HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-02-08 Planning Board Minutes
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN WORKSHOP
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2005
DOWN EAST SCHOOL
MINUTES
Board Members Present: Robert Guerette, Chairman
Nathaniel Rosenblatt
David Clark
Hal Wheeler
Ryan King
City Staff Present: David Gould
Peter Witham
James Ring
City Councilors Present: Councilor Gratwick
Chairman Guerette indicated that this is the third of four neighborhood
meetings to obtain citizen feed back, impressions, statements and comments
about how things are going in the City of Bangor in terms of how the land is
used within the City’s boundaries. Chairman Guerette asked the Members of the
Planning Board to introduce themselves. Chairman Guerette went on to explain
that the Comprehensive Plan is a collection of information that the City has been
gathering for over, or close to, 50 years. The Comprehensive Plan gets
translated into a document that is intended to provide some very general
guidelines as to how land is used in the City of Bangor such as green areas,
parks, certain types of zones, and where certain types of businesses are allowed
or welcomed. The last Comprehensive Plan was written in 2000 and these plans
are considered 10-year documents. However, the City wants to take a look at
the Comprehensive Plan 2000 to make sure that things that are important are
not being overlooked because there has been a lot of development and activity
in the last five years. While this is not a mandatory review, the Board is very
interested in obtaining comments from citizens to see how they think the City is
managing its land use.
Chairman Guerette explained that the Planning Board Members serve as
volunteers and it is the Board’s function to make certain that the developer has
complied with all of the regulations that the City has for development, planning,
and subdivisions. The Board does not exercise any sort of discretion as to
whether or not they like the project or whether or not they think that a certain
type of store or a business should be located in that area. The Board’s charge is
only to make sure that the application complies with the land code. The land
code could be changed as a result of a Comprehensive Plan review or update
and that is the reason for the workshop to obtain these comments. Chairman
Guerette asked those in the audience to go up to the podium and state their
name and address. He then asked those people who reside in the Quadrant to
speak first, then anyone who lives in other quadrants of the City, and then
anyone who does not live in Bangor. Chairman Guerette indicated that he would
ask David Gould of the Planning Office to provide the Board with some
background information regarding this quadrant. Chairman Guerette also asked
the audience to complete and return the surveys to the Planning Office noting
that they could either fill them out and leave them at the meeting, mail them to
the City, or forward their written comments via e-mail. He noted that the
meeting was being recorded so that the Board could have a record of those
speaking.
Planner David Gould explained the difference between the Comprehensive
Plan and zoning. In the State of Maine, a city’s ability to regulate land use, to
decide where commercial and residential areas go, and to decide minimum lot
sizes comes from the State of Maine. The State of Maine says that if you are a
municipality and you want to do zoning, you have to do it with a Comprehensive
Plan. The zoning has to have some rational basis or some underlying theory as
to why you have zones in different places. That zoning needs to be consistent
with the Comprehensive Plan. Two key elements of the City of Bangor’s
Comprehensive Plan are the Land Use Plan and the Zoning Policy Plan which give
the Board the basis for the actual zoning that property is limited by. The intent
of the neighborhood workshops is to solicit comment for this interim step in
reviewing the existing Comprehensive Plan. This interim look will help the City to
try and catch any trends that may need to be updated before waiting 10 years to
do a more in-depth update. This is the third meeting that the Board has had in
the neighborhoods. There have been many people who have come out and
talked to the Board about traffic in their neighborhood, and about sidewalks in
their neighborhood. Mr. Gould explained that the Planning Board has a limited
role in terms of the overall City development. There are certain applications that
come before them that they can vote on whether the application meets the
standards or does not meet the standards. The Board has some advisory
capacity in terms of making advice on land use policy to the Bangor City Council
but the Planning Board does not lay out and take care of sidewalks and they
don’t manage traffic on their own. The Board has a limited role in this. We are
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happy to hear concerns of neighbors. At the last meeting, one of the people
who came to the meeting said that she needed to go home, but would like the
Board to tell her how they are going to solve all of these problems before she
left. The intent of these meetings is to get input from people and find out what
concerns they have. The Board is going to do this in numerous neighborhoods
and then see if there are changes or adjustments that we need to be made in
the Comprehensive Plan.
