By Ward Peck
Editor
    After 26 months, 29 meetings and three public hearings held by a committee to draft a comprehensive plan, the Cape Elizabeth Town Council is set to begin the process of putting that plan into action.
    The plan, an update to the 1993 comprehensive plan that has dictated land use policies, spending priorities and town goals for the past 14 years, will receive its first public hearing on Sept. 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Town Hall. A copy of the draft plan is available on the town Web site (www.capeelizabeth.com/news/comp_plan/) or at town hall.
    The plan provides an in depth analysis of the town’s assets and liabilities as well as who it is that inhabits the town and how they live.
    While much of the information confirms what most people already suspect to be the case, such as “historically Cape Elizabeth has been one of the least affordable towns for the average working family” (page 35); “single family homes represent over 90 percent of the town’s housing stock” (page 29), and “Cape functions as a bedroom community in the Greater Portland labor market. The majority of residents commute outside of the town for work” (page 20), the plan places the information in the context of how it affects the greater good, making certain value judgments along the way.
    The plan concludes, for instance, that a town comprised almost exclusively of single family homes unaffordable to the vast majority of families is a bad thing, lays out reasons why it is a bad thing, and offers ways to correct it (pages 41 to 46).
    It is the corrective measure, referred to as implementation steps in the plan that will likely be the most contentious elements of the plan as it is debated, for what they propose as well as what they do not.
    Many of the implementation steps contained in the plan reaffirm the goals of the previous comprehensive plan, while others lay the foundation for new ordinances and zoning rules. Those steps that do propose change are largely incremental and do not represent any radical change in the town’s character.
    While the plan does offer ways to create a more diversified housing stock, it also recognizes the trend of building predominantly single-family homes in Cape Elizabeth will continue.
    The plan reaffirms the 1993 Comprehensive Plan to continue to target growth in certain areas of town, but it also concludes the pace of overall development will continue to decline as it has for the past several decades.
    According to town manager Michael McGovern, state guidelines require the town’s comprehensive plan to direct anticipated growth in a sustainable and manageable fashion, even if that growth is relatively modest.
    “Last year there were 11 homes built in Cape Elizabeth,” he said.
    That the Comprehensive plan largely aims to preserve the overall character or the town is no accident. A survey conducted in 2005 found that 90 percent of residents were satisfied with living in Cape Elizabeth, with newer and younger residents more likely to claim a higher degree of satisfaction than older and longer term residents.
    More than 80 percent of respondents placed preservation of wetlands, farms and the town’s rural character as important goals. Less than half placed “encouraging the development of affordable housing; encouraging the development of a variety of housing types; improving the Town Center; or “attracting commercial development” as important goals for the town.
    The survey found that only 25 percent of respondents were willing to raise taxes to buy parcels of open space or access easements to such parcels.
    According to Chris Franklin, Executive Director of Cape Elizabeth Land Trust (CELT) the last finding is misleading and said it improperly frames any policy of using public money to preserve open space as one that raises taxes.
Franklin said CELT has proposed the town undertake a study to determine how much residential development also causes taxes to go up.
    The draft comprehensive plan illustrates Franklin’s point. While new development adds to the town’s tax base, diluting the tax liability of existing property owners, it also comes with costs, especially if there are children involved.
    On page 85, the plan examines the hypothetical case of a family with two children who move into town in 1989. “By the time the second child graduates from Cape Elizabeth High School in 2002, the family has paid a total of $45,178 in taxes. The cost paid by the town to educate the children is $160,428.” The analysis concludes it would take another fifteen years of property tax payments for the town to earn back what it invested in the children.
    Franklin said the town should conduct a study to see if preservation costs less than development. He said CELT hopes such a study may help convince the town that preserving open space would be a fiscally responsible investment.
    “In Cape Elizabeth we really don’t know. We should compare this side by side and not just assume preservation costs more,” Franklin said. “The first goal is have people understand residential development does not make your taxes go down it makes it go up.
    But changing the type of housing also changes the equation. By building housing other than single-family homes, such as condominiums geared toward senior citizens, the town realizes the increase in tax revenue, without increasing education costs.
    How to balance the competing interests as Cape Elizabeth grows is the purpose of the Comprehensive Plan. In that balance there are sure to be those who perceive themselves as on the losing end.
Next week: Increasing density.