October 30, 2002

On October 30, 18 Scarborough residents met at the Municipal Facility and discussed their environmental vision for Scarborough’s future. Participants worked in two groups and elaborated their vision for Scarborough’s future. Their responses are listed below.

Green Scarborough:
Participants were asked to identify the components of a ‘green’ Scarborough. What would the town have and how would it function as a ‘green’ community in 2020?

• slow residential growth
• Thoughtful plan for growth which incorporates open space, animal habitat, etc
• bicycle, walking trails along scenic roads (without getting run over)
• connectivity among neighborhoods, open space
• center of town/Oak Hill connectivity
• conservation officer who is full-time and fully-resourced
• curbside pickup of recyclables
• native plantings, including outreach to landowners
• identify buffers for riparian, wetlands, critical habitats
• controlled pesticide/fertilizer use, especially in the watershed
• more education and awareness among public
• stronger laws and ordinances (shoreland zoning, subdivision, site law)
• incentives for clustering (reward for environmentally aware developments)
• “jail time” or some other negative consequence for poor developments
• businesses and homeowners encouraged to landscape with native plantings
• finish Eastern Trail
• use information from previous reports (Beginning with Habitat, Open Space Plan, Growth and Services, etc)
• formally identify “maintain community character” and define specifically (and adopt by council) what that character is and what it means to be rural
• appropriate funds for land purchases annually
• see more people outside, recreating
• alternative transportation infrastructure
• school’s relationship with the local environment is strengthened (SEEC and expand to adult education)
• design school buildings as “green buildings”\
• focus more on regional planning (environment, schools, community)
• share more regional resources, including environmentally beneficial resources (public transit, etc)
• town is managed with some green principle or objective (recycling, transportation options, etc)
• training for professionals and contractors to increase awareness and skills
• protect as much of critical watersheds as we can
• voluntary landowner-town partnerships
• joy and hope for a better tomorrow
• civility in public dialogue
• look to other communities for ideas, inspiration
• more town parks
• buy land, conserve half of what is left
• smart zoning, strengthen shoreland zoning, change subdivision ordinances, mandate open space subdivisions to consider natural environment
• empower the Planning Board and Conservation Commission (more involved in planning)
• require the Planning Board to plan, not react
• scientific/natural history perspective, “Friends of Scarborough” think tank review group
• continuing environmental education for the Council and Planning Board (biodiversity day)
• farmers market? Regional?
• create a town common or central park
• make more walkable, create a buffer for sidewalks and bikes
• look at other stricter environmental ordinances (Cape’s regarding wetland, enforcement model, trails)
• town involvement in protecting endangered birds
• we need a full time conservation administrator in the Planning Department with regulatory authority and responsible for organizing volunteers
• design standards for subdivisions
• resource base of volunteers to create wildlife habitat in developments
• bayscaper program for watershed protection
• community education regarding toxins, pesticides, insecticides
• support SEEC, Friends of Scarborough Marsh and efforts of the Scarborough Land Trust
• work to be a Tree City USA
• put enough boxes out to be Tree Swallow capital of North America (300 to 1,000 boxes for mosquitos)
• check off box for property taxes to funnel to open space (2% of annual ...)
• full time attorney that is environmentally savvy
• open space impact fees and other similar fees
• support the fishing industries (clamming, lobster)
• decrease Regional Waste Systems dependence
• curbside recycling efforts
• increase awareness of Scarborough Marsh as our “signature area”
• awareness of “we are all part of the watershed”
• support community cooperatives and agricultural programs
• create West Nile virus contingency plan for next summer
• link community parks

Development and the Environment:
Participants were asked how and where the environment can accommodate development and what types of development would best complement Scarborough’s environmental resources.

• smart zoning, not suggestions, strict ordinances, don’t rely on contract zoning
• mandate cluster/open space zoning west of the turnpike (design standards)
• no sewer across turnpike
• tasteful designs, not like Cloverleaf Development, ill conceived
• more stringent environmental regulations
• square footage of home permits need more scrutiny (onesies/twosies, decrease fragmentation)
• get tough, put teeth into ordinance, subdivion plan (use models of Cape Elizabeth, Vermont, Massachusetts)
• allow more creativity for developments, decrease developers infrastructure costs to allow creative use (may be decided by new conservation administrator)
• in terms how structures are treated:
  • get away from detention ponds
  • treat parking and pavement same or greater than buildings (minimize parking)
  • runoff from phosphates
  • don’t change hydrology in sensitive areas and don’t engineer solutions if you can avoid it
    
• hire a full time conservation administrator
• make sure the growth and services report details/surveys are used, particularly on the environment
• development should pay environmental impact fees, be clustered, use setbacks and offsets, be located near existing services, and be open space developments