Mr. Gould explained that the City of Bangor is a unique city in its setting.
It is an urban service center. A lot of people would recognize that in terms of
the facilities that are here such as major hospitals, numerous nursing homes,
and an abundance of rental housing opportunities that you are not going to find
these in suburban or rural communities. Bangor has a great deal of job growth
in the medical, financial, and technical sectors because of the type of the City
that it is. We have a large supply of State agencies and retail shopping centers,
but overall, the City’s population in the last few decades has actually decreased
in number. In 1990 the City’s population was 33,181 and the 2000 Census
showed the City losing about 1,712 people. One of the underlying reasons for
that decline, as we continue to build new housing, is the number of people in
each individual dwelling unit has been dropping over the last several decades.
While we may lose a house or build a house the number of people per dwelling
unit is going down.
For the purpose of soliciting citizen input, it was decided to divide the City
up into four quadrants. This quadrant is geographically quite large and it nearly
retained its population from 1990 to 2000 but, unlike other quadrants, there
were 130 new housing units in that 10-year period in this quadrant where some
of the others would have lost dwelling units.
Some of the key elements of this quadrant are the industrial areas, Odlin
Road, and 7 of the City’s 10 industrial parks are located in this quadrant. Bangor
International Airport takes up a huge amount of land area in this quadrant, the
University College (UCB) off of Maine Avenue is another significant land use, the
Airport Mall and the Union Street commercial development, the City of Bangor’s
Public Works and the Motor Pool facilities also are located in this quadrant. Both
the Air and Army National Guard facilities, as well as a number of schools
including St. Mary’s School, the Penobscot Christian School, and the Penobscot
Job Corps are also located in this quadrant.
Chairman Guerette asked for comments from the audience and explained
that while this workshop is to solicit citizen input, if there were questions that the
Board could answer, they would.
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Dorothy Pratt, 53 Yankee Avenue, indicated that she has lived in Bangor
approximately 8 years and retired 2 ½ years ago. 20 years before that was, she
was the Principal of Down East School. She chose to move into this
neighborhood to make her commute to school easier. She expressed her
concerns over what the City is calling land use over the last several years. When
she came here, there was a high population of students who received free and
reduced-priced lunches and it seems that as the years went on that the
percentage of those students kept growing and growing. The two areas that had
subsidized housing are what were called “Old Capehart” and “New Capehart.”
What she has seen over the last 20 years is more subsidized housing being built
out in north Bangor and that has a specific effect upon children who live out
there and also a specific effect on the school that tries to provide services. What
she is seeing is that a vast majority of the poor kids live in north Bangor and live
in these neighborhoods. She cautioned those making decisions that when
looking at a housing project, that they look at putting more poor people in north
Bangor and consider if we are clumping our populations so that the haves live in
their section of the City and the have nots live in their section of the City. She
noted that the children who live in this quadrant do not have the recreational
opportunities that the other children have. She noted that in a newspaper article
she read that thought had been given to bussing the east side children to the
west side to use the Pancoe Pool. She said that she challenged anyone to get to
the west side pool or the east side pool from this area on their bicycle, which is
the basic mode of transportation that children have. The two probably most
traveled and dangerous roads in the City are here. She said that the children
here deserve at least what the children in the rest of Bangor deserve and that if
there is going to be transportation, that it be for all of the children in the City. If
there is going to be a new pool then it should be accessible to all of the children
in the City. Ms. Pratt said that she appreciated all of the time that the Members
of the Committee and the Councilors are putting into this plan and that the
Planning Board puts into developing the City. Ms. Pratt said that she is very
happy to be living here and that she is probably one of a handful of people who
does not think that her taxes are too high.
Ms. Janet Ordway, 33 Pine Ledge Road, told the Board that this is the last
road in the City limits. Ms. Ordway indicated that her family moved here in 1970
from the heart of Cincinnati and that she enjoys the rural nature of their location.
She told the Board that she can go out of her house and cross-country ski. She
said that she used to be able to walk on Ohio Street and not be bothered by
traffic but that has changed considerably over the years so much so that they
can no longer walk or bicycle safely. Ms. Ordway indicated that it would be nice
if the shoulders of Ohio Street were built-out so that people could walk or
bicycle. The traffic has grown on Ohio primarily because it goes into Glenburn
and some of the areas out there that have been developed. The traffic is heavy
both in the morning and in the evening. Ms. Ordway also noted that she is very
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concerned about the development of the Mall and the protection of the
Penjajawoc Marsh.
