BANGOR, Maine — Towns and cities in the greater Bangor area will now have the chance to adopt the Penobscot Climate Action plan, an effort aimed at giving municipal governments recommendations for fighting climate change on the local level.
"If we can start thinking ahead and working together and sharing resources, I think we're going to be in a better position," Maddie Jensen, the project planner, said Tuesday.
Instead of proposing individual climate projects, the action plan identifies environmental threats posed by climate change and offers strategies for combating them at the town or city level. This includes things like changing zoning laws to make for more flood-proof buildings, emphasizing walkability in urban planning, and promoting a more robust public transportation infrastructure in the Bangor area.
To Jensen, these steps—if put into place—could help to blunt the harm of climate change. "There are things that we can do to protect the residents who are living here," Jensen said.
The idea of tackling a global issue like climate change at the hyper local level is drawing support from some area business owners concerned at how extreme weather could impact their property.
"We need to strike at the root cause of these matters and do what we can," Briar Patch bookstore owner and former member of the Bangor City Council Gibran Graham said. "Even some of the bigger issues that seem like they’re not local issues should be tackled and be thought about by all levels of government."
The Bangor city planning board will hear more on the Penobscot Climate Action plan on Tuesday night. Jensen and others hope eventually, the guidance will be adopted by towns and cities across Penobscot County.