Auburn holds public hearing on comprehensive plan ahead of council vote

[0:00] John Cleveland: Welcome to everyone. This is a public hearing for the comprehensive plan. In case some of you expecting something different than that, we're going to start by doing a roll call of the members. So we have it for the record, for everyone to know that this is a, this meeting is being recorded for our records. So we'll start with a roll call by the members. This is a joint meeting of the comprehensive plan committee and the Auburn planning board here this evening. So when you state your name, if you are on if you serve on more than one organization here, you could name that you're on both organizations for the public to know. Tim, why don't we start with you? Tim DeRosh, planning board. Andrea [1:02] Mary Moore: Westby, planning board. Chelsea Eaton, planning board. Bilal [1:09] John Cleveland: Hussain, planning board and comprehensive plan committee. Tim Cowan, comprehensive plan committee. Paul Jacques, comprehensive plan committee. Dana Staples, comprehensive planning committee. John Cleveland, chair of the comprehensive planning committee. Ed Berra, planning board. Jeff Hyman [1:29] Joe Pelliccia: and comprehensive plan committee. Rex Rhodes, comprehensive plan. Bruce Ryu [1:35] John Cleveland: comp plan committee. Dennis Bergeron, comp plan committee. [1:40] Mary Moore: Kathy Shaw, comp plan committee and member of the NP and AG [1:44] John Cleveland: work group. Bob Hayes, pointing board. Right, Riley Bergeron, planning board and [1:52] Lauren Beale: comp plan committee. Lauren [1:55] Joe Pelliccia: Cafe, City of Auburn. [1:57] John Cleveland: City of Auburn planning department. Dennis Dote, assistant city manager. Thank you. Before we start with the public comment, let me just make a few remarks to give a context of where we are and where we're going, and let me give you a sense of the, what the timeline is going forward after this public hearing. So we've gotten not only me comments that we'll get from you this evening, but we also have gotten comments online or written comments or emails from the public as well. So we have a number of sources of comments that we're going to be considering. Then of course we'll have your comments this evening from the public, from public hearing. The planning board is in the process of reviewing the comprehensive plan as well to make recommendations or suggestions to the city council. The next meeting will be on October the 28th at six o'clock right here in this room. The comprehensive plan committee will then meet again on November 5th at 6 o'clock in this room, and we will be looking at all of The comments that we either got electronically or by phone, email, all the comments that we'll hear this evening. We'll also look at the recommendations that the planning board may be making, and we expect to be having comments back from the state. The state has to review all comprehensive plans to comment and review to make sure that we're in compliance with the state law in regards to comprehensive planning. Planning will also, the city council will then meet on November 9th at a work session, I believe at 5.30, here in this room as well. We will be reviewing the comprehensive plan. And at that point, if everything seems to be in order for the city council, then the tentative plan is to have the first reading for the adoption of the comprehensive plan on December 7th here at the City Council meeting. Their meetings start at 7 o'clock, and the, then there'll be a second reading as required by ordinance for the adoption of the plan on December 21st. At that point, just to give you a little sense of the work that we've been doing on the comprehensive plan as we move forward to develop it, we're required by laura each municipality to review a comprehensive plan and update it every 10 years. Our last full review was on 2010, and there was a partial review of the comprehensive plan on 2021. We began as a committee after we were appointed by the City Council, started our work on January of 2025. We started, we had approximately 16 members of the comprehensive plan during the beginning of that process. We gathered information, and we went through a very extensive public input process because we very much wanted to get a sense of what citizens of public in Auburn wanted for a comprehensive plan. We also reviewed some new state laws that were enacted that direct how land use laws of planning should go and what the density and growth areas. So we reviewed that information to make sure we stayed compliant with state law. Then we developed a future land use categories and map, and we developed an implementation section where we set out goals, policies, objectives, and actions. We created this plan for the intention that it be used plan, not one that just going to sit on the shelf, and that will be used annually by the staff and elected policy makers. So in summary, a comprehensive plan is a strategy to guide growth in the community for Approximately a 10-year period, it is not a zoning ordinance, zoning, any zoning changes will occur after the comprehensive plan is adopted, and it will be based on the guidance given in the comprehensive plan. So let me just give you a little guidance in regards to public speaking here. When you please come up to the podium when you want to speak, give us your name and your address so we have it for the record, because this is being recorded. Speak fairly closely to the mic so we can pick it up on your comments. I would just ask that you try to be concise and direct with your comments, because I want to make sure everyone here who wants the comment has an opportunity to do that this evening. If I feel it gets time that