Teabaggers: Agenda 21 is coming on full force to the Mid coast area!
US Rte. 1 is the lifeline of Mid Coast Maine, an area which runs more-or-less from Brunswick to Bucksport. When I first moved to Maine in 1989, there were just a handful of traffic lights on this 80 mile stretch of highway, most of them in the downtown area of Rockland.
But like elsewhere, development pressure have changed the nature of what is essentially a two line road through a rural area along the coast of Maine. As more land is developed, the amount of vehicle traffic has increased, changing the character and experience of the drive.
A two-pronged movement began to control development: one group consisted of locals wanting to preserve the rural nature, view sheds, etc., and the other, the Maine Department of Transportation (DOT), which wants to keep traffic moving at or near posted speed limits.
Gateway 1 was born.
Mid Coast Maine:
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To date, 16 towns and cities (including mine of Rockland) have signed on to implement the Gateway 1 plan by adopting its recommendations into their Comprehensive Plans, which will be reviewed by the State Planning Office (SPO). In general, these are to limit development and vehicular access along rural undeveloped stretches of Rte. 1 and encourage more dense development in areas that are already built up.
While some might not agree with the concept of Gateway 1 or the strategies to achieve its goals, it is hardly an international conspiracy.
Except if you are a Tea Partier.
Writing at Paint Maine Red, David Andreasen encourages his fellow baggers to oppose UN Agenda 21 by attending a Steering Committee meeting to be held in Rockland this evening:
Red Alert! Agenda 21 is coming on full force to the Mid coast area! I was just alerted to a meeting scheduled for Wed night in Rockland at 5:00, at the town offices, for the Implementation Steering Committee by the Maine DOT, which is implementing the sustainable development/Agenda 21. This is the hard core agenda 21 derived from the Wild Lands project, and the United Nations, and we need to make a BIG presence to show our outrage and anger at this. This is the centralized planning for the de-industrialization of large segments of Maine, and the relocation and isolation of the population into human habitation zones, along certain corridors over a span of 20 years. So please read up on the Wild Lands project and Agenda 21. Then look at the information effort to oppose it by Freedom 21, and plan on attending the meeting and express your outrage at this . We need to stop this NOW before it gets out of hand.
For those that don't know, Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, and the Statement of principles for the Sustainable Management of Forests were adopted by more than 178 Governments at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992. You can read the Preamble here, where you will find links to the full text and other items (21 refers to 21st Century).
The Gateway 1 Corridor Action Plan - Brunswick to Stockton Springs, published July 2009, sits on my desk beside me, and while I haven't committed it to memory, I do not recall reading any reference to the United Nations nor Agenda 21 in it, nor, for that matter, global warming.
BLUE ALERT: Gateway 1 is:
A marriage of land use and transportation. The plan recommends a pattern of future development that will reduce stress on the transportation system along with a set of strategic transportation investments that will create significant capacity for growth in jobs and population within that pattern or development.
It's going to be an interesting next few years.