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Service Centers
Where is your nearest hospital located? Where do you work? Where do you bring the kids to buy school clothes, visit a museum or swim in an indoor pool? Whether the answer is Waterville, Damariscotta, Dover-Foxcroft, Portland or Presque Isle, the communities where we work, shop, obtain medical care or enjoy a cultural experience are what the Legislature has termed "service centers" or "regional service centers."
Maine is a rural state, but it is dependent on the vitality of these urban places for its economic and social well-being. Accordingly, Maine's Growth Managment Act requires that service centers receive priority consideration for certain state capital investments. DACF's Municipal Planning Assistance Program is responsible for periodically updating the list of service centers.
- Reviving Service Centers (PDF 309KB)
- Map of Identified Regional Service Centers (PDF 1.6MB)
- Methodology for Identifying Regional Service Centers (Amended Chapter 220) (DOC 65KB) Recent amendments to this Rule require the use of more reliable US Census data and extend the timeframe for list updates from five (5) to ten (10) years in order to coincide with the release of that data.
- State Capital Investments provisions of the Growth Managment Act (30-A MRSA, Section 4349-A)
History and Background
In Maine, as elsewhere in the US, the late 1960s and 1970s was a period of rapid suburbanization. In the late 1970s the State Planning Office (SPO) began to examine Maine's new, sprawling development pattern. By the mid-1990s, there was evidence that 30 years of disbursed growth had major cost and policy implications for the State. It also appeared that sprawl was often driven by fiscal and policy decisions of state government. For instance, state school siting criteria were forcing the abandonment of more compact in-town sites and the construction of new schools on larger, more-distant rural parcels.
In 1997, SPO research into the fiscal and other costs associated with the shifting pattern of development was summarized in The Cost of Sprawl. That publication pointed to the decline of our service centers as one of the most pervasive and costly effects of sprawl.It also held that revitalizing our service centers is the key to countering those effects.
In 1998, the Maine Legislature's Task Force on Regional Service Centers examined characteristics and problems unique to service centers and, in its report, Reviving Service Centers, recommended strategies for strengthening them. As interest grew in efforts to reduce the effects of sprawl through the targeting of resources to regional service centers, the Legislature enacted legislation requiring a formal process for the identification of those communities.
Service Centers Calculated January 2013
| Entire Municipality |
ASHLAND AUBURN AUGUSTA BANGOR BAR HARBOR BATH BELFAST BETHEL BIDDEFORD BINGHAM BLUE HILL BOOTHBAY HARBOR BREWER BRIDGTON BRUNSWICK CALAIS CAMDEN CARIBOU CORNISH DAMARISCOTTA DEXTER DOVER-FOXCROFT EASTPORT ELLSWORTH FALMOUTH FARMINGTON FORT KENT FREEPORT GARDINER GREENVILLE GUILFORD HERMON HOULTON JACKMAN KENNEBUNK KITTERY LEWISTON LIMESTONE LINCOLN MACHIAS MADAWASKA MARS HILL MEXICO MILBRIDGE MILLINOCKET MOUNT DESERT NEWPORT NORWAY OLD ORCHARD BEACH ORONO OXFORD PITTSFIELD PORTLAND PRESQUE ISLE RANGELEY ROCKLAND ROCKPORT RUMFORD SACO SANFORD SCARBOROUGH SKOWHEGAN SOUTH PORTLAND SOUTHWEST HARBOR THOMASTON TOPSHAM VAN BUREN WATERVILLE WESTBROOK WINDHAM WISCASSET |
Urban Compact Areas Designated as Regional Service Centers (Alphabetical Order, 6 total) CAPE ELIZABETH (partial,see map) GORHAM (partial, see map) LISBON (partial, see map) OLD TOWN (partial, see map) WELLS (partial, see map) WINSLOW (partial, see map) Census Designated Places Designated as Regional Service Centers (Alphabetical Order, 3 total) DIXFIELD (partial, see map) FAIRFIELD (partial, see map) LISBON (partial, see map) |