GrowSmart Maine

08/26/2026

Community Engagement Opportunity: Provide Feedback to the Maine Data Center Advisory Council!

The Maine Data Center Advisory Council is hosting listening sessions for the work they’ve engaged with over the summer. If you haven’t gotten the chance to attend one of the earlier sessions on environmental considerations, energy, or community and economic development, recordings are up on their website.

The listening sessions on August 27 and September 1, 2026 will serve as an opportunity to gather public input that will support the work of the Council. This session will be held virtually via Zoom and will provide a brief overview of the Council's work to date as well as opportunities for attendees to share verbal comments with the Council. Written comments will also be accepted via an online survey. During the listening sessions, members of the public will have 3 minutes to speak and are invited to respond to the following questions:

💭 What recommendations do you think the Council should consider advancing, and why?

ℹ️ Is there additional information that the Council should consider as it considers recommendations for the state?

Sign up here to provide input:

The Maine Data Center Advisory Council (the Council) was established by Executive Order of Governor Janet Mills on April 29, 2026. The Council was formed to provide strategic input, facilitate coordinated state planning, and evaluate policy tools to address large-scale data center opportunities and....

08/13/2026

Nancy Smith has led GrowSmart Maine since 2010 -- seeing it, and Maine, through a tremendous amount of change over the course of 16 years.

In her words, "[t]he mission of GrowSmart Maine is as relevant, and perhaps more urgent as when the organization was founded 22 years ago. Navigating change in alignment with smart growth is critical given the new challenges and opportunities facing Maine communities. How to navigate a significant influx of people following the pandemic, as so many are choosing to live where they feel most at home. How will we create new and make best use of existing housing stock while keeping Maine’s productive farmland, forest land, and scenic open spaces available to Mainers and visitors alike? We have unanticipated challenges in evaluating appropriate siting and scale of data centers, seeking a process that brings municipalities to the table as equals to the developers to ensure the community benefits as much as other parties do."

Read her full thoughts here: https://growsmartmaine.org/blog/nancy-smiths-farewell/

Thank you, Nancy.

08/10/2026

Affordable, infill housing projects that "look like they've been here for decades"? Reuse of underdeveloped, unused, or foreclosed lots that have access to water, sewer, roads and electrical infrastructure?

Dooryard is doing all the right things when it comes to smart growth housing development -- in Rumford, Yarmouth, Brunswick and beyond. Way to go!

Rumford-based developer Dooryard has three affordable housing projects already built that provide families with apartments at a reduced rent of $1,275 a month, including utilities.

07/16/2026

GrowSmart Maine has opened nominations for its 9th Annual Smart Growth Awards for 2026!

✍ Submit your nomination (forms.gle/Nsq485UfKqwhU8Ea6)

🏆 See past winners (https://growsmartmaine.org/smart-growth-awards/)

The Awards highlight projects, policies, plans, and people around Maine that exemplify the principles of Smart Growth. These principles include:

- Mix land uses;

- Take advantage of compact building design;

- Create a range of housing opportunities and choices;

- Create walkable neighborhoods;

- Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place;

- Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas;

- Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities;

- Provide a variety of transportation choices;

- Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost-effective;

- Encourage community members and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions.

The nominations should showcase the kind of projects, plans, people, and policies that support smart growth in all its diversity, whether it’s a plan for a walkable and inclusive village center, an innovative farmland protection model, a successful new transit endeavor, a community-supported adaptation to climate change that safeguards the built or natural environment, or a person who has worked to implement smart growth.

Nominations due by WEDNESDAY, July 29, 2026

07/03/2026

Practical community building and smart reuse of a downtown property in Town of Van Buren!

07/01/2026

We are encouraged to read that the three gubernatorial candidates will support a moratorium on data centers to allow Maines time to learn more about their potential impacts, as brought forward last legislative session by State Representative Melanie Sachs. Learn more from our recent Community Guides and webinar on the issue, on our website.

We asked Bobby Charles, Hannah Pingree and Rick Bennett. Here's what they said.

06/27/2026

"What may come as a surprise is the fact that 253 accessory dwelling units received a certificate of occupancy.

This means ADUs, such as an in-law apartment or a separate structure on someone’s existing property, created more housing than buildings containing two to four units combined."

We assembled five charts that show what areas of Maine are seeing the most housing growth and what kind of properties are being built.

06/18/2026

Building Community Strength team photo!

06/18/2026

Building Community Strength (BCS), a 3-year training program providing technical and financial assistance to ten rural communities across Maine, had its final workshop yesterday in Bangor.

Our final in-person workshop featured a presentation by the Maine Office of Community Affairs' Samantha Horn and highlights from program participants, including the challenges their communities faced before BCS, how their time in the program equipped them with tools and resources to address those challenges, and where their communities are headed in the near- and long term.

We are so grateful to have spent the day - and the previous three years - with members of BCS communities as they navigate a diverse set of challenges with perseverance, resourcefulness, and an unwavering commitment to positive change in the places they call home.

Building community strength is about people, and Maine has the best of them.

06/15/2026

One project at a time; one developer at a time.

Open houses are scheduled March 5 and 10 at the 18-unit complex at 986 Prospect Ave.