Barb Gallupe-Kreitzer, 1672 Ohio Street, told the Board that her family has
lived in what they consider the outskirts of town. They have raised their family
here and all of her children attended the schools. Ms. Kreitzer indicated that her
concerns are with the traffic and green space out that way. She noted a recent
zoning change for a piece of property beyond their land two lots up that was
rezoned for a church. She said that she worries about what will happen to the
other properties out there now that there has been a zone change in this area.
She said that she was not just talking about mall development but was talking
about pastoral land and hay land. Ms. Kreitzer told the Board that when the
retirement home went in on Ohio Street that that parcel was a hay field. Now it
is gone. Even though she realizes that Bangor is an urban area, she said that
they would like to hold onto that pastoral piece along Ohio Street and to the
slower pace. She said that while development is inevitable, they are concerned
that once piece of land is changed, how that effects the whole area.
Mr. Wheeler asked if Ms. Kreitzer was referring to Sunbury Village and he
asked what the zoning was for the church. Planner Gould indicated that the
zone change for the church is a Contract Government and Institutional Service
District.
Mr. Don Todd, 2244 Ohio Street, indicated that he lives beside Larry
Smith’s dairy farm. Mr. Todd said that he agreed with what Ms. Kreitzer said.
He noted that he built his house in 2000 and tried not to disturb the land too
much or cut down too many trees. Mr. Todd said that they appreciate having
open space near them. He moved to Bangor from Charleston and one of his
biggest concerns was that he was going to leave rural Maine. Mr. Todd said that
he still lives in rural Maine on Outer Ohio Street. Mr. Todd noted that there is a
lot of traffic in the morning and the afternoon and said that he is amazed that
someone has not been hit on this road because there is no shoulder. He
suggested that the shoulders be widened in the future, if possible. He also
expressed his major concern about the development that continues on Stillwater
Avenue. He said that he wondered just how much more congestion that that
side of town could handle and suggested that some serious consideration be
given before any further development is allowed out in that area. He told the
Board that he enjoys Bangor and its cultural events are fantastic.
Chairman Guerette noted that issues that have come up at the other
meetings have come up here at this meeting such as concerns about traffic,
preserving neighborhoods, and preserving open space. That seems to be a very
common sentiment across the City so far. He noted that these are the kinds of
things that the Board was hoping to hear at this workshop.
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Margaret Bailie, a Norway Road resident, noted that there has not been
any discussion about the Waterfront, which is a great concern to her. Ms. Bailie
also expressed her concern about public space and areas for walking and biking
that would be very accessible for everyone who lives here as well as for the
people who are visiting.
Chairman Guerette invited people to make written comments to the City
of Bangor Planning Office and they could either mail them or e-mail them to the
City of Bangor’s web site or the Planning Division web site. Chairman Guerette
indicated that the Board will spend some time after the last meeting is held to
collect all of this information and put it into some sort of a summary format and
see how it can be used to update the Comprehensive Plan. He indicated that
this might mean making sure that certain areas of the City are zoned and
preserved for open spaces for paths and walkways. He noted that some things
that have been brought up are not directly under the jurisdiction of the Planning
Board like how a development can create traffic in surrounding neighborhoods.
This is more of a City-wide issue that might involve some work, coordination, or
collaboration with the Police Department or Public Works to make signs for
encouraging traffic to travel in certain paths. This information is very useful in
the Comprehensive Plan Update process.
Nancy Contino, 56 Bunker Lane, expressed her concern about the roads in
outer Bangor. She asked if there is ever any consideration for improving the
shoulders on outer Ohio Street. She also expressed her concern with the
expansion of Hermon and Glenburn and how it is increasing traffic on Ohio
Street. She noted that there has been improvement in speed control on that
section of Ohio Street as it is posted at 35 mph but there is no place for children
or adults to walk in this part of town. Ms. Contino added that one of the things
that she appreciates most about Bangor is its trail systems especially the City
Forest, Brown Woods, Prentiss Woods and the Kenduskeag path. She added
that any additional areas would be appreciated. Certainly maintaining them at
the level that they are now at is really important because they are a real asset to
the City of Bangor.
