Sara Bronin is the founder of the National Zoning Atlas, a George Washington University law professor and author of “Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World.”

Over the last few years, the nonprofit National Zoning Atlas team has set out to map every zoning code in America to do one simple thing: let the public see how their communities regulate land. We developed this goal because zoning rules can have big impacts: they dictate to property owners what they can do with their properties. 
 
Before we started work in Maine last spring, we would have never guessed that Maine’s codes would be the most bureaucratic and convoluted of the 30-plus states we’ve worked. We thought that Maine’s relatively small population and few urban centers — not to mention its proud commitment to property rights and personal freedom — would mean the codes would be short and straightforward. 
 
We couldn’t have been more wrong. 
 
We can say authoritatively that Maine’s zoning is far out of the norm because we’ve analyzed zoning conditions in nearly 9,000 cities, towns and counties across America, and we’ve read over a million pages of zoning codes. We’ve become experts in analyzing the arcana of minimum lot sizes, setbacks, height caps and parking mandates. 
 
In Maine, we started first in Washington County. More recently, through a partnership with GrowSmart Maine, we’ve completed analysis of zoning in and around Portland. 
 
Well, mostly completed. Of the 123 jurisdictions we have reviewed so far (of Maine’s 496 total with zoning authority), 17 never provided a full copy of their zoning text, map or both. 
 
The texts we could find — totaling 17,500 pages — revealed that Maine appears to have some of the longest zoning codes in the country. New Hampshire, with roughly the same population, has half the number of jurisdictions exercising zoning, and zoning codes half as long as Maine’s. 
 
And when we located maps, some existed only as grainy, pixelated PDFs with faded lines and unclear boundaries. Others existed only in paper copy, not online. 
 
What’s worse, Maine piles “shoreland zoning” on top of zoning. Shoreland zoning was created to protect water quality, but it’s hard to see how it achieves this goal. Zoning maps and shoreland zoning maps often conflict or don’t match up, and too often codes refer to outdated or inconsistent data about wetlands and watercourses. Even analysts who had handled notoriously complicated coastal zoning in California struggled to make sense of Maine’s regime. 
 
When we had questions about interpreting texts and maps, we often had nowhere to turn. That’s because many of the 123 jurisdictions were very small towns, with part-time staff, or no staff at all. If our trained analysts cannot make sense of the rules, and no one’s on the other end of the line, it’s unrealistic to expect homeowners, builders or neighbors to do so. We imagine that many well-intentioned local officials feel caught administering systems that no one fully understands. 
 
State legislators have taken action on zoning — primarily to promote more housing. They recently expanded opportunities for multifamily housing and made it easier to build accessory dwelling units. These are laudable and necessary reforms. Our analysis so far shows that only 15% of residential land allows multi-family housing by right, and more than half of single-family land bans accessory dwellings. 
 
But legislators have not tackled a more fundamental need exposed by our Maine Zoning Atlas: to simplify and clarify the state’s land use regulatory framework. Property owners and policymakers alike experience zoning as a maze, where they must navigate missing information, conflicting requirements and procedural runaround. 
 
To provide a way out, next legislative session, state lawmakers should consider requiring zoning codes to be available to the public online. Or requiring maps to be legible, with shoreland zoning clearly mapped. How can people be bound by rules they cannot find, or understand? 
 
Legislators should also consider legalizing — and providing incentives for — local governments to share resources in land use administration. Small towns might be more empowered to achieve their land use goals if they have the tools and manpower they need to interpret and enforce their own zoning codes. Legislators might also rethink shoreland zoning altogether. 
 
I’d like to say our nonprofit is eager to find funding to finish our analysis in Maine. But honestly, it’s been a bit of a nightmare.

For the sake of our team — and anyone else trying to make sense of zoning in Maine — I urge people in power to take action to streamline the state’s regulatory framework. There’s just no reason Maine’s land use rules should be the most complicated in the country. 

ORONO — Alfond Arena has long been among the toughest rinks in college hockey for opponents to come in and win. Barely two months into the season, though, the refurbished building hasn’t been its typical cozy home for the Black Bears.

Maine lost to New Hampshire 1-0 at Alfond Arena on Friday night. The Wildcats improved to 8-7 overall, 4-4 in Hockey East. Maine is now 8-6-1 overall, 5-4 in conference play. The teams will meet again Saturday night at Alfond.

It was Maine’s third loss in nine games at Alfond Arena this season, giving the Black Bears more home losses than in each of the last two full seasons. It was the first time Maine was shutout at home since Feb. 24, 2024, a 4-0 loss to Northeastern.

“We don’t have that next level of push in our team right now. It’s not that we don’t have good players and can’t do some things. We can,” Maine coach Ben Barr said. “Right now, the honest truth is, we don’t have a very good culture in our room, and that starts with me.”

The Wildcats scored the lone goal at 4:14 of the third period when Cam MacDonald recovered a Maine turnover at the New Hampshire blue line, skated untouched down the ice and slipped a shot over the glove of Black Bear goalie Mathis Rousseau.

Maine outshot UNH 21-14, and 9-1 in a dominant first period in which the Black Bears controlled play and did everything but put the puck in the net.

“I think sometimes it’s almost a scary feeling when you come out in that first period playing as well as we did and not coming away with anything. You feel like it’s a missed opportunity,” said Thomas Freel, a Maine captain.

Rousseau made 14 saves. Kyle Chauvette stopped 21 shots to earn the shutout.