Samantha Horn will lead the Maine Office of Community Affairs. (Provided by the Governor’s Office)
Mainers are contending with the impacts of climate change, housing shortages and population growth. Gov. Janet Mills announced on Thursday a new official who will be tasked with unlocking future opportunities to support local communities in addressing these complex challenges.
Mills selected Samantha Horn, an expert in land use and natural resource policy and planning, to serve as director of a new office called the Maine Office of Community Affairs, funding for which was included in the supplemental budget passed this spring.
“As the Maine Office of Community Affairs takes shape, we will focus on coordinating the delivery of technical assistance and grants so communities can spend more time on local projects, and less time navigating state programs,” Horn wrote in a statement Thursday.
Scheduled to begin the role in late October, Horn currently runs her own consulting business, Braided Planet Consulting, and has worked in natural resource policy and planning for three decades, including as director of science for The Nature Conservancy in Maine and as a division manager for the Maine Land Use Planning Commission.
Aside from the hiring of Horn, the office will retain current state staff and reorganize existing programs and resources. The Community Resilience Partnership, Maine Floodplain Program, Municipal Planning Assistance Program, and Housing Opportunity Program are among those that will be transferred under the new office.
Another newly established office, the State Resiliency Office, will also fall under the Office of Community Affairs’ purview. The State Resiliency Office was supported by a $69 million climate resilience grant awarded to Maine in July by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Those transfers are expected to occur in July 2025, through proposals the governor is seeking to include in the forthcoming biennial budget.
“Communities across Maine are on the frontlines of some of our biggest and most complex challenges – from the lack of housing to the impacts of climate change – and I want them to know they are not alone,” Mills shared in a statement Thursday. “I strongly believe these challenges can be addressed through collaboration and coordination between state government and local governments, which is why this new office will enhance state and local partnerships and offer a one-stop shop for municipal leaders to access valuable state programs and planning assistance.”
There is currently no single state government entity for administering financial and technical assistance programs to help support planning for Maine’s communities. Previously, that type of work had been handled by the State Planning Office, eliminated by former Gov. Paul LePage in 2012.
The Maine Legislature initiated efforts to bring back a central office for such work through a resolve it passed in 2023 directing the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future to review opportunities and structural changes in state government to provide more robust municipal support to Maine communities.
GOPIF collaborated with state agency leaders and staff to conduct focus groups and interviews with municipal representatives and regional planning and development organizations, culminating in a report to the Legislature that recommended the creation of the new office.
A working group the Legislature established through a bill Mills allowed to become law without her signature this year will also inform the work of the Office of Community Affairs. This group, consisting of leaders of various state agencies, is tasked to create a plan for agency coordination that maximizes state resources and promotes smart growth, walkable neighborhoods, mixed-use development and mixed-income housing in high-use corridors.
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