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Frequently Asked Questions
How does this visioning session overlap with a plan to initiate a comprehensive planning process by the town? What is the overall thinking and timing?
The Freeport Comprehensive Plan is a planning process completed by the Town of Freeport and plans for the community as a whole — not just the downtown area. Developing a Comprehensive Plan is a legal obligation and an opportunity. The Plan gives a community the opportunity to look at where it has been and where it is going. Towns are obligated by the State to periodically develop (or revise) their Comprehensive Plans so that they meet the State’s goals as well as their own. The rules and regulations included in a local zoning ordinances must be in general harmony with the Comprehensive Plan; zoning cannot exist without a Plan.
The Comprehensive Plan is both a vision and a strategy to achieve the vision through the identification of goals and implementation ideas. It is what the town wants to be, and wants to look like, several years down the road. It identifies what the community wants to change and what the community thinks needs to be preserved.
Freeport’s current Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2011. It consists of two parts: the text of the Comprehensive Plan and a document titled Freeport Data, Facts, Trends, and Maps; the link to both documents can be found here Comprehensive Plan | Freeport ME (freeportmaine.com) The Town, and in particular, the Planning Board, is in the early stages of planning to update the document, with anticipated completion in 2023.
The Freeport Downtown Visioning is a community visioning and planning process that is focused on the downtown and is based on the perspectives from the community, businesses, and visitors’ desires for the downtown area. The first phase of the Freeport Downtown Visioning and Early Action Planning, was completed in 2021; the additional two phases, Downtown Visioning/Design and Complete Plan, were completed in April 2022.
As with the Town Comprehensive Plan, the outcomes and action opportunities resulting from the Freeport Downtown Visioning will be considered by the Town and Town Council in a public meeting.
How is the Early Action Plan different from the Vision Plan?
The Early Action Plan is a part of the Downtown Visioning, focused on short-term strategies for downtown that could be implemented immediately. The Early Action Plan process occurred in the early part of 2021 and consisted of a community input process (through surveys, the public Vision Workshop, and Town Walk), a draft of the Early Action Plan for public comment, and a presentation to the Town Council. From the Early Action Plan came implementation of projects that reflected improvements that the community suggested, such as a Pop-up Skate Park, Parklets for sitting, and road calming street painting.
A Vision Plan is also a part of the Downtown Visioning and addresses the long-term desires for downtown. The Vision Plan ran from the winter 2021 to spring of 2022 and involved a full public process to dive deeper into topics suggested by the community during the first Phase (such as housing and sustainability), and resulted in a framework/picture of what we want our downtown to look like and “be” as the town grows in the next 10 years.
Have you considered soliciting input from the various property owners who would be impacted by any suggested changes?
Absolutely. The property and business owners are a key partner in the Downtown Visioning. The project team has reached out to landowners and businesses downtown and have conducted 1:1 interviews to better understand their perspectives and ideas.
How are you reaching out to the community in Freeport? How are we making sure our input is diverse across age groups, lifestyles, and incomes?
Community connection and engagement are critical. In all stages of the project, we reached out to the community through routine updates at the Town Council meetings, communications through email, updates are available on the website, and a group of Freeport community members (our “community connectors”) have worked within their networks to ensure that our request for input goes out to all age groups, lifestyles, incomes, and demographics. We had great participation from the community, kids, business owners and visitors. For results of the feedback from our community, see the Early Action Plan results.
How many people live Downtown?
258 people live downtown. We have defined the area by census block, geography, and parcel boundaries.
Has anyone quantified how much downtown space is parking, how much is roads, how much is dedicated to stores, and how much is left?
Based on our analysis, there are 1.2 million square feet of parking lots and 680 thousand square feet of building coverage downtown.
What does FCS stand for?
FCS stands for Freeport Community Services and is located at 53 Depot St, Freeport, ME 04032. For more information, visit their website https://fcsmaine.org/