FALMOUTH – Residents and business owners are getting more time to respond to a survey about the town’s future.

The Long Range Planning Committee is seeking information to help update the town’s comprehensive plan, which was adopted in 2000.

Responses to the survey have been strong since it began in mid-May with an initial deadline of mid-June, said Theo Holtwijk, the town’s long-range planning director.

Committee members have extended the deadline to June 30 because they believe many residents were distracted in recent weeks by local elections, graduations and other springtime events.

“Our goal is to gather the views of as many Falmouth residents as possible, (and) Falmouth business owners are being encouraged to complete the survey,” said Sandra Lipsey, chairwoman of the survey subcommittee and president of the Falmouth-Cumberland Community Chamber.

At last count, 731 people had completed the online survey and another 297 surveys had been started, Holtwijk said.

The survey subcommittee sent a letter to 5,200 households and businesses asking people to take the survey online through the town’s website or get printed copies at Town Hall, Falmouth Memorial Library or the customer service desks of Shaw’s and Hannaford supermarkets in Falmouth. Return envelopes are provided with printed copies.

“We already have enough responses to do a statistically valid survey,” Holtwijk said, “but we want to make sure as many people as possible have an opportunity to participate.”

The survey is being done by Market Decisions, a research and strategy company in Portland, at a cost of $25,384. The town hired a professional firm to do the survey to ensure that respondents would remain anonymous, questions would generate helpful responses and results would be compiled into a useful report.

The 34-page survey takes about a half-hour to complete and asks questions such as “Would you recommend Falmouth as a town to call home to a friend or colleague?” and “Are there specific streets where you believe speeding is a particular problem?”

It asks how often respondents carpool to work, take a public bus, ride a bike on town streets or hike on town trails. It also asks respondents to rate their satisfaction with various town services, from fire protection to community access television. It provides space for long answers.

The Long Range Planning Committee will use the survey report to update the town’s comprehensive plan in the coming months, Holtwijk said. The committee also may hold public forums this fall. A new comprehensive plan would be published late this year or early 2012.

The comprehensive plan produced in 2000 contains a wide variety of recommendations related to land use, housing, transportation, public facilities, open spaces, historic resources and other subjects.

Some goals in the comprehensive plan have been accomplished, such as the creation of the Falmouth Trails Advisory Committee, while others haven’t. The call for a community center has failed to win townwide support, most recently in a referendum to convert the Plummer-Motz and Lunt elementary schools into a community center and public library.

“There’s lots of good stuff in the plan already, so the committee won’t be starting from scratch,” Holtwijk said. “There may be some things that will be carried over, some things that people don’t want to do anymore and some new things that people want to accomplish.”

Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:

kbouchard@pressherald.com

 

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