Streamlining Community Planning in Falmouth, Maine
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The Problem
The Town, an affluent suburb of the region’s largest metropolitan area, had a sophisticated and complex land use management system, including progressive conservation ordinances and a plethora of voluntary boards and committees, which left many stakeholders feeling confused and sometimes frustrated with land use planning, review, and permitting processes. The Town had also recently undergone a period personnel conflict and staff transition, which surfaced questions about the appropriate roles and responsibilities of the many entities involved in the reviewing and approving proposed permits, projects, and other land use activities.
The CBI Approach
CBI’s highly collaborative approach began with the formation of a volunteer Stakeholder Advisory Committee. To help understand the views and perspectives of a wide range of community stakeholders, including town staff, volunteers, developers, homeowners, and local citizens, as well perspectives from professionals from neighboring towns and regional entities, CBI conducted confidential stakeholder interviews and administered a qualitative Web-based survey to public at large. CBI also coordinated a public forum to give stakeholders an opportunity to engage in a facilitated conversation about their concerns, values, and visions for their community and to surface underlying tensions, perceptions (accurate or otherwise), and bring new ideas to the table. CBI synthesized these findings in a final report that offered findings and recommendations on specific actions that the Town could take to improve its land use and community development functions. The process culminated in the presentation of the report to the Town Council in a public hearing, and then a facilitated strategic planning retreat with the full Town Council to create a work plan for implementing the recommendations.
Process Results
The CBI approach engaged a wide range of stakeholders in dialogue on sometimes controversial, but important issues about the Town’s vision for land use and development. Through the Stakeholder Advisory Committee CBI built key local support for the initiative and actively engaged with three Town Council representatives, eight citizen volunteers, and three Town staff members on a regular basis. CBI engaged with thirty-five key stakeholders through confidential interviews and received Web Survey responses from 130 individuals.
The final report including findings on topics including the structure of the Town’s planning process, Town planning tools, vision and comprehensive plan documents, application and permitting processes, and human resources. The report also offered sixteen recommendations on specific actions that the Town could take to improve its land use and community development functions including best practices around information sharing processes and protocols; visioning and comprehensive planning strategies; roles and responsibilities of key planning departments, boards, and commissions; application and permit review processes; and monitoring and evaluation.
Through the facilitated Town Council Strategic Board Retreat, CBI helped Town decision-makers to reach a shared vision and realistic plan for revising and implementing short and long-term improvements to the Town’s land use and community development systems.
Six months later, the Town has implemented many of the recommendations and today continues to consult with CBI on collaborative planning processes.