Chairman Guerette prompted the audience with questions regarding their
opinions as to how satisfied they might be with the City as a whole in terms of its
management of resources, how it allocates monies for budget issues, code and
ordinance enforcement. Also, whether the City should concentrate its efforts on
improving the downtown, Bass Park, public housing, streets, and walkways.
Chairman Guerette asked what their preferences were for funding municipal
services and public improvements. He asked if they were in favor of user fees, a
local sales tax, a city income tax, or fees for services on tax exempt property.
He asked the audience what would make Bangor a better place to live or what
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would make Bangor a better place to work. Chairman Guerette posed the
question as to why they live in Bangor, is it the schools, the employment, or the
public services?
Jack McKay, 637 Ohio Street, said that he would like to see more living
wage jobs, see developments such as at the waterfront or other places be tied to
living wage jobs, and he would like to see public space used more smartly and
more affordable housing.
Don Todd, said that he hoped that the waterfront development would
incorporate areas for the public. He noted Jacksonville, Florida that has a nice
boardwalk along its river that is open to the public. Mr. Todd said that the
waterfront may be restricted to private property. He also said that he thought
that the City is not utilizing the river to its fullest extent, as it could be a real
major attraction like the Folk Festival. Mr. Todd added that he would like to
see the City do more for the walkways, running paths and the bicycling.
Geoff Gratwick, 1230 Kenduskeag Avenue, told the Board that he
appreciates what the Planning Board has done and the forums are useful.
Councilor Gratwick said that he likes listening to what everyone has to say. He
said that the current Comprehensive Plan is currently unreadable and is not a
document that is useful for citizens nor is it useful for the City. He asked if it
were possible to synthesize this into a vision of where we want the City to be. He
indicated that he is interested in citizen opinions as to how this is going to play
out so that we have a user-friendly document.
Chairman Guerette indicated that when he joined the Planning Board in
2000, the Comprehensive Plan had just been adopted. He indicated that he
suspects that there is a template as to how to write a Comprehensive Plan. He
said that he felt that the Comprehensive Plan is a type of encyclopedia. When
you pick up a text of an encyclopedia you find bound under one cover many,
many subjects. He said that this type of document does not read like a story
and probably won’t be that type of document because it covers so many
different subjects. Chairman Guerette said that he thought that the
Comprehensive Plan is a document like that and that he is going into this with an
open mind. He indicated that he is interested in seeing if it can be made into a
more readable document. He added that never having written a Comprehensive
Plan before, he feels somewhat inexperienced and did not know if it could be
written differently. Chairman Guerette added that he agrees with Councilor
Gratwick that it is a difficult read but if you are looking for something specific
and can you go to that section of the plan and it explains it very well, just like an
encyclopedia. Chairman Guerette asked for Staff comments.
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Planner David Gould said that he liked the encyclopedia analogy. Mr.
Gould said that one the drawbacks to the Comprehensive Plan is that it is just
that, comprehensive. It tries to embrace and include everything. It tries to
discuss all sides and all concepts and put it all into one package. What tends to
be the problem with that is that when you are here with a decision to be made
you would like to go and find an answer on one page. Even with the
Comprehensive Plan it is not that easy. Mr. Gould indicated that he felt that it is
quite possible to make a summary as was done in the 1969 Plan. There was a
small version done that deals largely with the land use guidance elements of it.
The guidance elements of the Comprehensive Plan are those that the Board
discusses again and again when talking about rezonings or multi-family projects.
There is a lot of data in the Comprehensive Plan about schools, children
enrollment, and population projections, that aren’t always relevant when you are
trying to decide that a rural lot on Ohio Street should be zoned Government and
Institutional Service or not. So it is possible that a summary of the
Comprehensive Plan that deals with the land use decisions information that the
Board needs to make decisions may be helpful.
Mr. Rosenblatt said that over the years he has seen Comprehensive Plans
adopted by other municipalities. He said that he felt that Bangor’s document is
really difficult to work with. He said that he did not feel that it would help
matters to just add another layer to that document. He asked about accessing
plans of other municipalities to see how they format their plans and how they
deal with topics that the Board is trying to cover.