you need to summarize, I'll give you an indication and ask if you'd summarize. I don't want to summarize your comments if your comments are going on too long. So again, simply so I want to get everybody a chance to speak here tonight. So with that, well, just to be clear again, we're going to listen to your comments. We're going to take notes about what your comments and recommendations are. We're going to assimilate all of those comments with the other sources of comments that we had and recommendations from the planning board, and we'll be reviewing the comprehensive planning committee will be reviewing them on November 5th, and the planning board can consider them in their review as well as they're putting together their recommendations, so we'll take all of that simulate it, review it, make decisions on what recommendations going forward to the city council. So with that, I will invite you to comment on the plan. I hope you had a chance to review it. It was online. So who would like to go first to make comments? [9:21] Joe Pelliccia: Joe Pelliccia, 10 Jocelyn Street, Auburn. First, I'd like to thank all the people in this room for the hard work they put into this. It was really an excellent job. I have two specific comments I'd like to make about the transportation section. One is I was a little bit disappointed that you did not name specifically the LAP bus that goes from Auburn down to Portland. We've ridden that many times. I would like to have seen a very clear recommendation that you support the continuation of that service and perhaps even an expansion of that service to include the Portland jet port. The other thing I felt very strongly that you were very supportive of trails in our community, both for recreation and transportation. I would have liked to have seen a very specific recommendation that you support the Casco Bay Trail, which would come up from Portland up to Auburn, on through Lewiston, over to Lisbon to Brunswick, and then back down to Portland. I would have liked to have seen a very specific recommendation for that. [10:27] John Cleveland: And next person. Steven [10:35] Lauren Beale: Beale, 575 Johnson Road. As members of the Comprehensive Plan Committee will recall, I have attended virtually all the meetings of this committee over the last almost two years and want to commend the committee on the net result of its work. The plan is well drafted, has a couple of minor little typos here and there that I've offered some suggestions on, but in general it is a very well done statement. There is one aspect of the process that I would like to comment on. At last night's Planning Board meeting they were offered some recommendations, excuse me, for language modifications in the Comprehensive Plan as suggestions, which according to the summary are Planning Board recommendations. I believe it's more accurate to say that these were recommendations that came forward from individual members or one or two members of the Planning Board with respect to each one of these suggestions, and they didn't represent an overall vote of the Planning Board as an entity, but their individual recommendations and ought to be taken as such. They have, to my understanding, not been adopted by the board as formal voted upon activities. There is one of those recommendations that I wish to address specifically. It's the Planning Board comment which came forward from, I believe, initially one member, and it was adopted by one other, that with respect to the Agriculture and Resource Protection Zone, and this is not a zone per se but an area, a low growth rural area, that the language change be adopted to increase additional residential development in these rural areas. I'm opposed to that change for a couple of very practical reasons. Auburn is a huge geographic area, and the problem with developing additional residential activity in these Rural areas is one of sprawl, and another one of cost is incredibly significant in this kind of activity. In addition to the reduction in large either open spaces or available scenic views and that sort of thing, the cost of increasing water and sewer to these areas now is on the order of $300 a foot, linear foot, for water or sewer lines. If everything goes perfectly, if it's less than perfect, it's more than that, and that adds a huge cost. In a lot of areas now, school buses don't go to the end of every road because there are no children there. If you increase the number of residential units in remote areas of the city, then there will be additional school bus costs as well, which affects the tax burden directly. So for those and several other reasons, I would suggest that the language which was offered last night by a couple of different personnel on the planning board not be adopted, and that the original text of the proposed changes remain as stated. Thank you. [14:01] John Cleveland: Thank you. Good [14:11] Mary Moore: evening, members of the planning board and comprehensive plan. You share your name and address. I will, I'm about to. Okay, thank you. My name, as you suggested, is Mary Moore. I'm a land owner in the resource protection zone. My land is located on the Jordan School Road, and specifically I would like to address the concern about sprawl and open spaces in the Ag Zone, and I think perhaps there are some other ways that may be addressed which I will speak to this evening. I'm speaking tonight regarding the plan's stated objective for the Ag Zone, which is to preserve our natural resources and open space while maintaining the economic value of the land. So that is specifically stated. While we all value our rural landscape, the current draft fails to meet its own economic objective for everyday property owners. The plan