GSM – 2009-2010 | Environmental Funders Network

GrowSmart Maine

Purpose: GrowSmart Maine will continue to build coalitions, facilitate smart growth, and conduct demonstration projects to support the revitalization of Maine towns and cities and the building of a place based innovation-focused economy.

2011 Award: $46,000

2010 Award: $35,000

2009 Award: $50,000 Read the 2009 proposal (PDF)

GSM - GIS Map

GrowSmart Maine is a non-partisan statewide catalyst for change, bringing disparate voices together to find common solutions that will strengthen Maine’s economy without compromising our assets. Its work continues to focus on the three action steps identified in Charting Maine’s Future as necessary for sustainable prosperity:

Protecting the Maine “brand”, the communities and landscapes that make Maine special and give us a key competitive advantage in recruiting new workers and businesses;
Investing in new research and development to grow the emergent innovation economy and extend economic opportunity to all Mainers; and
Streamlining government in order to lower taxes, deliver services more efficiently and free up resources for other important investments.

Over the next twelve months GrowSmart will build on its past work in the following ways.

1) Charting Maine’s Future was presented and shared across the state in 2006, and in many ways became Maine’s strategic plan. After almost five years it is time to revisit the plan, celebrate what has been achieved and look at the work yet to be done. The resulting Scorecard of successes and strategic recommendations will be broadly shared with the legislature and other engaged people throughout Maine.

2) Over the past several years GrowSmart Maine has convened a group of developers working on downtown revitalization projects to discuss smart growth. Included are developers of retirement communities, historic mills, low and mixed income housing and downtowns. GrowSmart will reconvene this group with other stakeholders to examine local, regional, state and federal regulations governing development and make recommendations for changes that will encourage smart growth. It will share our findings with the newly created Joint Select Legislative Committee on Regulatory Fairness and Reform. The goal is to create a streamlined regulatory process that encourages investment in downtown revitalization, new construction following smart growth principles and landscape conservation.

3) GrowSmart has launched a second demonstration project, similar to the Maine Model Town Project in Standish, to explore ways to incorporate highway strips into the fabric of our communities. During the 1970s and 1980s strip malls sprawled into the fields and forests between our towns. At the time they were considered a convenience. In hindsight we see that they eroded our communities, damaged downtowns, promoted dependence on car travel and altered our working and natural landscapes. How can we counter these negative effects? GrowSmart will research why businesses choose to locate in strip malls, why developers build them and why people shop and do business there. The resulting white paper will address ways in which we can improve the existing strip malls, making them more pedestrian-friendly community centers, while sustaining the economic benefits to businesses.

4) GrowSmart will continue to engage in constructive conversations about the issues raised in the Reinventing Maine Government report released in September 2010. Fundamental change is needed in how we govern ourselves and this report forms the foundation for conversations and debates that must occur. A more efficient government structure was recommended in Charting Maine’s Future to provide savings to be reinvested in protecting our quality of place and growing the economy.

5) GrowSmart Maine will continue to advocate for public policy initiatives that promote sustainable prosperity in Maine. It will do that in public meetings, through our substantial grassroots network and in Augusta.