Panel to address sprawl in Maine Strains on utilities, schools troubling

BANGOR – The signs of sprawl, some say, are all around us: school classrooms swell as more families move into Maine neighborhoods, businesses pop up in residential areas, and utility companies are stretched to meet the needs of expanding communities.

An upcoming breakfast program, sponsored by Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility, is designed to help Bangor-area residents identify the possible side effects of sprawl and how best to mitigate its effect on a community. MEBSR is an organization of more than 325 businesses across Maine that work to encourage the adoption of socially responsible business practices with regard to the environment, employees and communities.

The program, to be held the morning of Thursday, March 15, will consist of a panel of state and local officials as well as representatives of the development sector.

Irv Marsters, owner of the Bangor Letter Shop and a member of MEBSR, said Tuesday that the intent of the program is to give people the tools to begin looking at sprawl and development issues from a long-term perspective. Sprawl cannot be mitigated simply by addressing the issue case by case, Marsters said, but rather by defining clear long-term policies and working with businesses and the community to create sound development policy.

Officials from across the state, Marsters said, have largely overlooked such policy development.

“Generally speaking, the cost of sprawl … is something we need to pay more attention to than we have in the past,” Marsters said. Paying more attention to sprawl, he said, has to begin at the community level.

“I think where [sprawl] really impacts us is when we get around to utility expansion and construction,” Marsters said. “That puts demands on public and quasi-public agencies, and that’s where the bucks start adding up.”

John Rohman, Bangor mayor and president and CEO of WRBC Architects/Engineers, will serve as one of the panelists at the program. Rohman said there are many different definitions for sprawl, but he said the most recognizable sign of sprawl is its impact on a community’s schools.

For example, when a community builds a new school and shortly finds itself struggling to handle the influx of new students, Rohman said, sprawl is creating headaches for community leaders and larger tax burdens for residents. Such a situation, he said, “is sprawl in the education system in its best form.”

Assessing those problems, as well as maintaining a clear distinction between residential and retail zones within a community, are among the actions that Rohman said must be taken to mitigate sprawl. “There is going to be some growth if you are going to grow as a community,” Rohman said. “You have to dictate to the developer, as a community, where you want the development to be.”

The program will be held from 7:15 to 9 a.m. Thursday, March 15, at the Bangor Theological Seminary on Union Street in Bangor. The cost to attend is $6 for MEBSR members and $8 for nonmembers. Those interested in attending should call 722-3130.