By THOMAS McPHEETERS, Special to the Gazette

Municipalities all across Maine are attempting to respond to the challenge of climate change, but in contrast to the “Maine Won’t Wait” dictum in the state’s plan, local advocates and government are finding it slow going.

That’s partly due to the nature of government, with its myriads of committees and boards and councils, and partly because adjusting to new realities has so many different aspects.

“Getting things from the proposal stage to legislation is a grind,” said one panelist at the Nov. 12 Climate Action Workshop held by the Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission (SMPDC) and the University of New England.

 As we have all experienced, with rapidly changing weather patterns anything is possible and anything can happen at any time. Biddeford had one “wakeup call” set of storms in January of 2024, but no one knows when the next such event will arrive. But clearly, it will, in its own good time.

A small but dedicated group of citizens have been working on ways to address climate change in Biddeford, both to reduce the city’s carbon footprint and how to mitigate the worst effects of extreme weather. With a mandate from the city council, the Biddeford Climate Change Task Force has so far focused on three areas where rules or ordinances could be amended:

• Solar, with an eye to making it easier to develop solar arrays that are large enough to actually cut local government energy costs or reduce electric bills for residents;
• Electric Vehicle charging stations, with potential mandates or incentives to developers to provide more changing stations or at least make sure the infrastructure is in place for future installations;
• Land use: finding the right balance between use of undeveloped land in Biddeford recognizing that the city’s abundance of forested land should not be developed and that large solar arrays are not appropriate for every site.

All of these areas have the potential to bump up against property rights and to impede desired development. (And some issues — the example used at the SMPDC Workshop was about attempts to ban pesticide use — are simply too difficult for many local governments to handle.)

Will Kochtitzky, a professor at UNE who was speaking as the chair of Biddeford’s Sustainability Commission, noted that some of the commission’s work does not involve legislation. He later expanded on his comments in a Nov. 18 report to the Biddeford City Council.

The Sustainability Commission is charged with working with city departments where appropriate and advising the city council about implementing the Biddeford Climate Action Plan.

The Commission has applied for several grants, inventoried bike racks, is working to improve bike riding as an alternative to automobiles in Biddeford and assisted the city in reclassifying coastal areas as limited growth zones in its comprehensive plan.

The commission also conducted a second inventory of emissions from the city last summer.

“I am not pleased to report that we are going in the wrong direction,” Kochtitzky said.

While energy use in both residential and commercial buildings went down, automobile traffic in Biddeford was substantially up.  Biddeford has committed itself to reduce carbon emissions by 2030 and must make more progress to meet this goal. 

The new inventory from 2023 included more vehicles from other locations that came to Biddeford than the 2019 inventory — tourism is a “major industry” for Biddeford.

The commission has proposed legislation to increase electric vehicle charging stations in the city, and also a landscaping ordinance for new developments—both municipal and private.

The experience in other Maine cities was reviewed and integrated in the new draft ordinances.  New legislation proposed affects property development and has been slow going.  As local governments make sure that they do not drive away needed development, both of the proposed new laws are currently in committees to refine the wording and not discourage new projects.

“I am not pleased to report that
we are going in the wrong direction.”

— Will Kochtitzky, UNE professor

Councilor Marc Lessard may have spoken for other council members at the Nov. 18 meeting when he stressed to Kochtitzky that he is mainly interested in things that either break even or lower city costs.  He hoped these new proposals would include city costs to help the council make decisions, such as the municipal building energy audit.

Kochtitzky replied that the commission’s strategy, working with city staff, is to look for grants to facilitate this work.   Unfortunately, federal grants are currently very limited and cannot be counted on for local projects.

Also, in Biddeford’s case, one of the most pressing issues is sea level rise with storm surge, that causes flooding and beach/dune erosion that affects beach front properties. 

The Sustainability Commission is collaborating with SMPDC to get a grant to engineer a detailed beach management plan for southern Maine’s beaches that would make Biddeford’s beaches FEMA disaster assistance eligible. 

While new construction — and some repair projects from the January 2024 storms — have opted to build or rebuild houses on stilts, most of the properties on or near Biddeford’s beaches are affected by Biddeford’s zoning ordinances and Maine’s beach and dune management ordinances (many through the Dept of Environmental Protection).

The city did obtain federal funding to rebuild roads that were washed out by those storms, and also to rebuild the granite boulder sea walls at Fortunes Rocks beach and Ocean Avenue in Biddeford Pool.

But some issues remain unresolved and apparently undiscussed.

Biddeford is one of the few municipalities in York County that has so far declined to sign on to a compact to use the dredge that York County purchased with federal funds.

According to a county report, the dredge is scheduled to remediate dunes and beaches in other coastal areas starting this month, beginning in Wells and moving on to the eroding beach at Camp Ellis, directly across Saco Bay from Biddeford Pool.

Municipal collaboration among the Saco Bay communities may be important in the next 10 years. 

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Tom McPheeters is a life-long lover of Maine and a year-round resident of nearly three years. After a journalism career or 25 years at three newspapers in Ohio and New York State, Tom spent the last 30 years as a community organizer and advocate in Albany, NY. He lives in Biddeford Pool. 

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