City moving ahead with economic development efforts

July 13, 2006
By Greta Sproul

Economic development was the key topic on the agenda at a meeting of the Old Town city council Monday night. Council members approved a variety of expenditures including an amount not to succeed $100,000 that would be used to hire OEST Associates, a South Portland design firm, for the creation of a proposed commerce park at Old Town Dewitt Airfield.

"Six design firms submitted proposals, and we interviews four of them," Peggy Daigle, city manager said. "We decided to go with OEST."
In coming up with a design for the park, OEST is expanding on a concept first developed in June and September of 2005. Preliminary plans would include "an aproximate 98.000 square feet of additional office and hangar that may be developed on the site in addition to some overflow parking areas."

The concept plan would be used for marketing as well as to entice other businesses to the area, Daigle said. In creating the design for the park, the surrounding wetlands would be utilized as an enhancement to the site, keeping the park as "green as possible" in order to maintain its aesthetic appeal, as well as providing a sound buffer for airport activity.
"The goal is to show the aviation world that this is a place to come to," Daigle said.
The money used for the design of the park would be taken out of the Industrial Business Park Reserve account.

The same account would be the source for an amount of no more than $44,500 to hire the James W. Sewall Company to design an industrial park on Penny Road. In a memo to the Council, Daigle explained that the general plan " is to sub-divide the property into larger plots for industrial development but to include the University as a potential player with part of this being a research and development park for their spin-offs as well as providing a third means of transportation egress from the Hilltop area of the University to Main Street in Old Town."

In the same memo, Daigle referenced communication with the Water Company concerning the possibility of having a water main extended from Stillwater through the Penny Road and into the water main on Main Street.
"The water company is interested but concerned on how they will fund the improvements," she wrote, "There currently is a water line going to the Whittier Farm on the University and we could also extend from that point."

Topping the night's agenda was the approval of an amount not to succeed $32,000 for the creation of an Impact Fee Zone on Stillwater Avenue. The creation of the impact fee zone would be undertaken by the James W. Sewall Company, which would be responsible for assessing the fees to be used for future development of the Stillwater area. The money made from the fees would, in turn, go toward the improvement of the roads.
"Developers generally prefer an impact fee zone," Michael Waugh, senior traffic engineer for the Sewall company, said. "When they're in an impact fee zone, they know what to expect and what needs to be done."

Waugh pointed out that impact fee zones have been used successfully in other cities, such as Brewer, where half of the cost of Dirigo Drive was paid for by impact fees. The creation of an impact fee zone is also a good way to show the Maine DOT that Old Town is taking steps to move ahead with its economic development, Daigle pointed out.
"If we don't do this, the DOT might start rejecting requests for development in the area," she said.

The creation of the zone would not affect existing businesses unless they expanded. Funding for the project would come from Juniper Ridge Landfill account.
Other business addressed at Monday's meeting included approval of an amount not to succeed $20,000 cover additional expenditures relating to the G-P mill closure, and an amendment to the approval of a request from the VFW to erect a temporary fence outside of their establishment behind which members could consume alcohol. In their request, the VFW proposed the erecting of a 4 foot fence. The Council amended the height of the fence to 6 feet, citing concerns by the Old Town police department that a 4 foot fence was too low to prevent alcohol from being passed over it.