HEBRON — The land use plan for Hebron’s future, which residents hope will continue to emphasize a small-town atmosphere, will be unveiled Wednesday during a public hearing.
“People still want to see a quiet, rural community,” Board of Selectmen Chairman Richard Deans said Tuesday. He said that was the overriding message of the 117-page plan that has been under development for more than a year. “It’s pretty self-explanatory,” he said.
The Hebron Comprehensive Plan Committee will conduct the hearing from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28, at the Hebron Fire Station.
Comprehensive planning is used by land use planners to determine a community’s goals and aspirations in terms of community development. Hebron has no zoning, except for shoreland, but it has resources, including natural, historic, transportation, public facilities and others, that officials say need to be identified and protected.
The Comprehensive Plan defines what Hebron residents want for their community in the years to come and provides strategies to guide the town’s resources successfully into the future.
The last comprehensive plan was approved in 1983 and states that the townspeople want to maintain the town’s rural charter, open space and wildlife, and keep the town family friendly.
At a public hearing in August 2014, residents said they still want to retain their small town atmosphere, retain farmland and keep access to open land.
Comprehensive Plan Committee Chairman Gino Valeriani said the hearing will “provide the public with the opportunity to hear about the plan, ask questions and provide the committee with any concerns about the proposed plan.”
Last year, annual town meeting voters approved $15,000 for Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments to develop the plan. The town hired John Maloney, senior planner at AVCOG, to write the policy and recommendation document and to guide the six-member Comprehensive Plan Committee in its work.
As part of that process, residents were asked to comment last August on their vision for the future of Hebron. The information has been used extensively by the committee in the development of the plan, Valeriani said.
“One only needs to look at the plan’s Vision Statement to get a feel of how public input was incorporated into the plan,” he said in a statement released last week. “A portion of the Vision Statement reads, ‘The “extra special” physical places will still exist.'”
Valeriani said the Vision Statement says there will be undeveloped areas consisting of large tracts of open space that maintain scenic views, wildlife habitats and other related important assets. “These areas will not be the result of overly restrictive land use regulation but rather mostly by their owner’s free will or other nonregulatory methods,” he said.
Maloney will finalize the plan, which will be presented for a vote at the annual town meeting at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 21, at Hebron Station School on Station Road.
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