Planning is job one in 2002

By Meg Olson

Blaine’s community and economic development department has been awarded a $10,000 Growth Management Act grant to update the city’s comprehensive plan. Department director Terry Galvin said the city will spend at least twice that and dozens of staff hours updating state-required plans and regulations in the next year. “Those deadlines will consume me for the next ten to fourteen months,” he said.

The city’s comprehensive plan, shoreline management plan critical areas and land disturbance rules are all required by the state Growth Management Act and need to be updated every five years. “They mandate these programs but don’t provide the economic support to local governments to support them,” Galvin said. He estimates the comprehensive plan update, which was last done in 1996, could cost up to $25,000. “It’s going to need to be fairly extensive,” he said.

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