Rejected by city, building heads to auction

SOUTH PORTLAND — The South Portland City Council has ruled that an environmental hazard in the heart of the city should be somebody else’s headache.

Following a 45-minute workshop session Monday, the council considered and rejected the idea of placing a bid on the former Getty station at the corner of Highland Avenue and Cottage Road, which goes up for public auction Aug. 8.

Although most councilors liked the idea of razing the site to eradicate a longstanding eyesore, and rebuilding it to both ease congestion at the intersection and extend the lawn of the public library next door, they balked at being responsible for possible contaminants at the site.

Although underground gas tanks were removed form the quarter-acre lot in 2006, Mayor Patti Smith noted that the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, in reports as recent as February 2011, has found the site “not clean to MDEP satisfaction” based on findings of “multiple historic discharges” from the tanks, pumps and piping.

“Oil contaminated soil in the piping and dispenser areas was not cleaned up with the 2006 work and remains,” reads the report. “Getty has not cooperated in a timely manner to remediate and assess the prohibited discharges.”

Those reports, presented by Smith mere hours before the meeting, prompted an about face from City Manager Jim Gailey, who had called the workshop on the belief that “whenever a property abutting a municipal property comes available we should sit down and talk out the pros and cons of acquiring the parcel.”

“As you know, they aren’t making land anymore,” said Gailey, noting the lot last traded hands in 1985. “It’s a key piece of property and, once gone, it may take a number of years to ever come on the market again.”

However, that was the mindset when scheduling the workshop. Twenty minutes before the meeting, when Smith presented her research from the DEP website, Gailey’s mood changed.

“After reading the literature that Mayor Smith has passed out, I have serious concerns about the aquisition of the property,” said Gailey. “It’s not clean.”

“This report from the DEP is, basically, scary,” agreed Councilor Tom Blake.

“We don’t know how far reaching the problem goes,” said Gailey. “There’s a lot that could have happened under the building and under the pavement. Getty had their opportunity to clean it up. They didn’t do it all and DEP had not signed off. That is not a situation I want to get the city in. I don’t think we should be in the business of taking on liabilities.”

“There are companies with large pockets, like a Walgreen’s or a Starbucks, that can afford remediation,” said Smith. “I don’t want to say it’s always going to be an eyesore, it’s just going to have to be the right person to come along with the right amount of money.”

Walgreen’s is said to be interested in coming to the Knightville/ Mill Creek district, having reportedly made a play for the former Blockbuster Video building on Waterman Drive that eventually sold to Bull Moose.

Still, some on the council found it unlikely the site – assessed by the city at $232,700 and long on the market for $195,000 – will sell to anyone with pockets as deep as those referenced by Smith.

“This corner is going to be some kind of low-rent storage or something forever, because it’s not financially viable,” said Councilor Tom Coward, who works in real estate. “Maybe back when Model-Ts were still roaming the city that site made sense, but these days it’s only going to continue with the same catch-as-catch-can businesses that have been through there in recent years. It needs to be put out of its misery.”

Library Director Kevin Davis said there is “huge benefit” in appending the Getty lot to the that of the library. With the station gone, he said, a much better view of the library would be available from the intersection.

Davis said public interest and use of the library has grown since last fall when brush was cleared from around the building, making it more visible from Broadway.

“We have a notable piece of architecture in the city and now that people see it that are quite taken by it,” said Davis. “We kind of expect with municipal services that people will find us if they need us. But there’s a reason retail establishments put a lot of effort into the location, placement and presentation of their facilities. You need to attract customers.”

Davis noted that it was not library staff alone in support of buying the Getty station. When Davis floated the idea on the library’s Facebook page July 10, it quickly garnered 83 “likes” and 52 comments.

“Two weeks ago I posted information about Art in the Park, which got the biggest response of anything the library has ever put online,” recalled Davis. “Then I posted this. The Facebook response quadrupled the Art in the Park response within two hours.

“Overwhelmingly, that response has been positive,” said Davis.

Linda Eastman, chairwoman of the Library Advisory Board, said the Friends of the South Portland Library has offered to fund half of any purchase price for the station “up to a certain amount.”

Blake, however, was not swayed by what Davis called a “significant show of financial support.”

“To buy up eyesores is a poor municipal investment,” he said.

And, while Councilor Maxine Beecher said there was a benefit in improving the ”very, very dangerous” intersection, given the high volume of adolescent foot traffic from three school buildings in the area, Councilor Gerard Jalbert likened any purchase to “an impulse buy.”

Noting that the library got its requests trimmed during budget season, Jalbert suggested the friend’s money could be put to better use.

“It’s like going to the grocery store with a list for fresh fruit and fish and dairy products and going by the aisle that has cashews,” he said. “Is this the best way to use taxpayer’s dollars in the bigger picture?”

“But if you’re walking by that display of cashews and find a ridiculous price that is going to expire in three weeks, you might want to stock up,” said Davis, following through on the analogy.

A similar Getty property in New Hampshire recently sold at auction for just $45,000, he said.

Still, whoever buys what Beecher called “an ugly” introduction to South Portland at it’s southern gateway, it won’t be the city. Still, the council seemed confident that someone will buy the property and make the modifications they have declined to do.

“Wherever this property goes, it’s going to be improved,” said Blake. “It’s going to be better. It can’t be any worse.”