Willard Square plan draws ire

Council to decide May 9 on whether to slow development

The South Portland city councilors were presented with a petition Monday asking them to halt development in Willard Square while new design standards and zoning are considered.

The controversy stems from a development, still in the pre-application phase, for a “Mr. Delicious” food market, to be built at the corner of Pillsbury and Preble streets. Partners Glenn Perry and Ian Hayward plan a two-story building, using modular construction methods, on a footprint of 1,250 square feet. 

Rather than immediately vote on the development moratorium, the council instead will meet in a special workshop session to discuss the issue. That meeting will take place Monday, May 9, at 6:30 p.m., at the Community Center.

“I don’t like a moratorium unless it’s absolutely necessary, for some really compelling purpose,” said Councilor Tom Coward, who moved to table demands for an immediate development delay. “I’m not happy about screwing up somebody’s good-faith business plan for something that turns out not to be necessary.”

According to an April 29 memo written by City Planner Tex Haeuser, the structure’s first floor would feature “retail sales of food products, produce, ingredients, sandwiches, prepared dinners, and so on.”  The second floor would house a kitchen serving both the downstairs store and an outside catering business.

In his memo to City Manager Jim Gailey, Haeuser observes that an April 21 presentation by developers before the Willard Neighborhood Association met with “almost universal disapproval of the project.”

Gailey said Monday that since receiving the head’s up from Haeuser, he’s been besieged by nearly 150 emails on the topic.  Councilors reported similar bombardments and, while Councilor Maxine Beecher did ask for consideration of a six-month building moratorium in the neighborhood, residents weren’t taking any chances. Annie Leonard presented Mayor Rosemarie De Angelis with a petition asking for the same thing, which she claimed was “signed by roughly 200 people in just four days.”

“I think that gives a sense of just how deeply concerned neighbors are about Willard Square, about over development, about ugly development,” said Stephanie Cook.

The purpose of the moratorium, said Leonard, is to allow the Planning Board time to rezone the area, to update street and parking standards for increased traffic, and to enact design mandates to ensure new buildings blend into the neighborhood.

“This is important work,” she said. “It needs to be done, and it needs to be done before any plans for development gain final approval.”

Barbara Donahue, president of the Dora L. Small Elementary School PTA, said 80 percent of the school’s 325 students live within one mile of the building, and, so, walk to class.

“We have a really special community in Willard Square,” she said. “There’s lots of people all over the country who would love for their children to be able to walk to school, but I would say that everybody would want their children to walk to school safely.”

“It’s time to look at the details before we make mistakes that are irreversible,” agreed David Orbiton.

However, Perry termed the possibility of a 180-day cease-and-desist on building, a “frightening prospect.”

“As a stakeholder in Willard Square, I do support the importance of design considerations,” said Heyward. “But I am concerned about halting a project, in progress, that is meeting and exceeding standards, and which has not yet had site plan review.”

“The intent of the moratorium,” advised Haeuser, “is not to kill the project, but to improve the outcome for the project.”

Ultimately, after more than 40 minutes of debate, not counting nearly a dozen entreaties made during the meeting’s public comment period, the council voted 5-1 to back Coward’s request to table the moratorium request, with Beecher voting no.

If councilors decide at that time that a moratorium is needed, a first reading of its enabling ordinance would occur at the Council’s May 16 session.  Following a public hearing sponsored by the planning board, at some point in late May, the Council could enact the moratorium as early as June 6.

If that happens, the moratorium would be retroactive to May 2.  Although that effectively stops Perry and Heyward’s development now — Councilor’s were careful to verify with Haeuser that the pair cannot sneak their plan into “substatantive review” before for June 6, at which point it would be impossible to stop — they can take some solace.

By “chewing it over in a workshop,” Coward said, the Council will be able to decide as soon as Monday whether existing zoning rules are sufficient to serve the Willard Square neighborhood.  If the answer is yes, Perry and Heyward could resume development next week. 

If, however, the moratorium had been passed, Coward said, that would have set bureaucratic gears to grinding, such that nothing cold happen until a final vote, sometime in June.

“Everybody’s got legitimate concerns in this,” said Coward, “I’m just trying to find a way that gets everybody a fair hearing.”