For Lewiston’s strategic planning to bear fruit, it must not repeat prior work. It must embrace fresher approaches toward the city’s future prosperity. This means turning the city inside out.

This means looking away from downtown, an inevitable focal point of planning discussions. Downtown Lewiston doesn’t need more planning efforts. (Been there. Done that. Got the documents to prove it.)

What it needs are infrastructure upgrades (to improve traffic flow, parking, streetscapes), housing renewal projects (to either renovate or tear down decaying or vacant buildings), and, most important, a decision on Bates Mill No. 5.

Until the fate of that building is decided, downtown’s path is unclear. The mill is, anatomically speaking, the heart of the district. Its vitality as a renovation site or development site is critical to the health of the body.

The building is either in the mix, or in the way. Whatever is ultimately decided about Mill No. 5 will determine downtown’s future course more than any strategic plan.

Because of this, it makes best sense for the strategic planning to divert attention away from downtown as much as possible. The city’s fortunes are not dependent on that one neighborhood.

Most of the city’s competitive advantages – aside from the Androscoggin River, a most underutilized resource – are not “downtown.” Four come to mind: Bates College, USM-LAC and Central Maine and St. Mary’s medical centers. (Andover College, another advantage that should be mentioned, is downtown.)

Transportation and industrial advantages, namely Maine Turnpike Exit 80 and the industrial park, are not downtown, nor are leading commercial corridors (outer Lisbon Street, Main Street, East Avenue, Sabattus Street).

Ensuring sustainability of those advantages, especially the colleges and hospitals, is critical to Lewiston’s course, whether five years on, or 50. The strategic plan must dovetail with the future plans of those organizations.

What’s good for them is good for the city, and vice versa. In this changing Maine, higher education and health care are no longer complementary services in a community, but rather their economic and social foundation.

Traditional economic centers – like a downtown – are now complementary. The vibrant downtowns Lewiston might emulate are a mixed-bag of cultural, commercial, social and residential uses. But this downtown isn’t there yet.

Which is why, though attention is needed, a tight focus on downtown in this strategic plan would be shortsighted.

The city wants to spotlight its competitive advantages. It has plenty to consider.

And right now, the last thing downtown needs is more planning.