LEWISTON — Members of the Planning Board are scheduled to wrap up their yearlong review of the Planapalooza process and a new Comprehensive Plan on Monday night.

“They looked at it very, very closely and at this point they are having a public hearing,” Planning Director Gil Arsenault said. “It’s not like there haven’t been plenty of chances for the public to weigh in, but this is a time for the public to comment on the plan as well as the proposed changes the board is recommending to the City Council.”

Monday’s meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in the City Council Chamber of City Hall.

What is a Comprehensive Plan?

State law requires cities to draw up long-term plans to help shape zoning and development decisions, and Lewiston’s plan is out of date. Councilors decided in 2012 to create a more magazine-like report —  graphics, photographs and informational call outs throughout the document — in place of dry policy speak and government statistics.

The latest draft of the plan, with the board’s edits, is available for download at city’s website  www.lewistonmaine.gov/comprehensiveplan.

How is this one different?

It’s partially the product and partially the process. 

The report was written by Town Planning and Urban Design Collaborative LLC based on the June 2013 the Legacy Lewiston Planapalooza.

The Planapalooza process featured three formal public meetings in the summer of 2013 with nearly 40 hours of impromptu private meetings in a Lisbon Street storefront. Planners from the group opened their studio to Lewiston residents, letting them stop by to offer their opinions, check on their progress and critique their work.

The report is broken into two sections, “Today” and “Tomorrow.” The first details the city’s history and current conditions — populations, streets, buildings and public infrastructure. The second talks about visions for where Lewiston could go and recommends policy to get there.

It is very colorful and lightly designed to look less like a list of government recommendations and more like a planning textbook or a promotional brochure.

Why has it taken so long?

The company’s final draft became available to the public in September 2014 and city staff and the Planning Board have been reviewing it since March 2015.

Arsenault said the group has made a range of edits to the plan, mostly grammatical and cosmetic changes.

“They reviewed the document and made changes and then they wanted to review the changes they’d made,” Arsenault said. “They just wanted to make sure that staff didn’t miss anything, and that took some time.”

A summary of Planning Board changes is also available on the city’s website.

What happens next?

“At some point now, the council will get the recommendation from the Planning Board,” Arsenault said. “We expect that to happen in March, and we expect they will act on that, either during several meetings or one.”

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