ROCKLAND — Rockland’s Comprehensive Planning Commission has completed its work updating the 2012 Comprehensive Plan and the Mayor and City Council are inviting the public to attend a workshop via Zoom on Wednesday, January 12, 2022, at 5:30 p.m., to review the plan.

“Once adopted by the City Council, the Comprehensive Plan becomes the blueprint for guiding development and supporting shared community goals and objectives around subjects such as housing, natural resource conservation, economic development and sustainability,” said Mayor Ed Glaser, in a City news release. “It is an important tool for establishing common understandings, setting goals and making decisions that affect us all.”

The planning process began in 2017 and has been facilitated by planning consultants at the Musson Group since 2019.

“Public input, careful consideration of the data, and thoughtful discussion of inter-related land use, economic and social issues have been the hallmark of the planning approach that led to this specific set of recommendations to help Rockland meet an array of challenges and opportunities in the coming years,” said the release.

“The Comprehensive Planning Commission has actively sought input from the public throughout the 5 year process of developing the plan” said Julie Lewis, who has chaired the Commission since 2017. “We held seven public meetings between October 2017 and September 2019 before COVID-19 limited our ability to congregate. Our meetings for the last two years have been on Zoom, but we have still incorporated public comment periods as well as feedback from City Council to help inform the process. We also took a lot of guidance from the Rockland Heart and Soul project, which interviewed hundreds of residents of Rockland to learn what matters most to them.”

The full draft of the updated plan is available to review at the City’s website (www.rocklandmaine.gov/comp-plan/); hard copies of the plan are being made available at the following locations – Rockland City Hall, Rockland Public Library, and the Flanagan Center.

The Comprehensive Planning Commission will make final edits to the plan after the January 12 workshop and will then forward the updated plan to the State of Maine for review.

Final adoption by Rockland City Council will take place after the State approves the plan.

Information on how to join the January 12 meeting is available at the City’s website, www.rocklandmaine.gov.