In the public eye: Windham’s Planning Director Amanda Lessard values community input, open communication

Amanda Lessard has worked in planning for 12 years, including
five years as a planner for Windham before becoming the town's
Planning Director two years ago. COURTESY PHOTO

By Elizabeth Richards

Editor’s note: This is another in an ongoing series of Windham and Raymond town employee profiles.

The varied nature of her position is what Amanda Lessard, Planning Director for the Town of Windham, likes most.  “Essentially, the planning department is working to help the community address issues and priorities,” she said, including both short and long term goals.

In addition to reviewing subdivision plans and commercial building to determine what’s best for the community in the short term, she said, the department works on the long range vision for what the community wants to be in 10 or 20 years.  “Windham is a fast-growing community, and the Greater Portland area has lots of things happening related to that growth,” Lessard said.  The planning department is working on some large projects, such as transportation and wastewater in North Windham, to help guide where growth will happen and how it will be managed, she said.

Last year, Lessard said, the department focused on the open space plan. “We recognized that being able to conserve and preserve some of these rural parts of Windham that are important to people are something that we need to clearly identify and articulate what the community wants to see happen,” she said.  The council adopted the open space plan in February, and a committee is now working on implementation.

In the next year, Lessard said, the department will work with the Town of Gorham on a master plan for the South Windham/Little Falls Village to bring more focus on what the future of that area of Windham will look like.

She said the numerous decisions and viewpoints on how to use the land in Windham – including environmental science, community, and economic viability and impact – are of great interest to her.  “When you start talking to people about it, people really care about how the land is being conserved,” she said.

Lessard came to community planning after working for the Maine Department of Transportation. With an undergraduate degree in geography, she said, “I always studied that intersection of people and the environment.”  Her specialty in GIS mapping led to her first job at the DOT. While working there, she had an opportunity to take community planning classes at the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine, which sparked her interest in working at a municipal level, she said. She’s worked in planning for 12 years, including five years as a planner in Windham before becoming the Planning Director two years ago.

The planning department is constantly striving to find better ways to communicate issues and encourage discussion, Lessard said.  While this past year has been difficult for interactive processes, they’ve tried to move forward and find ways to keep engagement up.  Open communication between members of the community is important to her, she said, so that people understand what is really happening in town government.

A mapping function has been added to the planning department’s web page, Lessard said, to show where projects are under review. This is just one more resource to let people know what’s happening in the town.  Often, she said, people don’t know about a project until construction begins. They speak up when they see new construction or are immediately impacted by proposed development near them, she said.

“I think it is in everyone’s best interest to be able to have residents be able to understand what the process is and how to participate in a meaningful way to shape what a development will look like,” Lessard said.  This includes engagement in the big picture topics as well as site specific development, she said.  

As the planning director, Lessard said, she helps articulate what she hears from the public and a planning perspective to the town council.  In order to do so, feedback is essential.  “I want people to feel like they can call the office and talk to a person about what their concerns are about what’s happening. There’s a lot happening in Windham but we’re very accessible to talk about what’s going on,” she said. “I certainly appreciate feedback on how we can be more accessible.”

Lessard lives in Westbrook with her husband and son.  When not at work, she said she enjoys spending time at their family camp on an island. She and her family also kayak often, as well as participating in other forms of outdoor recreation.  Her professional and personal interests led to her becoming a volunteer water steward with the Presumpscot Regional Land Trust. <