LINCOLN, Maine — The recent discovery of wetlands on the town’s proposed industrial park site will not render it undevelopable, but it may make its development more costly, officials said Tuesday.
Town officials are considering wetland mitigation — in which the industrial-park wetlands could be eliminated if compensatory wetlands are created elsewhere — as one of several options, according to David Lloyd, manager of the municipal airport that adjoins the industrial site.
Wetlands can be created through the digging of shallow pools and planting of vegetation, but it can be expensive, Lloyd said. Estimates have not been developed.
Others include the purchase of more land near the site for development, according to Ruth Birtz, the town’s code enforcement supervisor and economic development coordinator.
The wetlands “are not significant enough to forgo any plans we might have to develop the area,” Birtz said Monday. “There is plenty of land out there for development.”
Apparently developed within the last few years through naturally occurring runoff, the wetlands were discovered in April. They sit on an approximately 60-acre site between River Road and the airport off Flyaway Drive that town officials hope to purchase and convert into an industrial park.
The site, which also is near West Broadway, is owned by the Edwards family. It has been a key element of the town’s master plan for light industrial manufacturing development along River Road and near the airport since 1988.
Town officials feared the wetlands were environmentally significant enough to prohibit the development of much of the park.
Since the summer, Moyse Environmental Services of Bangor has been mapping the site. A preliminary-draft map Moyse gave to the town Oct. 14 shows about 20 wetland areas on either side of Flyaway, which bisects the park land.
What looks like a quarter of the total park area remains unexamined. Two intermittent streams run through the unexamined areas, which are in the northernmost portion of the industrial site and west of the airport.
If the town seeks land-purchase grants, the Federal Aviation Administration and state could reimburse the town for all but 5 percent of purchase costs, Birtz said.
The town has incrementally been pursuing its plans to develop the industrial park in concert with plans to bring water and sewer service to River Road, widen West Broadway and maximize the airport’s economic potential. The plans call for the eventual purchase of the land. Town officials are researching grants to help pay for the purchase, Birtz said.
The Edwards family have been marketing the property for the last few months, Birtz said. Several entities are interested in buying it.
“We are one of the interested parties, and they told us that we are not alone,” Birtz said. “They are in a competitive situation.”
Town plans for the industrial site have been recently buoyed by the re-emergence of PK Floats, an aircraft-float manufacturing firm that closed about two years ago, when its owner died. Lincoln officials recently added three-phase power to the site to make it more developable. The town also has installed an aviation fuel pump station at the airport that in its first two weeks has sold more than 1,000 gallons and earned about $1,000 profit, Lloyd said.
Lloyd cautioned against expecting to draw $24,000 in profit annually, saying he expected revenues to decline somewhat once the novelty of the new service recedes.
“It would be foolish of us to say that. This is all new. We don’t know,” Lloyd said Tuesday.
Lloyd expects profits more in the $10,000 to $15,000 range annually, which, if true — and if all that money was reinvested into the airport — would make the airport self-sufficient for the first time in its history. Town officials have been working toward that goal for eight years, Lloyd said.
The wetland studies are not finalized. Town officials hope to receive final reports within the next several weeks.