As some of Maine’s smallest, most isolated rural towns continue to decline, Maine loses some of what makes it unique.
But revitalization is no simple matter. The reasons so many of Maine’s most rural towns came into existence — because of their proximity to the woods — is no longer an advantage that guarantees a role for them in the knowledge- and service-oriented economy of the 21st century. Wood is still in demand, but mechanization has reduced the need for labor in logging, and many wood products manufacturing jobs have disappeared, offering fewer people one less reason to settle in rural Maine.
There’s no single formula for reviving rural towns struggling with economic transformation and setting them on a prosperous path. The future, after all, will look different in every area.
But some rural Maine areas have a clearer path forward than others.
In the Moosehead Lake region, for example, residents are proactively laying the groundwork for a future based on developing the region into a top tourist destination for travelers seeking a wilderness vacation. The efforts to brand the region as “America’s Crown Jewel” and improve its tourist infrastructure are locally led with the help of business and philanthropic support. The work stretches across municipal and county lines.
The revitalization strategies that work best will be homegrown and powered by local energy. Local champions are a key ingredient, along with an agreed-upon vision. And since every town is part of a region, a regional revitalization plan is the best path forward.
No policy passed by the Legislature will suddenly spur groups of municipalities around the state to start proactively planning for the future, but lawmakers should set aside some time when they return to Augusta in January to examine the way Maine plans for growth.
Maine’s Comprehensive Planning and Land Use Act has been on the books since the late 1980s, and it grew out of an era that saw much of the development in Maine taking place farther and farther out from cities and established service centers. Such sprawl strained existing infrastructure, required new infrastructure and put the state’s rural character at risk as more residential development took place in farther-flung areas.
The most tangible outcome of the Comprehensive Planning and Land Use Act are the comprehensive plans that towns and cities assemble, generally every 10 years, so they can legally designate areas where they would like to grow and areas they would like to keep undeveloped. When a town has a state-approved comprehensive plan on the books, it also becomes eligible for a number of state-issued grants and loan programs.
The law allows groups of towns to come together and develop regional comprehensive plans, but in the nearly three-decade history of the Comprehensive Planning and Land Use Act, there has been only one group of towns to develop a regional comprehensive plan — Castle Hill, Chapman and Mapleton in Aroostook County, which already share a town manager and cooperate on a number of other initiatives.
The incoming Legislature should take a look at the state’s system of comprehensive plans with an eye toward encouraging regional plans and plans that focus on regional visions for economic development.
Of course, it would help if the state offered financial incentives to encourage towns to participate in such regional planning. Through the now-defunct State Planning Office, the state used to issue grants to help out towns with plan development. The state budgeted more than $1 million for such grants in 2001, but the funding levels gradually declined until reaching zero during Gov. Paul LePage’s tenure.
If lawmakers revived such a program, they could tie grant awards to towns’ willingness to work as a region toward a future that extends beyond municipal and county boundaries.
No successful effort to revive a rural region will start in Augusta, but there are ways for state government to help its struggling rural areas settle on a path forward.
