Staff Writer 

Scarborough Economic Development Corporation (SEDCO) Assistant Director Julie Bassett said some municipalities pay up to $50,000 to have experts formulate an “Economic Development Vision and Plan” plan. 

By fall 2009, SEDCO and the Scarborough Chamber of Commerce are hoping to have done the same for Scarborough, but for free, she said. 

“It’s definitely being made clear there is no money for [formulating a long-term economic vision plan] right now,” Bassett said. “It’s not going to be an 80-page document like you see in some towns. It’s a volunteer thing for us.”

The specific goals of the vision plan have yet to be determined; Scarborough Chamber of Commerce President Robert Nadeau said it would ideally be a representation of desires of local business and community stakeholders. 

“It’s too early to make any assumptions. This is going to be a community driven plan,” Nadeau said. “There has been an encouragement to have certain types of businesses come to town, and that will most likely remain the same. It’s not our plan to ask for changes to the [Comprehensive Plan], we’re just going to ask ‘What would we really like to see here?’”

Bassett said discussions with local stakeholders could begin early next month, but declined to speculate what could come out of the dialogue.

“We think we know what we want, but we’ve never had it written down,” she said. “As for what business owners feel, who knows? We did some business visitations last year that were surprising to us.”

In preparation for formulating the vision plan, Bassett said SEDCO and Scarborough Chamber of Commerce members have reviewed various consumer reports and guiding documents about the town, including the Comprehensive Plan, since last fall. 

“We wanted to make sure we understood everything that was out there,” she said. “But we also knew [the information] was put together before the economy that we have today.”

Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee (CPIC) member David Merrill said the Comprehensive Plan encourages up to a 24 percent increase in commercial activity in town over the next 10 years, but does not specify what type of commercial use would be most beneficial. 

“[The Comprehensive Plan] doesn’t go into each zone, primarily because taxes are either residential or commercial,” he said. “[The Comprehensive Plan] does touch on everything from land use to zoning, basically all the things in town that are related to how the town grows in the next 10 years.”

Although Nadeau said the current financial climate will most likely be on the minds of stakeholders formulating the Economic Development Vision and Plan, Merrill said CPIC members had not discussed how an economic recession might affect goals of the Comprehensive Plan. 

“The [Comprehensive Plan] was updated in 2006 and has to be updated every 10 years,” he said. “I’m not sure anybody would benefit from it now. That would be something the town council would have to ask us to do.”

Bassett said drafts of the vision plan could be presented at several public forums following private meetings with SEDCO, the Scarborough Chamber of Commerce and business and community stakeholders. 

“You really want to get input from the targeted people first,” she said. “Developers aren’t going to want to jump out in a large forum and say what they want.”

Bassett declined to identify which business owners and community stakeholders were to be included in preliminary discussions of the vision plan, as they had not yet been contacted.