LEWISTON — Do you remember “Planapalooza” way back in 2013?

Three and a half years later, the final results of the process to create Lewiston’s new and user-friendly comprehensive plan is up for City Council approval Tuesday.

“With any luck, the council will approve it,” City Planner David Hediger said Friday.

Hediger said he and the Planning Department have been working since 2012 on the new plan, dubbed “Legacy Lewiston.”

State law requires any municipalities with zoning standards to come up with a 12-year comprehensive plan, a document designed to represent a community’s long-term vision for planning and development. 

For Lewiston, the lengthy process saw a surprising public interaction, and raised important questions, Hediger said. 

But despite the longer time frame, he said, “people are reading it, because it’s an attractive document.” 

While most comprehensive plans are known to be dry, Hediger said that from the start, Lewiston’s new plan took a different approach. He said most of that can be attributed to the consultant on the project, the Town Planning and Urban Design Collaborative. 

Instead of pages and pages of text — the final version of Lewiston’s new plan is 259 pages — there are color photos, graphs, maps and concept designs. 

“This is a departure from your normal comprehensive plan,” Hediger said, adding that “not many people” tend to read the average plan. 

The plan also includes up-to-date demographics on the city: statistics on population, race, age, income and other info. The second half of the document lays out goals and concepts for potential developments. 

The introduction to the document says the plan “will serve as the foundation for determining effective public policy and making land-use decisions for the future, and will provide an ongoing framework for informed and directed public investment and private development.”

On Tuesday, councilors will vote to officially adopt the plan. The city’s previous comprehensive plan was adopted in 1997 and was considered out of date by 2012. 

Gil Arsenault, director of Planning and Code Enforcement, said Friday that other communities may look to Lewiston as an example of how to conduct a planning process. He also hopes that developers looking at the document are impressed. 

“I expect that the public will enjoy thumbing through and reading sections of individual interest,” he said in an email. “I believe that developers will be impressed with our bold plan and perhaps it will encourage investments in Lewiston that we might not otherwise realize.” 

In the summer of 2013, the “Planapalooza” process included three formal public meetings with nearly 40 hours of impromptu private meetings within Lisbon Street storefronts. 

Following the public process, the report was written by Town Planning and Urban Design Collaborative, and slowly vetted by the city’s Planning Board. 

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

In February 2016, the Planning Board was wrapping up its yearlong review of the plan. Hediger said there is a “shared responsibility” for everyone involved regarding the delay in implementation, a year later. 

City Council President Kristen Cloutier, who served on the “Think Tank Committee” that conducted Planapalooza, said she was amazed by the level of feedback from the public during the process, and now she’s looking forward to finally working to implement the plan’s content.  

“It is unlikely that everyone will like everything included in the plan, but I am confident that everyone will find something they can relate to and appreciate,” she said Friday. 

Hediger believes the strong community reaction and input on the plan led to lengthy discussions and policy debates among city officials over topics like the city’s housing stock and future residential development, both downtown and in rural areas.

According to the plan, “the declining condition of the housing stock and the prevalence of vacant properties within the downtown is Lewiston’s most pressing housing issue.”

Statistics included in the document say that as of June 2015, there were 56 condemned residential structures in the city.

While the council may approve the plan Tuesday, Hediger said his department’s work is far from over. He said the document represents “a vision” for Lewiston, but that more work will need to be done to adopt written ordinances and policies “that are tied to the comprehensive plan.” 

Any issue faced by the department and its Planning Board, from zone changes to development projects, will be vetted against the plan. 

The City Council is also set to discuss Tuesday whether to reconsider a zone change for a parcel on Webster Street. Owner Louis Ouellette had proposed a multiunit senior housing complex for the site, but the City Council denied the zone change earlier this month. 

In the case of rezoning, Hediger said, generally, “if the comp plan doesn’t support it, you’re out of luck.” 

However, Lewiston’s new plan specifically lays out the need for senior housing, stating, “There are not enough options for seniors who need assistance or wish to live independently.” 

The City Council will convene a workshop at 6 p.m., followed by a regular meeting at 7 p.m. 

The final draft of the Legacy Lewiston comprehensive plan can be viewed here.