OLD TOWN, Maine — One draft plan for reusing the approximately six-acre former Old Town Canoe factory site is all business, another combines retail and residential space, and a third offers a gathering place with parks and recreation areas and a farmers market.
Those are the concepts put together by engineering firm Wright-Pierce from thoughts residents shared at a public meeting in November and through 125 surveys submitted about a master plan in the works for the center of the city.
“We tried to take several ideas and group them into three concepts,” Travis Pryor, project manager for Wright-Pierce, said as about 30 people made their way Monday night into the second of three public meetings.
The draft ideas are just that, ideas, he said, adding that while only the public space plan has a farmers market, it doesn’t mean one couldn’t be incorporated into the mixed-use development plan for the full business buildout concept.
“I want a dog park here and a microbrewery here,” said Lee Jackson, a UMaine student and member of the Regional School Unit 34 board, while looking at the public space concept design, which features a 2,500-square-foot vending space with public bathrooms, an outdoor recreational area, trails, a community garden and a couple of small businesses.
The full business buildout concept has two larger buildings, approximately 50,000 to 100,000 square feet, for a hotel or major retailer, or a group of incubator businesses, with residential housing and 400 parking spaces.
The mixed-use development concept has three buildings, approximately 20,000 to 25,000 square feet, that have small businesses on the bottom floor and residential space on the second floor, a pocket park in the center and 225 parking spots.
“I like the mixed use, but I think there needs to be a larger draw like a Renys,” a man in the back of the group said. “I think you need an anchor retailer to get them there.”
After Pryor’s presentation about the draft plans, residents asked questions about how to attract business to the area.
“Who attracts those people?” a man in the first row said. He said he wanted to know if the city was going to provide any incentives, such as giving the land to businesses.
“I’m just curious if the city was leaning in one direction or another,” he said.
Pryor replied there were a number of options that usually start with marketing the area through the city’s economic development office.
The city also is working to attract business downtown by creating a tax increment financing district, Ron Harriman, the city’s economic development director, told those in attendance.
The gathering was held to get feedback from residents about the concepts as a final plan is scheduled to be prepared this spring.
“We need to put pen to paper and make some recommendations on the clearer consensus of what the community wants,” Pryor said. “The goal for this is to be an actionable plan.”
The third public meeting on the drafts is scheduled for March. Draft plans will be presented to the Town Council in April and the final concept for the downtown plan is expected in May.