For municipal officials
With federal, state and local funds dwindling, it’s become harder for local decision-makers – especially those outside Maine’s bigger cities — to get the training and information needed to review projects comprehensively and accurately. There will always be a role for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection in complex issues and projects with statewide implications or regional conflict, but capacity-building for local planning boards and code officers could be a great help.
So LEA is helping local officials “tool up.” That work is now underway and includes a number of resources available now or currently being developed, including:
- Fact sheets on the ecological importance of each natural resource and their value to municipalities. Find out the reasons and ways that municipal officials can protect these precious resources:
Top 5 ways to protect lakes and ponds
Top 5 ways to protect rivers and streams
Top 5 ways to protect Maine's forests
Top 5 ways to protect wetlands
Top 5 ways to protect vernal pools
Top 3 ways natural resources impact local economies
- Case studies of specific proposals to teach review techniques.
- Model language to provide technical assistance for review boards and language to establish third party review of construction and long-term maintenance of stormwater components to reduce the burden on local code officers (in progress).
- A tracking system to identify where lake protection elements are supposed to be constructed. (This step has revealed numerous elements proposed by developers, but never installed.)
- Information about third-party inspections.
For more information, please email Colin Holme or call 207-647-8580, ext. 13.
