CAMDEN, MAINE  Maine Association of Planners presented four Awards at its Annual Meeting on June 5 in Camden at the Whitehall Inn.  Awards were presented to Kat Fuller AICP for Professional Planner of the Year, the Town of Bridgton, Maine  for Planning Project of the Year, the Town of Bar Harbor for the Plan of the Year, and Roger Moody of Camden for Citizen Planner of the year.

Professional Planner of the Year

Kat Fuller, AICP serves as Chief Planner for the Maine Department of Transportation in the Bureau of Transportation System Planning.  Ms Fuller began the Gateway One planning process for the Route One corridor in which 21 towns from Brunswick to Bucksport have been planning for three years cooperatively in order to preserve the capacity of the road as well as respect local wishes for the future of the corridor as it travels through and around midcoast downtowns.  She is honored for her vision, her commitment to the planning profession, and her high standards of professional conduct.  In accepting the award, Kat said “I am truly honored to be recognized by my peers...with MaineDOT and FHWA support, I was given an opportunity to bring a brilliantly skilled team to conduct a planning process (Gateway 1) with dedicated citizens in mid-coast Maine that is giving us all insight into how land use and transportation connections can be made."

Project of the Year

The Town of Bridgton completed a downtown plan in Spring, 2004 and has successfully implemented that plan since that time.  The center of downtown has been substantially improved through an innovative public/.private partnership, using private funds, CDBG funds and tax Increment Financing Funds.  The improvements center on the Magic Lantern Theater on Maine Street, a commercial research facility, an expanded Renys department store, and an enlarged community center/public parking lot.  In addition, a 59 acre natural area directly across from the community center has been acquired and improvements have been made to other public parking areas. Brian Kent of Kent Associates accepted the award on the behalf of the Town of Bridgton.

Plan of the Year

The Town of Bar Harbor was honored for its innovative and successful comprehensive planning process that included bringing planning to the community through multiple methods of outreach to engage the public, innovative methods of presenting data to the public including GIS, focusing on issues facing the community and exploring the implications and choices with the community and promoting smart growth principles. In accepting the award, Town Planner Anne Krieg noted, “ It’s an honor to be recognized by my peers with this prestigious award.  I am proud of the process we used for this plan and am grateful to the citizens who stayed with it all the way through to the Town Meeting vote.  The Town of Bar Harbor has a long-standing dedication to planning and I am lucky to be a part of the effort.

Citizen Planner of the Year

Roger Moody was honored for his role with the Camden Area Futures Group over the past 3 years and his commitment to the planning process, public consensus building and mediation as a method to address and resolve local issues.  Roger served as the Chairman of the Futures Group that serves to address economic development issues in the Camden area and focused on the working waterfront and other job creation and retention initiatives in the downtown.  He models a cooperative and consensus building approach that seeks to engage a broad spectrum of public opinion and resolve issues with civil public discourse.

Maine Association of Planners is a professional organization dedicated to enhancing the professional practice of planning in Maine.