CUSHING – When voters go to the polls Tuesday they will consider Cushing’s first comprehensive plan, which would guide the town in considering development.

The polls will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the fire station.

“The comprehensive plan is not an ordinance or a law,” David Farmer, chairman of the comprehensive plan committee, said Friday. “There’s nothing in it that requires anything to happen.”

The 69-page plan, plus appendices and maps, provides a basis for evaluating the town’s resources and planning its growth for the next decade.

A committee of 12 was appointed in May 2004 to begin the job of fashioning a comprehensive plan. The first task was to mail 1,500 surveys to residents to see how they want the town to develop. Nearly 30 percent – 446 – of the public opinion questionnaires were filled out and returned.

A few public forums have been held and town committee members, town officers and some residents were interviewed by the committee in its effort to gather input for the draft plan.

Should voters approve the plan at Tuesday’s referendum, the document would then be submitted to the state for approval or revisions. Any revisions would be voted on by residents and resubmitted to the state for final approval.

Farmer does not anticipate many changes by the state, he said.

Eric Galant of the Mid-Coast Regional Planning Commission helped draft the town’s comprehensive plan.

The state requires certain criteria to be part of the plan, such as identifying areas that should remain rural and those areas that may be developed, he said, and that there be a certain percentage of affordable housing.

Because the majority of townspeople do not want the town to grow much more than its present size and residents do not want development of a “town center,” the plan calls for Thomaston to be considered Cushing’s commercial “growth area,” Farmer said.

“Our goal was to reflect the desires and wishes of the community,” he said of the committee’s proposed plan. “Nothing’s binding.”

A comprehensive plan is required for any town to adopt a growth cap ordinance or a zoning ordinance, he noted.

Cushing has subdivision and shoreland zoning ordinances.

Some of the goals of the comprehensive plan are:

. Provide a framework of fact, analysis and opinion regarding town growth.

. Assess the town’s resources, their sufficiency or needs.

. Forecast future demands on town services.

. Respect private property rights.

. Minimize unnecessary public expense and taxes.

. Encourage small-scale local and home businesses without over-regulating them.