Build Maine

Build Maine 2026 was the biggest ever. What should we do next?

Myles Smith — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 14:21:42 GMT

We are reaching out to this big circle of planners, managers, developers, advocates, financiers, experts, officials, and placemakers with a survey asking you what we should be doing next.

We needed a bigger venue after a record-breaking number of registrations, so we moved down the street to the century-old Skowhegan Opera House

Build Maine has been an annual conference since 2014, bringing together the best of Maine’s sustainable development community with experts from across the country. Now, the conference founders and organizers want to cast a wider net, and bring in more folks who want to build more of what makes Maine great.

Even if you were not at this year’s conference, if you see yourself in our charter, we want to hear from you. Here’s what you can do now.

1. Read Build Maine’s charter

Our charter lays out our shared values and principles. Read it here. Here’s a sample, below.

Build Maine views disinvestment in villages, towns, and cities, the spread of placeless high-cost sprawl, increasing isolation and loneliness, environmental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands and wilderness, and the erosion of society’s built heritage as one interrelated community-building challenge.

We stand for the restoration of existing village, town, and city centers, the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs into communities of real, diverse neighborhoods, the conservation of natural environments, and the preservation of our built legacy.

There’s a huge challenge ahead of us. Maine has the nation’s oldest population, oldest housing stock, most rural settlement pattern, and the 6th highest rate of in-migration from other states. Combine all that with more extreme weather and it’s no surprise we’re seeing skyrocketing costs for housing and transportation, along with energy, health care, food, education, and everything else.

Give the charter a read, send us your feedback, and let us know what inspires you to get involved in the comments.

Kevin Sutherland (Town of Newcastle), DeCarlo Brown (City of Auburn) and Traci Gere (Maine House District 9) talk about the municipal property tax pinch on Tuesday afternoon.

2. Fill out the Build Maine community survey

This year, in addition to the conference evaluation form, we’re asking you all for your take on issues like:

What are the biggest barriers to in-town housing production?
What activities should Build Maine lead in addition to the annual conferences?
What Maine’s next governor should do to promote sustainable towns?
Where next year’s conference should be held?

Click here to take the evaluation form and community survey. Even if you didn’t take part in the conference, you can skip through to the community survey. (Note: We tried to do this live at this year’s conference, but technical difficulties1 foiled us.")

3. Build Maine with us!

Do you see yourself in our charter? Did you get excited filling out our survey, or reading others’ responses, and want to get involved yourself?

Our tradition of local walking tours of the host community added a foodie tour of local eateries this year. Where should we go next?

We are seeking volunteers, committee members, local conversation leaders, fundraisers, organizers, creators and party hosts and nerds of all stripes to join us in taking on this one community building challenge. If you’d like to be involved in Build Maine, drop us a line at connect@build-maine.com.

That’s all for now, but watch this space. We’ll be looking for your survey replies to help us decide where to go with this next.

One of the charms of Build Maine is the volunteer-driven, scrappy, pop-up aesthetic. We held this year’s event in a century-old municipal performance hall, the gutted former printing press of the local newspaper, and a pristinely redeveloped former textile mill. When you do that, you may also not have the wifi you need for a live participant feedback mechanism. So be it! That’s why we’d love for you to fill out the survey now.

New building, no parking, no problem

Myles Smith — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 13:17:45 GMT

Portland’s planning board recently approved a mixed-use building with 87 tiny apartments and ground-floor retail for this empty lot at the corner of Congress Street and Washington Ave. But, some worry that building will have no parking at all.

If Portland is to add more housing, keep it affordable, and make downtown more walkable and interesting, we’re going to need people to drive a lot less. This building’s future residents and the surrounding neighborhood may be just right to live car-free or car-light.

Follow Build Maine on Instagram for more. Myles Smith on camera for Build Maine, and big thanks to architectural ideographer Patrick Scanlon for making it look right. Hire this man!

Build Maine 2026 Updates!

Myles Smith — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 15:41:40 GMT

Build Maine returns to Skowhegan on June 2-3 for another two days of some of great ideas on the banks of the Kennebec. Last year, over 250 leaders in the development, municipal, planning, and advocacy fields for land use in Maine participated. We talked about how to grow without giving up all the things that make Maine great, like our clean air and waters, massive forests, and charming people-centered town designs.

We’re still working on how to squeeze all this great content into two short days! The final agenda will be announced soon, and the ticket sales will begin this week.

Here’s some previews of our keynote speakers:

Sarah Goodyear, podcast, author, advocate and former Maine-based journalist and editor, joins us on Wednesday

Sarah Goodyear of the podcast The War on Cars will join us to discuss her new book, Life After Cars. Maine is one of the most car-dependent states in the nation, with our far-flung settlements, small cities and towns, and chronic underinvestment in public transportation, very few trips in Maine are taken by any means other than a private vehicle. We built a sprawling, expensive highway and road system with generous federal subsidies and a growing population, but that money has dried up. The distance cost of infrastructure like roads, pipes, and services is squeezing our municipalities. Already 30% of Maine’s population - over 400,000 people - do not drive, and must rely on family, friends, taxis, or very limited public transportation to get around. The high personal and climate costs of driving is also turning more young people away from driving. Meanwhile, southern Maine is growing quickly, and we’re not making more land for people to drive and park. What does Maine do about this? Are we prepared for Life After Cars?