MDI Tomorrow - 
Community Design & Land Use

August 18, 2003 Notes

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Present: Laureen Donnelly, Carla Haskell, Anne Krieg, John Kelly, Ted
Koffman, Marla Major, Crystal Pace, Julia Schloss, Zack Steele, Lynn
Thompson, Sue.

Community design & land use charrette

The group began planning a charrette for this winter. Date to be

determined, but probably in January, take February to interpret the

data/ideas/plans from the charrette, present back to the public in

April/May -- road shows. The charrette would be arranged to include four

work groups, one for each MDI town, each led by a resource professional.

Planning teams to prepare for the charrette were drafted:

Outreach -- Anne K., Crystal Pace, Marla

•  contact each town to begin identifying key leaders to invite to the

charrette. Suggested we begin with Ron, names mentioned include: SWH --

Eric Henry/Ken Hutchins; Tremont -- Patty Tierney (ask her for others, too);

Mount Desert -- Rick Savage?, Jerry Suminsby? (Marla)

•  research warrant deadlines (Marla)

Organize presentation -- Crystal, Lynn Thompson, and Marla will ask Isabel

Mancinelli if she can coordinate this team’s goals:

•  develop content
•  research and coordinate resources (Crystal and Lynne will research

historical data and images, including asking Roc Caivano for a copy of the

"Bar Harbor Film.")

•  At the charrette we’ll need someone at each table who understands that

town’s ordinances -- their weaknesses/strengths

•  Organize presentation of current patterns -- CommunityViz element?

Organize Charrette -- Anne K., Carla, John Kelly

•  identify professionals (architects, landscape architects, planners) to

serve as technical resources, team leaders at charrette

We’re expecting to have MDI Tomorrow survey results and Housing Study

available in January or February. Possible to include in charrette?

The charrette is planned as a first step, working with community members and

landscape designers, planners, and architects to help develop the road show,

and to identify and move ideas forward for other options to promote good

community design and land use.

The charrette will give elicit some responses to preferred design and land

uses, and the road show will present those responses and elicit more. The

process will serve to inform the participants of their own preferences,

perhaps, as much as informing the presenters.

John sent around a report entitled "Dealing with Change in the Connecticut

River Valley: A Design Manual for Conservation and Development," published in 1993 by Lincoln Institute for Land Use Policy, the Environmental Law Foundation, and the University of Mass. at Amherst. The report was

innovative in its time, visually instructive and helpful. Would be

interesting to follow up now, 10 years later, to find out what impact it had

on land use.

Anne Krieg will forward a state bylaw for cluster development to the group.

CD & LU goal stated as "to see town/towns enact ordinances that would guide

development in direction of preferred future, preserving community

character, resources, and encouraging affordable/year-round housing.

Other education efforts discussed, included a column in the local

newspapers, MDI Tomorrow notes, to keep residents updated on MDI Tomorrow efforts generally.

Prepared by Marla Major,
Friends of Acadia and MDI Tomorrow

To contact MDI Tomorrow:
MDI Tomorrow, c/o University of Maine Cooperative Extension, 63 Boggy Brook Rd., Ellsworth, ME 04605, 207-288-8212.

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