Mr. Gould explained that in 1980’s the State of Maine started the Growth
Management Program whereby they mandated that all the communities in the
State of Maine do a Comprehensive Plan. There is an abundance of
comprehensive plans that have been done in the last 10 years that the Board
could look at for references and formats. Mr. Gould indicated that Staff could
ask the State Planning Office, who actually reviews all the plans and deems them
consistent or not consistent with the Growth Management Law for examples. He
noted that the Town of Hampden has a fairly recent Comprehensive Plan and
that there are cities similar to Bangor, such as South Portland, Auburn, etc. who
also have updated Comprehensive Plans.
Councilor Gratwick indicated that he felt that there should be talk about
principles as there has been discussion about sidewalks, walkways, affordable
housing, and the waterfront. He said that it would help him both as a citizen and
on the City Council to have to overall guiding principles.
Mr. Wheeler noted that due to the rather intimate gathering at the
meeting, he felt that maybe the Board could modify its policy of just listening.
He said that because so many of the things that have been mentioned in all
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three of these meetings speak, as Councilor Gratwick just said, not so much as
to specific types of development but of guiding principles. Mr. Wheeler said that
one of the difficulties, that was touched upon well by Mr. Gould in his
introduction, is that the Planning Board faces so many of these very valid and
legitimate concerns. He said that he remembers when Hayford’s field was not a
park but was a field. He also said that he remembers that while living on Court
Street in the mid 40’s that he and his two brothers and his father could go not
too far out Ohio Street and find a place to set up a target and shoot for sport.
Today you can’t even discharge a firearm within the City limits anymore. One of
the major difficulties, if not the major difficulty, that the Planning Board faces in
responding to these concerns is that the scope of the Planning Board’s authority
is quite specifically limited. We can’t legislate anything to do with traffic. On the
other hand, decisions the Board makes about approving either conditional uses,
a zone change, or approval of a site plan for a commercial enterprise which is
near a residential area is going to have an impact on traffic. We’re told that time
and time again. If you allow this to happen it is going to significantly increase
the traffic in my neighborhood. Mr. Wheeler said that giving a hard and fast
answer as to what constitutes significant traffic is difficult. Mr. Wheeler said that
he appreciated Councilor Gratwick’s recent op ed article in which many questions
were brought to the public’s attention and was a call to action by the citizens.
Mr. Wheeler said that he thought that what is happening, as a result of the
neighborhood meetings, is that the Board is not so much a planning board but a
sounding board. Mr. Wheeler indicated that he wishes that more members of
the Council were present to hear these opinions because 60% to 70% of the
concerns can only or ultimately be addressed by the City Council. The Planning
Board can propose but the Council must dispose of certain matters.
Mr. Wheeler referenced an op-ed article that he wrote for the Bangor
Daily News in which he wrote that nothing draws more citizen interest and
concern than the consideration of a zone change. In particular, when a parcel of
land that has been zoned for residential use and it is proposed for some
commercial or professional use this is when the residents understandably get
nervous. He said that he felt that it is great that citizens take part in the
process. Sometimes they accuse the Board of violating not only the spirit but the
letter of the Comprehensive Plan. We have had Members of our own Board say
that very thing. Mr. Wheeler said that the idea that the Board might be able to
come up with a document that is so tightly drawn that it would be easier to
understand, and yet on the other side of the coin tie our hands in considering
new and emerging realities and opportunities. Mr. Wheeler said that that is the
other part that the Board needs to consider. This is one of the most important
and difficult processes of government and that is why the Board is holding these
meetings even though many of the concerns fall outside of the Board’s authority
to act. Mr. Wheeler said that this is the kind of process that is not only
important but essential to the growth of the City of Bangor. Mr. Wheeler asked
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everyone to imagine what the community leaders of Bangor in 1900 were
thinking as to what kind of City that they wanted and said that he is sure that it
was a different type of City than we have today. The same could be said of
those community leaders in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. So much has changed in
the last 30 to 35 years and this is why he asked the rhetorical question at the
last meeting as to what would you change over the last 35 years, if you could.
