PORTLAND – To landscape architect Martha Lyon, it’s a good sign that much of the debate over her plan for restoring Fort Allen Park on the city’s Eastern Promenade has centered on which type of tree to plant.

“I’ve been really, really pleased,” Lyon said of her appearances before workshop meetings of the city’s Historic Preservation Board. “The issues that people are struggling over are really a small piece of the whole pie.”

Additional Photos

A cannon recovered from the USS Maine, which was sunk in Havana, Cuba, in 1898, is one of the historic features in Fort Allen Park on Portland’s Eastern Promenade. Photos by John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Fort Allen Park, overlooking Portland Harbor, will get new plants and lighting as part of improvements with money raised by Friends of the Eastern Promenade.

Lyon said board members have been generally receptive to her design for the park, which includes some realignment of a road through the park and walkways, rebuilding a couple of berms and connections to an overlook that provides stunning views of Portland Harbor and Casco Bay.

Lyon said she’s really seeking to tweak and augment what the park already features, rather than looking at a wholesale remaking of the site.

The tree issue, she said, is one that largely pits the concerns of local residents — who don’t want their views of the water impeded — against those of visitors, who would probably prefer some shady areas in the park and could rely on walking down to the overlook for an unobstructed view.

In addition, Lyon said, the park is a stopping place for migrating birds, who need trees and brush to provide cover and a place to rest. “There are a lot of competing interests,” she said.

Lyon said the trees she’s proposing would be relatively modest in size, but would provide vivid fall colors and spring flowers, along with berries in the winter to provide year-round visual interest.

She also said the park will get a more identifiable entry on the Eastern Prom across from Morning Street, which should also prove more enticing to those strolling by.

One other feature she’s excited about, Lyon said, is the low-level lighting for the pathways. The lights will be designed to shine just along the paths, she said, and be seen from ships in the harbor as small slivers of light going up the hillside.

Regina Leonard, who is working with Lyon to develop the plans, said the Historic Preservation Board has already reviewed and discussed the proposals three times in workshop settings.

A “final” design was presented at the last meeting earlier this month, she said, and the city’s Parks Commission will take a look in early March, when there also will be a public meeting sponsored by the Friends of the Eastern Promenade, which hired Lyon and Leonard and is in charge of raising money to pay for the work.

After that, the plans will go back to the Historic Preservation Board for a review and vote, probably in mid-April.

Then, once the plans are given a go-ahead, the final construction documents will be drafted and pieces of the work will go out to bid, Leonard said.

Lyon said it’s impossible to come up with a timeline at this point, because no one knows where fundraising will be in three or four months. She said even the final budget is uncertain because it’s not known if city crews will be able to do some of the work and when they might be able to schedule it, but she thinks the total should be around $1 million.

“It’s not a super-complicated project,” said Lyon, who has worked on much larger projects, but she added that there are still a lot of uncertainties at this point.

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com

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