With Labor Day upon us, it’s the unofficial end of summer. One of my highlights was attending Scarborough Summerfest. It’s one of the few times our community gathers to engage with each other, eat great food and enjoy this wonderful town we are blessed to call home. It was a great addition this year to see all our future leaders and business owners participate in the first Children’s Entrepreneur Market.

I want to give a shoutout to Nick Cliche, Nicole Hall and everyone in town who made this event a huge success. I spoke to many residents at Summerfest and asked two questions: 1.) What do you love about Scarborough?; and 2.) What concerns do you have?

Our neighbors beamed with joy as they talked about our beaches, the services available in town, how safe they feel, our great schools and so much more. When I asked about concerns there were a few specific things — lifeguards at the beaches, fixing the traffic light near Lois *ahmm Tom,* better playgrounds, more fast food restaurants and more.

I further asked, what do you think about the growth in town?

In general the message was they would like to see more done to manage growth to make sure we don’t lose what they all love. I asked a few of our neighbors how long they’ve lived in Scarborough and it ranged from
all their lives to one individual who just moved here three months ago. One neighbor has lived here for four years and when I asked her where she came from, she got visibly uncomfortable and said, “Boston, I’m one of them.” She is not “one of them,” she is “one of us” and I am so glad her family is here to be a part of our wonderful community.

I know how she feels. I used to feel like I was wearing a scarlet letter on my chest because I was from away. But I’ve learned to be both a proud Scarborough resident and thankful for the experiences that ultimately brought me here.

I’m originally from northern Virginia and I’ll never forget the day I decided it was time to leave. It was a freezing wintery day in February 2016. We lived 20 miles outside of D.C. in a small unrenovated townhome built in the 1970s that we could afford. It had recently been infested by rats and needed to be remediated for mold several times. That morning, I drove 20 minutes in the dark to the metro station while my family slept, hoping I would be home to see them before bedtime. I stood on the metro platform for 30 minutes waiting for a delayed train due to construction. Everyone around me looked so miserable. I stood for 40 minutes on the crowded train and walked another 15 minutes to my office. Time wasted away.

After doing this for nearly a decade, I decided that wasn’t the way life should be and we decided to pack our bags and move to Maine where my wife is originally from. Scarborough has been so welcoming and I have not
regretted the move a single day, especially with my now 12-minute commute. While Scarborough will never be northern Virginia or Saugus, Massachusetts, we must continue to guide changes to preserve it as best we can to keep it the amazing community we all love and cherish.

The pace of growth is a concern for many. The frustration is palpable as witnessed at our recent public hearing and all the emails we received on the Dunstan TIF. I too felt the gut punch when I saw the trees cleared at Eight Corners, but I took solace in knowing that 37 of 57 acres were preserved and transferred to the land trust. I too drive in The Downs from time to time. I respect our friendly neighbors who find it a great
place to call home even though it’s not for me.

For people who have lived here their whole lives, the changes you have seen must be overwhelming. For those who more recently moved here to improve your quality of life, I understand the desire to freeze it in
time. Many of us love the marsh and our natural environment and want to conserve it. I also understand residents who embrace and look forward to change, wanting more commercial places to visit or feel a moral obligation to support diverse housing options. I know there are also land owners who want to maximize the value of their land to support their retirement or other financial needs.

All our perspectives are important and I am committed to work together to find reasonable ways to manage growth, knowing there will be tradeoffs and not everyone will be happy. The council, town staff, and our volunteer committee members work hard to do what is best for everyone. I’ve provided a list of actions the council has taken in the last five years to minimize the impact of growth to maintain our quality of life. We can and will do more, but it will take focus, compromise and patience.

Here are some potential solutions that I am open to exploring with the council and our community:

1. The council should host a workshop or series of workshops to discuss growth that includes an open and honest conversation of how we got here, the baseline of where we are, what tools are available for the town to use, what’s within our control, and determine next steps we wish to take to better manage growth. I’d love to see us go out to neighborhoods and hold listening sessions on how we can better manage growth’s impacts on each neighborhood.

2. Vote no on the Dunstan TIF. I’m comfortable putting a year hold on TIFs and CEAs while we do more work. While I personally think the financial advantages a TIF provides to fund improvements in the district are important and support tax rate stabilization, it’s clear we have more work to do to bring the community along.

3. Establish a growth and services committee made of representation from existing committee members (e.g. Transportation, Conservation Commission, Long Range Planning, SEDCO, etc.) and new members of the public to assess the performance of our Comprehensive Plan and how our services have been impacted by recent growth. The Comprehensive Plan outlines the overall vision and lays out our growth strategy for the town. The committee could review the recent growth and leverage our town-wide Transportation Assessment, Open Space Plan, Vulnerability Assessment, and Parks and Facilities Master Plan to determine what we’d like to see in the next 10 years in our designated growth areas along with prioritized infrastructure and service investments to maintain quality of life. This work may lead to zoning changes and would require significant public engagement since any zoning change will impact personal property.

4. Prioritize and expedite the Town Village Center (TVC) zoning review by the Long Range Planning Committee to reimagine the TVC districts, as an input to the growth and services committee. The TVC district generally represents Dunstan and Oak Hill where most of the growth is targeted to occur and has been the subject of much debate.

5. Partner with local partners, the Conservation Commission and our Community Services Advisory Board to use the $6 million land bond funds approved by residents as quickly as we can. We know, through our recently adopted Open Space Master Plan, the locations to target with high environmental and ecological value that preserves the marsh and its tributaries or for active or passive recreation where our community can gather to build on our quality of life. The faster we can purchase, we can take the land out of development production
for things our community appreciates.

6. Explore the option of a 180-day moratorium. A moratorium is a temporary pause on growth. I am open to exploring this, but it would need to be defined specifically in terms of scope and geography. If a moratorium is implemented, we need to be clear and thoughtful in what we plan to accomplish to be fair to land owners and respect their personal property rights. We also need to time the use of this tool appropriately. With upcoming law changes stemming from LD 1829 we may be better served to use this type of tool closer to the July 1 deadline if we find ourselves in a position not ready for the impacts the new laws will have.

7. Organize with other Maine communities and push back on the state for LD1829. We need to better understand the impacts of new legislation that further increases density and removes our ability to manage the rate of growth effective July 2026. The council is bound to follow state law on the pace of growth, but we can certainly advocate for changes. Every resident concerned with growth must also engage their state legislatures to ask for more local flexibility to manage growth. Scarborough is probably one of the best locations in Maine and will be adversely impacted by this law.

8. Support our school at the ballot in November. The school is a big time commitment for staff, council and our community. The School Building Advisory Committee did a yeoman’s effort to find a compromise solution. Let’s move that forward so we can focus our time, energy and resources on growth management.

I was touched by the love that was so palpable at Summerfest when I asked people why they chose Scarborough. I also appreciate everyone who took the time to attend the public hearing on the Dunstan TIF and the Councilor Corner Live on Housing to share their concerns on growth.

As we tackle the challenges of growth together, let’s approach it from a place of love for our community, acknowledge our diversity in perspectives, and come up with solutions that maximize the welfare for everyone in Scarborough. Who’s in?

Jon Anderson is vice chair of Scarborough Town Council. He can be reached at janderson@scarboroughmaine.org. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Scarborough Town Council.