CARIBOU, Maine — Outlining the how’s and why’s of Caribou’s vision to being “THE all season community to work, play, grow in and call home” rests in its newly adopted Comprehensive Plan, approved on Monday by the planning board and city council.
Assistant City Manager and City Planner Tony Mazzucco, who is also the Planning Board adviser, presented the comprehensive plan to the city council during their Monday night meeting and explained that 18 months of work and community involvement went into developing the document — which is essentially a vision for the community over the next decade and a plan to guide the community toward that vision.
The Comprehensive Plan is a 131-page document which outlines everything from perceived city weaknesses, natural resource plans, a synopsis of the RSU 39 — even future land use areas of growth.
For example, an excerpt from page 101 guides the city on how to best direct future growth: “City has adequate space available for growth, even substantial commercial, industrial and residential growth, within an immediately adjacent to the urban core that would not require additional municipal infrastructure,” the plan reads. “The goal of the city during the planning period should be to utilize these existing sites and areas so as to add to the tax base without increasing the level of investment. Much of Caribou’s infrastructure was designed for the community when it had a population totaling over 12,000 people; with just over 8,100 residents as of 2014 the city can grow substantially without increasing infrastructure.”
Mazzucco explained to the city council “following the plan will ensure our community lives up to our great potential.”
He cautioned, however, that the workload described in the plan is not light and will require the diligence of the city administration including all departments, elected and appointed boards and committees — even residents and business owners of Caribou — to ensure that the plan is followed.
The plan is available at cariboumaine.org, but city councilors Joan Theriault and Deputy Mayor David Martin said they’d already read the plan cover to cover, stating it was very well done.
Councilor Kenneth Murchison commented that he was able to participate in some of the visioning process, and thought it was well attended and well run.
“I thought it went a long ways to help form at least the spirit of the comprehensive plan, and I would like to add a ‘well done’ to the city staff and the people who took part in it — planning board as well,” Murchison added.
“I would also like to add that the hallmark of a comprehensive plan is not that it lines a bookshelf somewhere — it should be dog-eared, coffee stained and well used,” he advised.
Following a brief public hearing on the subject, Council approved the comprehensive plan to be submitted to Augusta for the period of 2014 through 2020 for the city of Caribou.
Caribou’s Planning Board held their own public hearing on the plan earlier that evening, at 5:30 in the council chambers. Councilor Phil McDonough, who is the council representative on the planning board, used the public hearing as an opportunity to credit planning board members for their hard work in creating the document.
Chair of the planning board Phil Cyr passed his own thanks to Assistant City Manager Mazzucco “for the tremendous amount of work which he put into this document,” Cyr stated. “He brought it to us for editing and for cuts and comments, but the majority of the writing and typing, I understand also, was done by Tony,” the chair added. “Thank you very much for that work.”
