ROCKLAND, Maine — A proposed new $25.5 million vocational school to serve the midcoast will need a tweak to the city’s zoning laws if it is to be built.
The Region 8 Cooperative Board is working on plans for constructing a new Mid-Coast School of Technology in the rear of the property where the current regional vocational school is located. The current site is the only option left for a new complex after a proposal to build on Route 1 in Warren was scuttled because of a state law that restricts schools on main highways where the speed limit is 45 mph or faster.
The current site at 1 Main St. in Rockland is located in a waterfront zone. The city’s current zoning laws allow for an educational institution to be located in a waterfront zone, but only if its primary goal is marine-related.
Rockland City Manager James Chaousis said he is proposing the council amend the waterfront zone so that an educational institution must only have a portion of its function be marine-related in order to be located there.
The vocational school board hopes to have final design and cost plans presented to it by June. A tentative schedule calls for a referendum in November of all the communities served by Region 8. That includes every community in Knox County as well as the Lincoln County towns of Waldoboro and Monhegan and the Waldo County towns of Lincolnville and Islesboro.
The Rockland property consists of 7 acres on the waterfront. The 57,000-square-foot building was built in 1968 as a marine repair shop. The Region 8 Cooperative Board purchased the property in 1976, and the vocational center opened for students in 1977.
Lavallee Brensinger Architects concluded in a report to the vocational school board in January 2015 that the Rockland building was not worth renovating.
The new 90,000-square-foot school would be built behind the existing building, which would be demolished.
The vocational school zone change is one of two zone change proposals to come before the council this month. The council will discuss the pair of proposed changes Monday night, with a possible preliminary vote on March 14.
The second proposed zone change would allow for auto repair shops to be allowed in a commercial zone and to change an area located at the intersection of Pleasant and Belvidere streets to change from a transitional business to a commercial zone.
A house is located at the intersection but the owner has been unable to sell it as a residence because it is next to commercial activities. The change would allow the property to be sold and to be used potentially as an auto repair shop.