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Land Use Planning

Publications

Planning Guides

  • How To Prepare a Land Use Ordinance; A Manual for Local Officials, August 2011 (Microsoft Word 1.2MB, PDF 1MB). This manual is for local officials, planning committees and others in small to mid-size communities who are interested in preparing a local ordinance. It contains the basic information needed to draft a land use ordinance, which legally regulates how people can use their land. This manual also contains practical suggestions for encouraging future growth in growth areas, and discouraging incompatible development in rural areas.

  • Scenic Assessment Inventory (PDF 14.6MB): A ‘how-to’ guide for using the State Planning Office’s scenic inventory methodology to identify, evaluate, and document scenic resources and to identify scenic viewpoints of state or national significance for purposes of Title 35-A MRSA* Ch. 34-A (Wind Power Law). It is designed to supplement the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development’s initial handbook How to Conduct an Inventory of Scenic Areas (Dominie, 1990) that was part of the Maine Shore Access Public Access Series.

    * Note: The Handbook may be used for this wind power law-related purpose upon the State Planning Office's final adoption of rules pursuant to Title 35-A, MRS Section 3457.

  • Traditional Neighborhoods Handbook imageCreating Traditional, Walkable Neighborhoods: A Handbook for Maine Communities (PDF 2.4MB) Released July 2009: This handbook will help municipal officials craft land use regulations that foster traditional neighborhood development.

  • Comprehensive Planning: A Manual for Maine for Maine Communities 2005 Edition (PDF low resolution, 2.2MB) (PDF medium resolution for Acrobat Reader 6.0 and higher, 2.9MB) (PDF high resolution, 9.8MB): This manual is written for citizen planners: the members of a comprehensive planning committee, boards of selectmen, or planning boards charged with preparing a comprehensive plan, and the many parties of interest who may be participating or advising in the process. It is part “how-to,” part suggestions for policy, and part tool box. Each of its 19 chapters addresses a requirement of the Growth Management Program. The 19 chapters are connected to each other and, together, present a complete picture of a comprehensive land use plan. But the manual is designed so that different members of a planning or advisory committee can concentrate on one chapter at a time; the chapters can even be split out among the members of a committee for individual review.

  • Protecting Local Scenic Resources: Community-Based Performance Standards (PDF 7.9MB)

  • GATEWAY 1; Performance Standards for Large Scale Developments (PDF 1.8MB)

  • Low Impact Development Manual (PDF 2.1MB). The final draft of the Low Impact Development Guidance Manual for Maine Communities has been completed.  The new guidance document is intended to help communities bring local ordinances in sync with the new stormwater and phosphorus control review requirements, and to help communities address existing gaps in development permitting reviews for water quality impacts.

    • Example: Stormwater Operation & Maintenance Plan (PDF 20KB)
  • Desity publicationDensity Visualization Tool (PowerPoint 9.4MB, PDF 2.2MB) - The SPO Land Use Team  has created a brief PowerPoint presentation using Maine-based examples of different housing densities to help town planners, planning boards, and others understand what different densities look like on the ground.

  • The Great American Neighborhood - A Guide to Livable Design (PDF 6.0MB): This guide provides residential developers, homebuilders, and town officials with a set of principles and design ideas that can be used to create the livable, quality neighborhoods that homebuyers are looking for. When adapted to fit specific sites and projects, these principles can help developers respond to these market preferences, stem sprawl, and direct growth to selected ‘growth areas’ within the community.

    Across the nation developers are tapping these markets and building new neighborhoods based on the time tested design concepts illustrated in this Guide. The results have been referred to as ‘traditional neighborhood design’ (TND), ‘ new urbanism,’ ‘neo traditional design,’ or ‘the Great American Neighborhood.’

  • Community Visioning Handbook: How to Imagine - and Create - A Better Future (PDF 968 KB) Before there can be a meaningful comprehensive plan, the residents must agree on a mental picture of what they want the community to look like, feel like, and be like. They must imagine what people walking along Main Street should experience; imagine the sidewalks and bike trails and roads for cars and trucks; picture the parks and nature preserves; and identify the best places for new houses and what those houses might look like. This mental picture is a "vision." This handbook describes what a community vision is (Part 1), provides a step-by-step guide to creating a community vision (Part II), and gives an example of a vision from one Maine community (Part III).

  • Financing Infrastructure Improvements through Impact Fees: A Manual for Maine Municipalities on the Design and Calculation of Development Impact Fees: This handbook is designed to provide Maine communities with the information and tools necessary when considering implementation of an impact fee ordinance. The manual includes information on how an impact fee works, issues a town should consider before implementing an impact fee ordinance, examples of Maine towns using impact fees, and spreadsheets to calculate impact fees.

  • Land Stewardship Resource Guide (PDF 142KB)

Model Ordinances

Technical Assistance Bulletins

Laws, Rules and Policies Relevant to Land Use Planning

Reports to the Legislature and Governor

Sprawl, Land Use, Smart Growth, and Great American Neighborhoods: Additional SPO Publications and Reports

Land Use Team Forms