WELLS — After approval by the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, the Town of Wells’ updated Comprehensive Plan is off to the state’s Department of Agriculture Conservation and Forestry Planning Division, where the plan will be reviewed.

Town selectmen voted 3-1, with one abstaining, to move the 2016 plan to the state, where it will be reviewed to ensure it follows state laws and land use protocol.

The plan, or the Town of Wells’ “Vision of Our Future: A Strategic Summary,” had been in the drafting process for over a year. The new plan is seen as a departure in formatting from the older 2005 plan, but still uses the 2005 plan as a foundation.

“It was time to update (the plan),” said Wells Town Manager John Carter. “Many of the 2005 items had already been done, and quite honestly the town has moved ahead. The framework needed an update. We wanted to do something that wouldn’t be put on the shelf as easily as most comprehensive plans are.”

Carter added that the Southern Maine Regional Planning and Development Commission (SMPDC) in Saco played a role in drafting the piece.

“We asked if they could do a strategic report as opposed to a 200-300 page document, and they said certainly,” Carter said. “So we decided we’d try to do a strategic plan that incorporated everything in a standard comprehensive plan, but wouldn’t be a front-end document that had 200-300 pages.”

Among the notable goals in the current plan is the need to develop a more defined downtown center in Wells.

“I think the most striking difference between this comprehensive plan and the one from a decade ago is the idea of Wells needing to develop a downtown,” said Lee Jay Feldman, director of land use and planning at SMPDC. 

Feldman added that the new plan would provide additional protection and conservation of the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport & Wells Water District, saying that traditionally comprehensive plans have focused on shifting developments into downtown and village centers while conserving the rural areas of a town or city. Carter held a similar opinion, stating “this document has a lot of conservation efforts at its core.”

Still, some residents took to the podium at Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting before the plan was voted on to voice their concerns with the plan that is now currently under state review. One resident said he didn’t believe the current plan was ready for state review, adding that more volunteers should be added to the town’s Comprehensive Plan Update Review Committee so they may use the 2005 plan as a foundation.

Two other residents and update review committee members shared similar sentiments regarding the current plan’s lack of connection to the 2005 plan.

According to Carter, the next steps after sending the plan to the state, are to get their response, make any final adjustments once the plan is returned, come up with a marketing plan and then take it to the voters and residents of Wells.

“Once we get through this process we’ll later create an implementation team to put together the ordinance changes, as well as a schedule, and kind of get a second wind and move this whole vision forward,” Carter said. “It’s a document that I think is ready to move on to the state for review.