South Portland Comp Plan Committee sets two-year zoning rollout, reelects leaders

The South Portland Comprehensive Plan Committee met September 30 to elect officers and review a staff plan for aligning city zoning with the newly adopted comprehensive plan over the next two years. The committee endorsed a revised schedule that moves all Eastern Waterfront and shipyard zoning work to fall 2027 and pushes Lincoln and Rigby industrial areas to fall 2028, and agreed to meet on first Wednesdays at 6 p.m.

Key points

• The committee approved minutes from its March 25 meeting by roll call vote.
• The committee reelected its chair, Marty as vice chair, and Bob as secretary; the chair abstained on the chair vote.
• Members Peter and another committee member pushed to move Eastern Waterfront and shipyard zoning work earlier, citing concern about council turnover; staff agreed to consolidate that work into fall 2027 rather than splitting it across two cycles.
• Staff said the committee will not need to meet in December, and the committee agreed to delegate drafting of the 2026 annual report to the chair or vice chair with staff.
• Staff proposed an early "miscellaneous ordinance" cleanup to address the most egregious mismatches between current zoning and the plan, particularly industrial zoning in mixed-use areas like Main Street North; members voiced support.
• Public comment came from a councilor who thanked members for their work and said she looked forward to the implementation phase.

Next steps

• Staff will report the two-year implementation schedule to the City Council at an upcoming meeting as an informational update.
• Staff will share a direct link to the posted comprehensive plan on the city website with committee members.
• The chair will look back at past minutes to repeat prior outreach efforts for recruiting a youth representative, with help from the communications director.
• The chair or vice chair will draft the annual report with staff and circulate it to the committee.
• Staff will begin developing a public dashboard to track implementation of the plan's roughly 300 strategies.

Read the full transcript