SCENIC
LANDSCAPES: BEAUTY IN THE EYE OF THE
BEHOLDER?
Fred Koerber
w 798-5500
“The entrance to Brunswick in
every direction is peculiarly striking and novel. As you approach from the north...the village...bursts like magic
upon your view. I know of no place, I
have seen, that exhibits itself to so much advantage in an instant.” With these words, an 1820 visitor from
South Carolina described his arrival in downtown Brunswick. How valuable are our scenic assets to the
residents of the community?
Citizens appreciate the clean and
well-manicured mall, the colorful petunias and hanging baskets on Maine Street,
the Congregationalist Church illuminated at night on top of the hill. These contribute to a visual presentation
that defines the quality of life and reveals the prized village assets. The visual resources of Brunswick extend
well beyond Maine Street and a lot about a community can be determined by how
it looks.
According to Holly Dominie, a
landscape architect from Manchester, eighty percent of human perception is
based on the visual environment.
Dominie notes that a majority of people share general agreement on the
most and least scenic visual preferences.
The determinants for establishing highly prized visual settings tend to
include elements such as:
·
presence
of a water view
·
boundaries,
including lines that divide fields and woods
·
trees
and other natural vegetation
·
a
rural context.
As communities have created plans to
assess and preserve their visual heritage there have been successes and
failures. Cape Elizabeth’s initial
attempt was ambitious and perhaps too restrictive. Although concerned about the need to protect visual assets, the
community did not adopt the ambitious comprehensive scenic plan that it had
developed.
Other towns have been more
successful. Wiscasset and Woolwich
solicited citizen input to make decisions about the visual future of their
communities. Islesboro established priorities
for preserving key views. Falmouth has
an extensive visual component woven into its comprehensive plan. These approaches have succeeded, perhaps,
because they do not legislate personal preferences nor is scenic regulation
viewed as an infringement upon people’s property rights.
How will Brunswick address the
preservation of it visual assets? Each
resident and visitor holds in their mind pictures of special scenic landscapes,
water vistas, or bucolic settings that exemplify the best of our community. Brunswick’s diverse visual assets include
village, coastal, and rural scenes.
These may be comprised of:
·
Natural
Features - undeveloped or naturally appearing places such as islands,
estuaries, hills, river or ocean vistas.
·
Scenic
Roads - that wind and change elevation, are canopied by trees, are open or
wooded.
·
Cultural
Landmarks - visually prominent places of historic value or places of renowned
and distinctive architecture.
·
Activity
Centers - areas of visual interest where people work in natural resource-based
industries (such as farms or the
Farmers’ Market) or where people play (such as parks, playing fields, or the bike path)
·
Gateways
- entrances to the community, the village, or a neighborhood.
Scenic assets become more important when
they have been lost. As our community
grows what valuable scenic roads, vistas, and gateways should we look to
preserve? Once identified, how will we
protect them without trampling on the property rights of citizens? It is compelling for Brunswick to weigh the
future of the visual resources that define our community.
