Michael Burman is currently serving as Saco’s Ward 4 city councilor. He has lived in Saco since 2010 and has two children attending Thornton Academy.

At the end of my second term as city councilor for Saco’s Ward 4, I made the difficult decision not to run again. I’m reflecting on the progress the city has made over the past six years that I’ve been on council, and where I think we need to go to meet the challenges ahead.

Municipal government moves slowly by design. We don’t want the results of a single election to dramatically change how the city operates. And yet, Saco must begin moving more quickly to address the issues we face.

Southern Maine, and New England as a whole, changed dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. We saw a large influx of people leaving metropolitan areas and moving to places like southern Maine, where the cost of living was lower, the quality of life higher and remote work possible.

This influx of people and wealth strained our housing market by driving up demand and prices. While this trend is not unique to our region, we are feeling its impact acutely. Importantly, I don’t anticipate this demand decreasing — rather, it will continue to grow, though perhaps at a slower pace. Addressing housing affordability is urgent if we want our residents and our children to be able to live here.

We are also feeling the effects of climate change. In January 2024, we experienced unprecedented back-to-back 100-year storms — the first and fourth largest storms in recorded history — within a single week. While we have been fortunate in 2025, science tells us that what we once called 100-year storms will occur more frequently, perhaps even annually. We must be prepared. The coastline is central to Saco’s history and identity. It is also a major economic and cultural driver for our community.

Saco is taking these concerns seriously. The city has revisited and updated many of our planning procedures. We launched a new comprehensive plan, updated our zoning, and are partnering with county, state and federal governments on coastal resilience projects to better withstand future storms. We are building new schools and a new wastewater treatment plant, upgrading our water and sewer infrastructure, and for the first time since I joined council, our police and fire departments are fully staffed.

This is real and important progress — but it has been slow. Population growth is a bit like compound interest: growth of 3-4% a year adds up quickly. Imagine a 50% increase in residents within 10-12 years. Where will that traffic go? Where will people park? Where will they live? How will they get to the beach, to schools, or to work? We need to begin preparing today. Our traffic flow, especially on arterial roads, must be rethought. Development needs to be directed to areas where it will least disrupt what makes Saco special.

We also need to actively shape this growth. Saco has a long history as a bedroom community of single-family homes. This model is expensive, as our taxpaying residents know. Each student costs $8,000-12,000 per year to educate. Families make heavy use of city services, parks and recreation. New roads require plowing and maintenance. Sewer lines, police and fire coverage all add costs. We simply cannot recover enough in taxes on a single-family house to offset these expenses. Allowing unchecked sprawl in rural areas will only raise everyone’s taxes.

In contrast, dense downtown development — with smaller 1-2-bedroom units that attract retirees or young professionals — brings in customers and labor for our businesses without overburdening our schools and infrastructure. These projects help stabilize taxes and spread the financial responsibility more fairly. Saco must shift from identifying solely as a “bedroom community” and embrace a broader vision as a commercial hub, retirement destination and launchpad for young professionals. And we must do this urgently.

We also need to continue preparing for climate change. Our community must have a serious conversation about the future of the coast and river. We are currently working on a beach management plan, but we also need a broader vision for the shoreline, riverfront, fisheries and green space.

Saco is “friendly by nature,” but it’s time to define what that means. What should be developed? What should be conserved? To answer this, we need both economic development plans and open space/conservation plans that guide our investments. Without them, decisions will continue to be made in an ad hoc way.

Saco citizens need to look forward in this election. We cannot keep doing what we’ve always done. I encourage all citizens to support candidates who are rooted in our history — but also bring the new ideas and perspectives we need to prepare for the future.