AUGUSTA — Tom Keefe received a letter back in October: Central Maine Power Co., his neighbor across Old Winthrop Road and the largest utility in Maine, planned to build a new structure on the site.
The facility would cover nearly an acre and house CMP’s transmission team, the letter said, and the plan would be considered by the Augusta Planning Board at a meeting later that month. It’d be the second large building on the site, which sits in the middle of a quiet, single-family neighborhood.
Keefe was furious — first, that such a facility was being proposed at all, and second, that CMP didn’t seek input from neighbors on the development.
And when he showed up to the October planning board meeting, he learned many of his neighbors were mad, too.
Aaron Sienkiewicz told the board how the clear-cutting of forest behind his house would impact the light and noise his young family sees from the new facility. Mary Barnes and Alex Kesterson were concerned about traffic, which had already been impacted by construction on Western Avenue. Eric Malone, who owns property bordered on two sides by CMP, didn’t think the project fit in the quiet neighborhood.
“It was actually one of the most beautiful things about local politics and local government,” Keefe said. “Here are these neighbors who actually don’t know each other and come from different walks of life, and we all showed up at the same meeting on Oct. 14.”
At-Large City Councilor Annalee Morris-Polley made the point that stuck with the planning board, though: Augusta’s comprehensive plan explicitly discourages city officials from allowing “commercial encroachment” on low-density residential areas, like Old Winthrop Road.
Unanimously, the board decided to table CMP’s proposal. Hold a neighborhood meeting, solicit input from residents and come back with something better, planning board chair Robert Corey instructed the applicants.
CMP held the neighborhood meeting Tuesday evening at the building already on the site.
Expansion needed
Greg Thompson, CMP’s community relations manager, opened the neighborhood meeting by explaining the need for the new building.
The transmission team, he said, has outgrown the back corner of the 1957 structure, given increased staff and needs for transmission line upkeep. CMP has about 53 new miles of transmission line after the completion of the New England Clean Energy Connect project this month.
Storage needs are straining the facility, and the 40-plus-acre site serves as a hub for deliveries and line work, so it makes operational sense to have a second building there, Thompson said.
Thompson then addressed the biggest question raised by abutters and planning board members in October: putting the building somewhere else on the site, or elsewhere in Augusta.
The new building can’t move to the other side of the existing structure, Thompson said, because of protected wetlands. North wasn’t an option either — a pole yard would need environmental remediation and trucks could back into each other. To the east, the property line cuts in, and the grade gets too sharp. At CMP’s Edison Drive headquarters, about 1 1/2 miles west, Thompson said the utility was planning to build a training facility, taking up the remaining space on that lot.
Old Winthrop Road is the only option on CMP property in Augusta, he said.
Frustratingly for Keefe, Thompson’s presentation was almost exactly the same as the October planning board proposal, prepared by Jim Morin of LaBella Associates. The trees would still be thinned near the Sienkiewicz’s property. Traffic was still a concern, and the facility still didn’t fit well in the neighborhood, residents said.
“You know our concerns,” Keefe said. “It’s in the video testimony that’s still accessible on the city website. You don’t need to have a meeting to know our concerns. You know our concerns. The meeting should have been — we heard your concerns, here’s how we’re addressing them.”
More frustrating, he said, was that CMP attempted to get on the agenda for the planning board’s January meeting, which is scheduled for Jan. 13, a week after this neighborhood meeting. That detail, he said, makes it seem like the neighborhood meeting was for show, and nothing more.
“So, you’re not coming to the meeting with a new proposal based on the concerns we shared in October — you’re saying, ‘Hey, let’s have a meeting and share your concerns. And, oh, by the way, 100 hours later, we’re going to have a new proposal.’”
The project didn’t make the deadline for the January meeting; CMP will go before the planning board next month.
In a statement, CMP Corporate Communications Manager Cristina Wittman said the modernized infrastructure was essential to the company’s “top priority” of “delivering safe and reliable power to more than 660,000 customers across our 11,000‑square‑mile service territory.”
“We are proposing to build a modern facility, all located on our existing property,” Wittman said. “This new structure will support ongoing system reliability and add approximately $300,000 to Augusta’s local property‑tax base. The project has been carefully designed with respect for our neighbors and the environment by avoiding impacts to wetlands, limiting land clearing, and siting the building close to existing utility infrastructure.
“CMP is committed to continuing the process in close coordination with the town and with our neighbors. We have met with, and intend to maintain, open lines of communication to solicit feedback so this remains a collaborative, community‑focused effort.”
This is not the first time CMP’s Old Winthrop Road site has caused controversy with neighbors. In 1982, after a neighborhood meeting on a proposed expansion on the site, residents complained the new building would impact safety and traffic in the area. Residents also pointed to CMP’s storage of likely carcinogenic material on the site.
Good neighbors?
Stephanie Sienkiewicz, an at-large city councilor who lives with her family directly east of CMP’s proposed development, still wasn’t convinced by the end of Tuesday’s meeting.
Since moving to the house five years ago, CMP has been a good neighbor, she said, addressing issues quickly when they arise. A new building would add tax revenue and economic development for the city, too.
But she said she agreed with Keefe: Not holding a neighborhood meeting before going to the planning board was a trust-breaking move, she said.
Now, Sienkiewicz said she’s concerned about issues that may not need city approval — how many more staff, trucks and loud gates CMP will add to the facility.
“CMP developing in the city of Augusta is a good thing for the city of Augusta,” she said. “And I think I’m understanding that parts of this development are efficient for this property because there are pieces already here that need cover, or the people are here. Balancing that with — I think it’s important to protect the residential neighborhoods because it’s too easy to chip away at them over time. And that each chip seems like it’s worth it in the moment until you get to five or 10 years out.”
The area is zoned for low-density residential, and CMP has applied for a conditional use under that classification. Low-density residential zoning, Augusta’s ordinances say, is intended to “encourage the development of attractive neighborhood living.”
This project does not advance that goal, she said — nor does it fit with the city’s comprehensive plan, which calls for protecting neighborhoods on Augusta’s western side from “further encroachment of businesses is critical to maintaining livability, long term security for residential investment, and historic character.”
CMP will need to address those issues when it returns to the planning board on Feb. 10.
The new building proposal hasn’t yet been finalized, Thompson said, and resident feedback will be taken into account — especially on limiting light pollution, increasing security and improving landscaping and vegetation thickness. A location change is unlikely.
Keefe is still frustrated. To him, the situation is indicative of CMP’s power dynamic with the residents.
“I go back to, like, ‘We’re CMP, we’re a big company, we’re a billionaire company from Spain that owns your utilities, and we’re just going to do what we want to do.’” Keefe said. “That’s how everything feels.”
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Ethan Horton can be reached at ehorton@centralmaine.com.