FARMINGTON — After several months of editing and workshops, selectmen have unanimously passed the final draft of the downtown development plan.

Before the vote Tuesday, a final change was made to recommend using volunteers to run programming instead of hiring an event coordinator.

The development plan is a course of action commissioned by the town that includes a list of projects and programs intended to further downtown development.

Recommendations include infrastructure projects such as a Sandy River pedestrian bridge, public restrooms downtown, a parking structure, new streetlights and improved sidewalks.

The plan also suggests the town create a tax-increment financing district in the downtown to fund the infrastructure projects.

During the editing process, the original draft was amended to take out references specifying which organization may implement the projects and not giving a timeline for them. The edits were in response to criticism from some groups about giving a nongovernmental organization too much control in projects that use government funding.

Selectmen agreed in late February to pay consultant John Holden an additional $1,000, because the town could not reach an agreement on the draft in the original time Holden was contracted for.

Holden began the first of three workshops in October about multiple drafts of the plan before his original contract expired.

Kaitlin Schroeder — 861-9252
kschroeder@mainetoday.com


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