He said that the because of the diversity of views and opinions that are held by
the Members of the Board itself, the citizens should be assured and reassured
that they are not all marching in locked step.
Ms. Lucy Quimby, who resides at 1230 Kenduskeag Avenue, asked
questions as to the Planning Board’s responsibilities regarding the
Comprehensive Plan Update. Ms. Quimby said that the Comprehensive Plan is a
very comprehensive document that deals with all different facets of life in
Bangor. She asked if what she understood was correct that it is the Planning
Board’s responsibility for overseeing the production of this very comprehensive
document but that there are sections of it that will not be implemented by the
Planning Board. She said that she recognized the fact that this is just a revision
and probably not a re-creation of the whole document. Secondly Ms. Quimby
said that she felt that a lot of what drives traffic is land use and where different
land uses are put in the City. Ms. Quimby told the Board that she felt that the
decisions that the Planning Board makes, that then get approved or not by the
Council about land use actually does have a big influence on traffic. She asked
the Board to elucidate on the traffic issue.
Chairman Guerette explained that though the Planning Board is charged
with the crafting or the updating of the Comprehensive Plan, he did not know if
the Planning Board is the lone steward of it. He said that the Board will derive
some guidance for it from the City’s land use policies as well as other
departments in the City who are involved in things like Engineering and Law
Enforcement, and Parks and Recreation, etc. He asked the Planning Staff to
“chime in” because they may have more insight into this process than he does.
Chairman Guerette added that sometimes being a regional economy as we are,
the planning policies of other communities can also affect the City such as traffic,
for example. He said that the Board’s challenge is to take into consideration all
of the information that has been gathered at these meetings. He noted that the
Board will be holding workshops at our regularly scheduled meeting nights on
strd
the 1 and 3 Tuesdays of the month and unless there is a very long agenda,
The Board will be taking time at the end of those meetings for discussions. He
also noted that the Board may schedule some separate meetings to incorporate
all of this information and try to summarize it and use it constructively to make
changes to the Comprehensive Plan. Those changes will be presented again to
the public in public hearings so that anyone who is interested can come and
listen to the presentation and have input on the process. When the Board comes
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up with a final draft it will be presented to the City Council and the City Council
will again have discussion and debate on it. He said that in that forum, citizens
may also be allowed to speak before the final adoption of the updated
document.
Mr. Rosenblatt said that he wanted to speak about traffic because it is
obviously a concern that we have heard more than once. There are different
kinds of applications that come before the Board some of them the Board is not
allowed to think about traffic and others the Board is allowed to think about
traffic. Mr. Rosenblatt explained that in a conditional use review, there is a
traffic component that the Board is allowed to think about. Under the State’s
Subdivision Law in a subdivision application, there is also a traffic component
that the Board is allowed to think about as to the safety of the design of the
road, and the access onto a public street. In contrast, in the run of the mill site
plan application, traffic is not a criterion and the Board is not allowed to think
about traffic. Mr. Rosenblatt went on to say that under Site Location of
Development, the whole traffic issue is packaged and sent off to the Maine
Department of Transportation and the Board is not allowed to think about traffic,
either. He noted that the City Council could elect to change the Land
Development Code for the Board to look at things that the Board is not currently
allowed to look at. That might be something for the Council to be thinking
about. Mr. Rosenblatt indicated that he did not know if this could be included in
a recommendation with the Comprehensive Plan.
Ms. Kreitzer noted that the information being collected at this meeting is
important but the Board cannot really change anything specifically. She asked if
this information would be shared with the City Council so that everyone could
share the opinion and concerns. Ms. Krietzer added that if Bangor is still going
to develop and grow, we’re all saying that we want our roads to be better, and
we want more green space.
Chairman Guerette explained, as he sees it, that the City Council wants to
have the Comprehensive Plan updated and they have asked the Planning Board
to go out and do it. There have been City Councilors at all of our meetings.
Those who have not attended will probably not be given a box full or a folder full
of the detail of the information that we have collected. But, the Board will use
this information to make its recommendations to the City Council.
Ms. Lucy Quimby told the Board that she thought that the Comprehensive
Plan was supposed to be a general guide to the zoning ordinance and certainly
zoning will affect traffic. She said that if the Board changes the zoning on a strip
of Ohio Street to a heavily commercial use, traffic will increase on Ohio Street.
