe’s leadership for an Ad Hoc Community Center Advisory Committee. This committee will continue the work from a previous ad hoc committee with the goal of having a solution for voter consideration as early as November 2024.  Applications are open until June 7, so if you are interested, please apply.

Lastly, we are currently in discussions with Crossroads Holding, LLC, to procure up to 25 acres of land for municipal or school needs. The request to purchase this land will be coming to you as early as November 2023 for consideration. We reviewed draft terms on May 17 and expected to action for the town manager to sign a letter of intent to advance this land acquisition that councilor Hamill and I have been sponsoring.

Residential growth management: We will held a public hearing on May 17 on the amended Rate of Growth Ordinance that councilor McGee and I have sponsored. The Rate of Growth Ordinance specifies the location and pace of residential development in Scarborough. We plan to hold a workshop on the current recommendation on June 7, followed by a vote on the final ordinance on June 21.

The council has generally taken a conservative approach to overall growth, targeting a relatively faster pace in our high growth areas as outlined in our Comprehensive Plan in Oak Hill, Dunstan and The Downs, while trying to maintain the current feel in other areas of the rest of the town. Our Ordnance Committee under councilor McGee’s leadership will actively tackle state mandates from LD2003 which is intended to address the housing shortage across the state. Several zoning changes will be coming in the future to meet these state requirements over the coming months.

Financial management: Also on May 17, we held a public hearing on the 2024 budget proposal. The Finance Committee under councilor Cloutier’s leadership is actively seeking to understand the town and school requests with approval targeted for June 7. We adjusted our budget goals this year to be more holistic and consider the impacts of inflation. With a large capital request of a $137.5M for a K-3 consolidated school, we are also looking for ways to better manage our debt rating and maintain affordability in the long-term. The Finance Committee plans to tackle our Financial and Fiscal Policy for review and revisions later this year.

Housing choice and homelessness: Councilors Caterina and Hamill have worked with GPCOG to pledge $50,000 for “Safe in Maine” to help find transitional housing for asylum seekers. The housing crisis is a state-wide problem and I’m proud we are partnering with regional agencies to make an impact. The council took action on May 17 to allow for this to be paid for by a housing fund contributed to by developers. Additionally, in the 2024 budget proposal, there is a request to expand our social services team to support the needs of the community.

Sustainability, conservation and climate change: We held a workshop led by councilor Shupe on April 19 sponsored by our Conversation Commission, and Parks and Conservation Land Board to discuss strategies to enhance land conservation efforts in Scarborough. Councilor Shupe and councilor Caterina are working on a resolution and a potential ad hoc committee to take further decisive action. The council approved the use of Land Acquisition Reserve Funds to assist in funding property on 91 Burnham Road and has an action on our May 17 meeting to approve use of the fund to support the purchase on 80 Beech Ridge Road, both for conservation purposes.

Traffic and transportation: The town continues to embark on a town-wide transportation study to identify priorities for future improvement. There are so many projects already planned and you can view more specifics on the transportation website of the active projects and what’s to come. Town Manager Tom Hall with other managers in various towns in the region have also recently recommitted their support to the Gorham Connector, which will improve traffic in North Scarborough. Contact councilor McGee and read his Councilor Corner on traffic to learn more.

Public engagement and communications: Our Communications Committee under councilor Sither’s leadership continues to look for ways to more fully engage the public. This year, we held multiple budget roundtables and plan to host another one in late May. We held a Councilor Corner Live on the new Rate of Growth Ordinance and plan to host another one targeting June 15 on the new school proposal.

The committee is actively planning and event for us to come to you to engage in the summer time. In May, the committee also started to review the town-wide community survey that will be coming out this fall to get further feedback. We plan to use the same questionnaire from 2021 so we can see how we’ve been doing and we hope you will participate in the fall.

Whew! If you made it this far, thank you! As you can see, we have been very busy. We could not do this without the wonderful staff and dedicated citizens who volunteer and serve on our citizen committees. I am very honored to represent you with this amazing group of individuals. We all have different opinions, viewpoints and don’t always agree, but the one thing that binds us is our shared commitment to make Scarborough the greatest community it can be for you.

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. Jon Anderson is town council chair for Scarborough.

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