Alton residents approve comprehensive plan

ALTON – Residents unanimously approved the town’s new comprehensive plan at a special town meeting Wednesday.

“What we’re proposing here is not very extraordinary, really,” planning board member Reed Thompson said at the meeting. “We’re not trying to curtail people’s freedoms to do what they want.”

The main purpose of the plan, which already has been approved by the state, is to lay the foundation necessary for the town to implement a land use ordinance. The plan, which took a consultant two years to draft, cost $12,000.

“The state law says if you do not have an acceptable comprehensive plan, you cannot have a legal land use ordinance in your town,” Thompson said.

Residents also voted to allow selectmen to proceed in entering into a grant agreement for matching grants from the state that will help pay for a consultant to help draft the land use ordinance.

The town has tentatively hired a consultant for $5,000 to help create the ordinance that will work to ensure that any new development will be compatible with the environment and rural tradition of the community.

In agreement with state requirement, the plan designates portions of the town as growth and rural areas. The designated growth area is 2,115 acres at the southeastern portion of the town near Interstate 95.

“We’re going to have growth, it’s just a fact of life,” Thompson said. “We want to try to make sure that growth is somewhat orderly and appropriate for the town and rural lifestyle that people here enjoy.”