Regional Saco Bay Plan Effort Under Way

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A Newsletter by the City of Saco, Maine	August, 2008	Return to newsletter index

The City of Saco is spearheading a Saco Bay-wide effort to understand and protect our beaches, marshes and coastal waters. Prompted in part by the proposal put forth by an Old Orchard Beach businessman in 2007 for a marina off the OOB pier, the communities of Saco, Biddeford, Old Orchard Beach and Scarborough are collaborating in an effort to identify existing conditions, threats and opportunities, and to arrive at mutually beneficial approaches to managing the Bay.

While Saco Bay is protected and regulated by a multitude of agencies and state and federal legislation, the local approach to resource protection that Bay communities have taken differs from community to community. A common denominator is shoreland zoning, which each of the four municipalities have in place as required by state law. But, the approach to issues such as economic development, sewage treatment, water quality, watershed protection and commercial fishing and shellfish harvesting may vary widely from town to town.

The development of a Saco Bay Management Plan offers the four communities the chance to inventory the factors that are impacting the Bay and to consider how improvements could be made. For example, are pump-out facilities available for commercial and recreational boats at Pine Point, Camp Ellis and Biddeford Pool so that the contents of holding tanks are being disposed of properly? Or, is development in the Saco and Nonesuch river watersheds being managed such that water quality in the Bay is not being degraded?

In addition, the State Planning Office is promoting increased emphasis on regional coordination in the comprehensive planning process. The process of creating a Saco Bay management plan will allow for the participating communities to recognize common interests, and to arrive at recommendations consistent with one another. Mandated by the state, comprehensive plans for all Maine communities include a chapter on "Marine Resources." Much of the management plan effort will focus up updating this chapter in each of the Bay communities' comprehensive plans, then comparing notes to better understand how cooperation and common interests can be best addressed.