Update about Maine’s Amended Growth Management Law Process

The Maine Office of Community Affairs (MOCA) has been tasked with convening a stakeholder group to support rulemaking related to the Growth Management Law, which governs the comprehensive planning process in Maine municipalities. Pursuant to P.L. 2025, Chapter 393, this stakeholder group will provide input on the content of the rules necessary to implement Title 30-A, Chapter 187, Subchapter 2: Growth Management Programs and Title 4 Chapter 310-B, Subchapter 4: Municipal Planning Assistance Program.

The stakeholder group was formed in December and has met three times to delve into the finer details about the comprehensive planning process, data inventory and analysis, needs assessment, policy development, and implementation strategies. Judy East from DACF and MOCA staff have been developing succinct reference documents for the Stakeholder Group as we progress through the Stakeholder Group process. The group will produce a report in the spring. MOCA staff will then begin drafting major substantive rules.

Details about the composition of the Stakeholder Group, and each of the monthly meetings can be found on the Municipal Planning Assistance Program website. We welcome you at sit in on the virtual Stakeholder Group meetings to listen to the discussions.

In our March session (meeting #4) we will be focusing on improving the Inventory, Data, and Analysis elements of comprehensive planning. It is essential that we present the best available data sources for communities to use during the comprehensive planning process. We hope to streamline the use of sources available on our data portal and would like to know how this database might be improved.

We have developed a survey that allows interested parties to provide feedback within all subject areas of comprehensive planning, or simply within a single area of expertise. We would very much appreciate your feedback during this process and encourage you to share the survey with your colleagues and stakeholders. Please complete the survey by February 19th, 2026.

For more information on our Growth Management stakeholder group process, please visit the Municipal Planning Assistance Program website.