By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer 

CASCO — One thing that was loud and clear: Casco residents do not want franchise businesses such as Family Dollar, Dollar General or Dunkin’ Donuts in their community. 

Even if thosebusinesses are inside a traditional New England-style building, people said no. 

“You told us very overwhelmingly that you don’t like franchises,” according to Senior Planner Vanessa Farr, with Greater Portland Council of Governments (GPCOG).  

Town officials could court the mom-and-pop businesses, encouraging them to set up shop in Casco, she said. 

“One idea is go out and recruit them,” she said, adding, “It helps if you have the space, a building and a lot, that you can match someone to.”

Another action step is to amend ordinances in order to control not only where development occurs, but also how business buildings should look, she said. The feedback from residents was that some development was desired to assist with paying property taxes.  

GPCOG was hired to help the Town of Casco with its Comprehensive Plan, a process that should be near completion by March 2023.

On Monday night — on the heels of five days of activities and workshops — Farr presented the findings and offered up some solutions. More than 70 people showed up for the closing night presentation held at the Casco Community Center. After the presentation, people were invited to walk around the room and look at the visual boards — which had details added based on the community feedback, both Online and in real life.

Again and again, it was pointed out that the comp plan is still in its infancy.

“This is just the beginning,” Farr said. 

Casco Town Manager Anthony “Tony” Ward said a few words prior to Farr’s presentation. 

“Thank you on the behalf of select board and GPCOG and the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee that spent 45 hours here these past five days to help with where this plan will go,” he said. 

“For those who have been involved in a comp plan before, we are in the beginning stages, getting input about what the community wants to see, what direction they want to go,” he said. “This is the first step and it will go on for the next year.”

Once it is wrapped up sometime in March 2023, there will be public hearings for the document. Then, it must get final approval at annual town meeting, he said.

Ward commended the residents who took part in the process dubbed Casco Planning Days. 

“The energy you have shown this weekend is remarkable and it shows how vibrant this community is. Please stay involved,” he said. 

During the process of collecting public input, Farr and her team discovered that people craved more community-wideactivities.  

“We heard very strongly from you that you want more robust activities. There is a desire to do these things, not just for seniors, not just for children but interaction between all generations,” Farr said.

Tied into offering activities is providing a way for people to get around. Transportation was a challenge listed by many residents. 

In other communities, groups have fundraised the money to buy a van or small bus to fill the transportation void, according to Farr. It could be used to take seniors shopping or to events. It could be used to bring children to the community center for activities.

 Also, maintaining the look and feel of the Village Districts was important to people. Those were identified as Casco Village, Webbs Mills Village, and South Casco Village. 

“The villages — your town should be protecting rather than transforming them,” she said. 

Farr commented that the people who participated had a good handle on the town’s ordinances and how those might not be aligned with the townspeople’s vision of their future community. 

“The things that you don’t want to be here are the things that you are vulnerable to,” she said.

“There is nothing in your ordinances about the character of buildings, the size of buildings,” she said.

The process of drafting and adopting an ordinance amendment is a time-consuming one. Luckily, there are some action items that could be done right away.

Communities have been able to create bike paths by painting white dotted lines along theshoulder of roads. This is less expensive than the cost of putting in sidewalks. 

The town could do a traffic calming test, which could be installed after Casco Planning Days and left up to the until the snow flies. The town could recruit the Bicycle Coalition of Maine and Build Maine to help with those goals to make areas safer for cyclists and pedestrians.