Looking to the future

Participants at a community forum in South Portland help shape the goals of new comprehensive plan.

Erik Carson, assistant city manager for South Portland,
leads a group of residents through recommendations made
 by the city’s comprehensive planning committee during a
visioning session held Thursday at the Community Center.

SOUTH PORTLAND — South Portland’s comprehensive plan is due for its decennial update next year. Even so, says City Planner Tex Haeuser, the document hasn’t had a really thorough rethink in more than 20 years.

Recall for a moment what South Portland looked like in 1991, and you can get some sense of the urgency that permeated the Community Center Thursday evening, when 74 residents gathered to pass thumbs up, or thumbs down, on a list of 21 broad goals drafted by the city’s Comprehensive Planning Committee. Those goals are designed to shape how the city grows, and what it should look like in 2035.

The committee has targeted seven “focus areas” for rezoning attention. Rules incorporated into the new growth plan will drive development in those regions of South Portland for at least the next 10 years. Therefore, citizens were eager to have their say, separating into smaller groups that questioned seven of the 21 concepts floated at Thursday’s public forum.

“What we’ll do now,” consultant Mark Eyerman said Monday, “is examine those areas of concern, breaking down the questions that were raised for the comprehensive planning committee to address at its next meeting, Dec. 6.”

Eyerman – whose firm, Portland-based Planning Decisions, was paid $20,000 to lead the rewrite of the plan, according to Haeuser – began the evening by reviewing how South Portland has changed, according to recent Census Bureau data.

Eyermen pointed out that, despite the popular conception of Maine as stagnant and aging population, South Portland is actually growing, and getting younger.

Over the past decade, the city’s population grew to 25,002 – 4.3 percent higher than computer models had predicted. Much of that growth came west of Interstate 295 (up 16.4 percent) and in the Highland Avenue area (up 15.8 percent).

At the same time, the city grew younger. The percent of people age 65 and older fell from 15.5 to 13.7, while the segment age 25 and younger held steady at roughly 30 percent of the population. The median age of all South Portland residents is now 39.4 – about three years younger than the Census Bureau was expecting.

But, as Eyerman pointed out, that shift in demographics came with a shift in values. The number of people per household fell from 2.42 in 2000 to 2.26 in 2010. Fewer people in more homes means South Portland is pretty well filled to capacity as far as housing stock. From here on in, he said, most development in South Portland will be redevelopment, or “in-fill,” as section by section of the city gets a makeover.

The seven sections isolated by the comprehensive planning committee are its established single-family neighborhoods; the “neighborhood centers,” like Willard Square, where a few central stores serve nearby homes; the Broadway and Cottage Road corridors; the Main Street corridor; the East End waterfront; the downtown Knightville and Mill Creek districts; and the area around the Maine Mall.

Neighborhoods

The regions of the city that are no zoned A, or AA, are those that are almost exclusively the domain of residential lots, many of which sprouted up long before zoning came into fashion and do not conform to current rules. The idea here (endorsed by forum participants by a 46-3 vote) is to allow development on lots of less than 5,000 square feet, with setback requirements similar to surrounding homes.

Getting considerably more kickback (33-18 approval) was the idea of requiring so-called “mini-site plans” for all new or renovated homes in the neighborhood districts.  The proposal endorsed by the comp plan committee is to mandate that all neighborhood development must get an OK from the Planning Board, whether or not it qualifies as a subdivision. Under this proposal, all new and refurbished homes “must be compatible with the existing homes in the immediate neighborhood.”

Activity centers

In places where neighborhood shops exist, the plan is to encourage more business development in the current commercial hubs, again using the “mini-site plan” approach. By a 33-7 split, forum participants okayed the idea of favoring “urban development” in these areas, meaning imposing requirements that buildings be located close to the street, with parking to the side or rear.

Using the mini-site plan approach for small-scale business development won approval 47-3, possibly because it was married to the idea of making the city invest in infrastructure improvements to compliment growth, with new sidewalks, trees and shared parking lots.

Broadway and Cottage

As a group, the forum favored allowing outer Cottage Road neat the Cape Elizabeth town line to evolve into a low-intensity” commercial area so long as businesses maintain the current building character (37-5), encouraging multi-family and other high-density development along the portion of Broadway between Cottage and Mussey Roads (30-17) and letting that part of Broadway between Anthoine and Evans Streets evolve into a mixed-use area with office and apartment buildings up to five stories tall (34-9).

However, participants split evenly (21-21) on the idea of allowing duplex and multi-family housing, as well as allowing redevelopment of residential property to limited commercial use on Broadway from Lincoln Street to Cash Corner.

Main Street

Participants hedged somewhat (38-10) on letting Cash Corner – called “Crash Corner” by one gaffer – “continue to be an auto-orientated commercial area.” The question of what needs to be done to improve traffic flow through Cash Corner became a significant debate at many tables, with more than one person suggesting a rotary.

Less divisive (46-4) was the idea of letting Main Street between Westbrook Street and the railroad overpass become a “city street” with larger buildings situated close to the sidewalk. Mixed-use buildings of up to five stories were deemed appropriate (40-7) for the outer Main Street.

East End waterfront

There was almost no disagreement on this section of the city, where the forum agreed that the Front Street area in Ferry Village should evolve into a mixed-use area with “water-related” uses at street level and apartments on the upper floors (45-2); that the city should “actively work to encourage” redevelopment of former shipyard land by offering to pay for infrastructure and traffic improvements (38-3), that the Cacoulidis-owned property on Spring Point is a high priority for “a wide range of uses as long as the project expands the tax base,” (38-0), and that the Southern Maine Community College campus, now in four separate zoning districts, should be placed in a single zone under one master plan (44-1).

Knightville/Mil Creek

The forum was somewhat divided (20-12) on the declaration that the city should “encourage and facilitate” construction of more housing in this area, while also resisting (30-9) the idea of allowing townhouses and multi-family dwellings on the so-called “letter streets.” Less controversial (42-3) was the concept of making the area “more of a pedestrian urban village with the park as a focal point.” Gaining even more support (43-2) was the call for a “detailed study” of how to create this urban village feel.

Maine Mall

Finally, there was broad support (41-3) for zoning rules aimed at making the Maine Mall area “a more attractive destination,” as well as “the premier retail center in the state.” Establishing design standards to make the region around the Mall “attractive and pedestrian friendly” was backed 36-2.