We offer a full range of planning services, including long-range projects like comprehensive, open space, and downtown plans, as well as municipal assistance through land use ordinance work and planning board support.

Comprehensive Planning

Comprehensive plans are big, long-term projects that come together through coordinating municipal staff, community volunteers, the public, the project team, and subject matter experts. At North Star, we strive to go above and beyond the State comprehensive plan requirements to engage the public and create community consensus around a shared vision. We don’t believe in just checking the boxes - every plan should be tailored to reflect the unique qualities of each community. We use compelling language, graphics, and illustrations to communicate the plan’s ideas, goals, and recommendations that are accessible, fun, and engaging to read in both digital and print format.

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Yarmouth Comprehensive Plan Update

The Town of Yarmouth built off an earlier visioning process to develop a plan around 4 goals that came up over and over again during community engagement: increased inclusivity, expanded housing options, an enlivened local economy, and environmental protection. The resulting plan is centered on these priorities, with direct links to public feedback and a detailed list of actions to take for each one. These ideas are threaded through the plan’s Future Land Use Plan, which seeks to pursue all four goals while finding balance between them.

Bath Comprehensive Plan Update

Winner of MAP 2024 Plan of the Year! After a few years of internal work, the City contracted with North Star Planning in 2022 to hold public engagement events for the plan and complete the work staff had started. NSP hosted several in-person meetings and online activities to get wide-ranging input from the community and developed an implementation-focused final plan based around four big ideas for Bath.

Gray Comprehensive Plan

The Town of Gray hired North Star Planning to provide a major update to Gray’s previous Comprehensive Plan, which was never found consistent with the Growth Management Act. North Star Planning coordinated all public process elements, including surveys and community visioning work, future land use workshops, mapping, and plan drafting.

Open Space & Resilience Planning

Natural resources, conservation, outdoor recreation, and environmental resilience are high-priority issues for many communities. An Open Space Plan can prioritize and identify important natural areas based on both habitat and community values, study connectivity, and balance conservation with recreation and economic development. Climate planning incorporates both natural resources and the built environment with an assessment of community attitudes and vulnerabilities to prioritize action items and build resilience.

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Yarmouth Open Space Plan

Yarmouth is a growing town experiencing heavy use of its coastal access, parks, trails, and walking and biking paths. The Yarmouth Open Space Task Force hired North Star Planning to create a plan in coordination with Town departments, the Royal River Conservation Trust, and local volunteers.

Downtown & Neighborhood Plans

Downtown and neighborhood plans are more focused planning and design projects rooted in the community’s vision for building or revitalizing a center of activity. We build these plans around public outreach and in-depth data analysis, combining placemaking with economic development, transportation, and land use goals. Robust implementation work plans with incremental, realistic strategies are key to achieving the community’s goals.

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Little Falls/South Windham Villages Masterplan

North Star Planning, in partnership with Aceto Landscape Architects (ALA) worked with the towns of Windham and Gorham to update the Little Falls and South Windham Villages Masterplan. North Star Planning led the public outreach and public facilitation process.

North Windham Moves

North Star collaborated with Gorrill Palmer engineers and Aceto Landscape Architecture to develop this transportation planning and feasibility study for one of Maine’s most highly-trafficked corridors: Route 302 in North Windham.

Zoning & Land Use

Land use ordinances are the framework through which development takes place, helping to ensure new growth is consistent with a community’s vision. North Star provides a wide range of ordinance services, including writing new ordinances, zoning and policy updates, recodification of existing ordinances, and usability improvements. Our recent work includes solar standards, conservation subdivision rules, LD2003 compliance, improving review processes, and developing the framework for a town’s first land use code.

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South Gorham Crossroads Zoning

North Star Planning worked with the Town of Gorham to create zoning standards to help implement the vision established in the Town's Comprehensive Plan. This vision involved upzoning low density residential and commercial areas of South Gorham along South Street and County Road (Routes 114 and 22) to higher density residential and mixed use areas, ready for transit and planned infrastructure upgrades

Development Review & Planning Board Services

North Star Planning provides services and support to help Planning Boards conduct professional, thorough, and efficient development review. We provide this assistance in a variety of ways, including: serving as contract planners for communities without full time planning staff, filling temporary staffing needs, and providing on-call services for large or complex projects.

We also offer Planning Board training that goes beyond the basics and legal requirements with community-specific scenarios to empower Boards to feel more confident in their decision making.