Comprehensive Planning

Essential to the Division’s mission is the preparation and maintenance of the City’s Comprehensive Plan. The City of Bangor has been involved in comprehensive planning since 1948 when the Planning Board and Planning Department were established. The City adopted its first Master Plan in 1951.

Bangor’s current planning efforts grew out of the desire for planned growth and a local concern for the environment in the late 1960’s. The first Comprehensive Plan the City adopted in 1969 served as a development guide for Bangor throughout the 1970’s. The City adopted an update to the Zoning Ordinance In 1974 and an update to the Master Plan in 1979.

A Comprehensive Plan Committee established in 1989 to address the City’s rapid growth during the 1980’s oversaw the development of the first major revision of the Comprehensive Plan since its 1969 adoption. The Committee also provided leadership in the Citizen Participation Program adopted by City Council and that included a number of components and tasks such as a community wide survey designed to solicit residents’ opinions on many planning issues. The Bangor Comprehensive Plan Update adopted in June 1990 by the City Council was followed by a major revision of Bangor’s 1974 Zoning Ordinance that resulted in the current Land Development Code adopted in 1991.

In order to remain current and adjust to changing conditions, the City’s Plan is revised and updated every few years. The City’s Plan includes descriptions and analyses of existing conditions and specific "planning elements" that address housing, economic development, community services, transportation systems, physical development, fiscal policy, historical and archeological resources, natural resources, and State and regional considerations, along with an Implementation Strategy and Action Program.

2012 Comprehensive Plan

2010 Comprehensive Plan (revisions to 2005 plan)

2005 Comprehensive Plan