Lifestyles, communications, economies, and communities are experiencing profound transformations which present a full range of both economic opportunities and challenges for our northern New England cities, towns and neighborhoods.

The conventional way of accessing goods, services, and information is changing for the new; the way we communicate and connect with each other is new; the speed, tempo and intimacy with which we interact with each other is new; downtowns are changing; malls are changing; auto-oriented commercial strip corridors are changing; workplaces are changing; transportation is changing; regional populations are changing; the city of Auburn, Maine proclaims the civic motto “Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum” – “No Steps Backward” and enthusiastically welcomes enlightened and positive economic change!

The city of Auburn is dedicated to all high-quality development whether in our historic downtown district, in our world-class industrial and enterprise parks, in our commercial retail auto-corridors, and in our distinctive urban, suburban and rural neighborhoods and districts.

The new 100-acre Auburn Enterprise Park has been under construction the past year and is scheduled to open in spring 2015, with strong interest from prospective international, national and regional industrial and manufacturing companies to locate therein.

The New Auburn Land Use and Transportation Plan process dynamically engaged the entire New Auburn community to vision, plan and better design this distinctive urban neighborhood at the confluence of the Androscoggin and Little Androscoggin rivers for a 21st-century urban lifestyle.

Construction of the magnificent Norway Savings Bank Ice Arena was completed this past year, opening to noteworthy community and regional acclaim. This 21st-century recreational and athletic facility today serves as a community focal point strengthening Auburn’s community and social cohesion, encouraging active and healthy lifestyles, attracting young professional families, and established as a place where lifetime family memories and friendships are made. The Auburn community thanks Norway Savings Bank for their civic leadership and community-based vision in sponsoring our new and beloved ice arena.

New, quality commercial and retail developments for the past year included the coming of the Sports Authority and Harbor Freight Tools, and 2014 will see the coming of the Hobby Lobby, all demonstrating the strength and national reputation of Auburn as an outstanding location for retail enterprise.

“Let us bring about the social, cultural, and economic renaissance of Downtown Auburn!” emerged as the civic rally cry for the year of 2013. The year 2014 will witness the launch of the Downtown Auburn Form-Based Code community-process; the comprehensive historic restoration of several landmark buildings, the creation of both affordable and market rate new downtown residential dwellings, the production of a New Urbanist downtown connectivity and walkablity strategy, the design and construction of a new downtown transportation center, the creation of innovative GIS heritage-based “story-mapping” products, and the continuing advancement of the “Economics of Place.” Keep your eye on downtown Auburn.

The city of Auburn is youthful in spirit, energetic in attitude, dynamic in action, eternally ready to embrace the future, and always confident about what positive change tomorrow may bring!

As Maine poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow expressed in his poem “Keramos” —

“Turn, turn, my wheel! All things must change

To something new, to something strange;

Nothing that is can pause or stay;

The moon will wax, the moon will wane,

The mist and cloud will turn to rain,

The rain to mist and cloud again,

To-morrow be to-day.”

(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – Keramos, 1878)

The city of Auburn, Maine is a place where “To-morrow be to-day.”