📰BIDDEFORD | Biddeford’s Future Growth Plan Still Needs Work | Analysis
- 8 hours ago
- 4 min read
By Loren McCready, Biddeford Buzz, Contributing Writer
Biddeford is at a crucial point in its Comprehensive Plan process. This Wednesday, the Planning Board will review several major chapters, including Natural Resources, Water Resources, Existing Land Use, and Future Land Use. Soon after, the plan will move to the City Council for final approval before being sent back to the state.
This matters because the Comprehensive Plan helps determine where growth happens, where public infrastructure is extended, what natural resources are protected, and what kinds of costs residents may be asked to absorb in the future.
Biddeford’s updated Comprehensive Plan has already been rejected by the state more than once for inconsistencies with Maine’s Growth Management Act. The city’s last adopted Comprehensive Plan dates back to 1999, meaning Biddeford has gone many years without a current, state-consistent plan guiding its long-term growth. Without that framework, decisions can become fragmented and short-sighted.
One important improvement in the updated plan is the treatment of the Biddeford-Kennebunkport Coastal Forest, formerly known as the Vernal Pool Complex. Much of this area has been removed from future growth areas and placed into a rural designation. That is a meaningful step for a landscape that has been studied for decades and identified by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife as one of the most ecologically significant areas in the state.
But the city cannot treat that correction as enough. The state’s concerns were not only about the Coastal Forest. They were also about water resources, and that is where the Thatcher Brook watershed still needs much more attention.
Thatcher Brook is an urban impaired watershed with a management plan that is now out of date. The watershed is already under substantial stress from surrounding development and runoff. Despite that, the city has continued to treat much of the watershed, most recently at the end of Barra Road, as an area for significant growth (see “Barra Road Is a Failure of Planning, Not a Success of Growth”).
That is not sound planning. It is exactly the kind of contradiction this Comprehensive Plan is supposed to fix.
Barra Road is a dead-end road, heavily car-dependent, and disconnected from the traditional neighborhood pattern that built Biddeford. The area also raises serious infrastructure concerns. What was once described by developer Mike Eon as a relatively small sewer improvement of no more than $59,000 has become a much more expensive public infrastructure issue, with costs now exceeding $1.3 million and relying on future growth that may not materialize.
This is why the Future Land Use Plan matters. A growth area designation influences where development is encouraged, where infrastructure is extended, and where environmental review may become more flexible, particularly because these designations can affect how projects are reviewed under local and state land use rules. If the Water Resources chapter identifies Thatcher Brook as a concern, the Future Land Use Map should not continue treating the watershed as a place for major new growth.
Biddeford needs housing, but the city needs to be honest about where growth belongs and what kind of growth actually serves the public. Growth should be focused where it can be supported by existing infrastructure and where residents are not entirely dependent on cars. That means prioritizing walkable neighborhoods, downtown redevelopment, adaptive reuse, ADUs, and smaller-scale infill.
Pushing more density into environmentally sensitive areas that require costly infrastructure expansion is not smart growth. It is the kind of planning mistake this Comprehensive Plan should prevent, not excuse.
The updated plan takes a strong step by better protecting the Coastal Forest. Now the city needs to apply the same standard to Thatcher Brook.
Major construction in the Thatcher Brook Watershed (designated urban-impaired) – Spring 2026
Before this plan is adopted, the Planning Board and City Council should revisit the Future Land Use Map and remove undeveloped portions of the Thatcher Brook watershed from designated growth areas. For areas that have already been developed or approved, the city should use a more limited designation that recognizes what is already there without inviting more sprawl.
The goal is to submit a plan that the state can find consistent and that protects Biddeford’s long-term interests. This process should not be used to preserve past development assumptions or protect projects that moved forward under an outdated planning framework. It should reflect environmental protection, responsible growth, efficient infrastructure, and land use decisions that serve current and future residents.
Biddeford’s Comprehensive Plan is nearing a point where the city can begin to examine more creative land use strategies that work for the people who live here. But that work will be undermined if the Future Land Use Plan continues to overlook significant natural and water resources, including the Coastal Forest and the Thatcher Brook watershed.
If Biddeford keeps calling environmentally sensitive, infrastructure-challenged areas growth areas, the city will keep repeating the same mistakes: more costly infrastructure, more car-dependent development, and more pressure on natural systems that are already struggling.
Until the Future Land Use Plan reflects that, the plan is not finished.
The Biddeford Planning Board will hold a public hearing and take comments on Wednesday, June 3, at 6 PM in the City Council Chambers at Biddeford City Hall. Remote access information is available on the meeting agenda.
Comments can also be submitted in advance to planningboard@biddefordmaine.org and nan.whitten@biddefordmaine.org.
There will be another opportunity to comment when the plan is reviewed by the City Council in the coming weeks, but any substantive changes will need to be made by the Planning Board.
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