After many months of intensive work, the Cape Elizabeth Comprehensive Plan is nearing completion.
    For those who have not read it, the draft version of the plan offers an detailed and comprehensive study of the state of Cape Elizabeth, its past and the likely trends that will take it into the future.
    The plan's authors, including citizen volunteers under the direction of chair Barbara Schenkel and town staff, notably Town Planner Maureen O'Meara, have done an excellent job creating a document that manages to be detailed yet readable.  Every citizen in the town would do themselves a favor by reading the plan's conclusions, goals and recommended steps to implement those goals.
    These goals do not represent an abstract wish list, but a concrete foundation upon which rules and laws will be created that will affect many neighborhoods as well as future spending and capital investment decisions.
    Many of the conclusions in the draft Comprehensive Plan demonstrate that there is another group of people that ought to be recognized: members of previous Comprehensive Plan Committees.
    Many of the current draft plan's recommendations reaffirm the conclusions made in the last Comprehensive Plan completed in 1993.
    It is clear that the majority of Cape Elizabeth citizens are happy with the character, and state of Cape Elizabeth. Those citizens should be aware that neither of these things happened accidentally, but through the hard work and dedication of their fellow citizens.
    That there are so many such people in the town is something each citizen should be thankful for.
                      –Ward Peck
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