She noted that she thought that many of the transition areas that Kate Weber
drew up are areas where there are decisions to be made about the kinds of
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zoning that is going to be in those areas. There would be traffic implications that
flow from those decisions because the zoning will guide the particular decisions
that the Board makes when site applications come before them.
Chairman Guerette said that he thought that the issue of traffic concern is
probably a national concern and is happening here in Bangor now because 25 to
30 years ago most of us were probably one or two car households. Today most
kids have their own vehicles and there are still thousands of vehicles to be sold
out on Hogan Road. How we deal with the cumulative effect of traffic, in his
opinion, is a huge issue and he indicated that he is certain it can be dealt with
within the confines of the Comprehensive Plan. Chairman Guerette noted that
the issue has been raised at every one of these meetings and when the Board
begins having workshops and discussions that this will be something that will
need to be addressed. In one way or another, the Board may come to the
conclusion that in certain applications or in certain areas that it does not have
either the authority, the charge, or the responsibility to deal with it. Mr.
Guerette indicated that the sincerity of the Members of the Board and the
earnest attempt that they all make to uphold the Planning Codes to make sure
that things are done well within the parameters that the Board has to operate in,
in his opinion, will guarantee that the update effort will be dealt with with the
same kind of integrity and intent, and intensity.
Ms. Kreitzer asked the Board to include in their report the concerns the
residents have about Ohio Street. Mr. Guerette noted that their concerns have
already been recorded and the Board will make sure that those words get moved
along. The traffic issue will be included in the Board’s deliberations about how
to update the Comprehensive Plan, how it affects development both inside and
outside the city, and how it affects every citizen in terms of safety on the roads
for pedestrians, for bicyclists, vehicle traffic, as well.
Ms. Contino, also noted a that a few years ago a piece of property (2.7
acres) right across from the Valley Avenue bridge indicated that the City owned
it, and sold it for $5,000. It is located right next to where the public path is and
goes all the way down to the Kenduskeag Stream. She indicated that she felt
that would have been a smart piece of land to keep within the City for future use
because of its location next to the Kenduskeag Stream path. She said that she
felt that it would have had a potential for a walking use. She indicated that she
would like to see that strategic pieces of land are kept within the City in the
future. Ms. Contino added that, in terms of the waterfront, that when she
looked through the plans for the waterfront that it more geared for people who
do not live in Bangor, the people who may bring the biggest market value for the
land, condominium development, and things like that. Ms. Contino indicated that
she would like to see a lot more language and a lot more goals that are geared
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to both the people who currently live in Bangor as well as the people who work
here.
Chairman Guerette said that he would begin to close the meeting
indicated that the Board is very appreciative of the citizens for their willingness
to come out and share their ideas and comments with the Planning Board. He
indicated that their comments are very important to the Board and, where at all
possible, these concerns will be used to draft updates to the Comprehensive
Plan. This is to make the Plan more user friendly, make Bangor more pleasing
and secure, more economically feasible, and an enjoyable place to live.
Ms. Contino said that she would like to make some additional comments.
She said that she moved to Bangor and coming from away, she thought that
one of the things that you look for in a City that is located where Bangor is in
this State, if for things to do while visiting here. She said that there needs to be
places to go and walk, stroll around downtown, and get a bite to eat. She said
that she felt that the Board would to address the concerns about mega
development in the Bangor Mall area at the expense of the downtown, and the
maintenance of the green areas and the walkways, and establishing some bike
paths. She also said that she thinks that the City has great potential for being a
regional tourist center, convention center, and medical research center. She
indicated that she is not sure why that is not happening. She said that a good
example of a recent change has been the City Forest with development of the
Orono Bog Boardwalk and suggested that more be done to purchase strategic
land parcels to connect to the green spaces that we already have. This would be
a worthwhile part of your plan.
Chairman Guerette thanked those in attendance for their comments. He
asked them to fill out the surveys and either pass them in before they left or
they could mail them to City Hall. He noted that the next neighborhood meeting
is scheduled for Tuesday, March 8, 2005 at Mary Snow School and that the
regular Planning Board Meetings are held the first and third Tuesdays of the
month.
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