News:
Searsmont is updating its Comprehensive Plan
We will be posting our progress and opportunities for participation below. Please check back regularly for new updates:
We expect the Comprehensive Plan Update will take the summer of 2025. The process will involve:
- Establishing a Comprehensive Plan Committee which will meet on a monthly basis
- Reviewing the current Comprehensive Plan
- We are here! → Gathering input from Searsmont residents using: community surveys, focus groups, public meetings and visioning sessions
- Updating chapters based on current conditions, community input, town priorities, and goals
- Submitting the updated document to the State for approval
- Voting to adopt the updated Comprehensive Plan at a Town Meeting
Searsmont Comprehensive Plan Committee:
David Marceau, Jane Kirsling, Bobby Ward, Hubert McCabe, Sara Beth Casburn, Tim Wilson, Sonny Prescott, Jodi Staples, Arlo Redman, Adi Philson
What is a Comprehensive Plan?
A comprehensive plan is a guiding document informing town decision-making and investments over the next 12 years. Therefore, robust public input and community engagement is an integral part of the comprehensive planning process. A comprehensive plan consists of:
- an inventory of current conditions
- goals set through public input
- strategies to achieve Searsmont’s established goals
- guiding policies which support Searsmont’s goals and strategies
Ultimately, the comprehensive plan will establish collective town vision for future growth over the next decade.
Find out more about Comprehensive Planning in Maine and State requirements.
Additional resources:
3 Reasons to have a Comprehensive Plan
1. Planning for the Town’s Future:
Our Comprehensive Plan creates a shared vision that will help us make important decisions about our limited natural and fiscal resources, in areas such as investments in facilities and working waterfronts.
2. Legal Protection
A Comprehensive Plan provides legal protection for our local ordinances in areas such as land use, shoreland zoning and growth.
3. Getting funding: access to Federal, State, Local and Private Funding
A comprehensive plan will qualify Searsmont for the over $80 million in annual state grants and loan programs, saving the town and you, the tax payer, money too.
Doesn’t Searsmont already have a comprehensive plan?
Searsmont’s current Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2013 and therefore will expire in 2025.
How can I get involved?
The effectiveness of this planning process depends on participation from community members like you! Here are a few ways you can get involved:
- Volunteer as a “Friend of the Comprehensive Plan” to help with specific tasks (i.e. flyering, spreading the word, event set up, etc.)
- Weigh in as a topic specialist on specific chapters
- Review chapters and provide comments
- Attend our community engagement meetings & events
- Sign up for progress updates