PORTLAND – A City Council committee that oversees development on Portland’s waterfront said it will consider a proposal to allow more non-marine use of piers and wharves.

Members of the Community Development Committee received a copy Wednesday night of what Chairwoman Cheryl Leeman described as an agreement between pier owners and fishermen.

The major change would allow as much as 55 percent of a pier’s first-floor space to be for marine use, with the remaining 45 percent reserved for non-marine use. Currently, 100 percent of all first-floor space must be for marine use.

Leeman said the latest proposal, which came out of negotiations this summer between pier owners and fishermen, needs more study.

Leeman scheduled another committee meeting for 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 27, at City Hall.

“We will make a recommendation to the City Council at that meeting,” Leeman said.

Earlier this year, pier owners began a push to have the city relax zoning in Portland’s central waterfront zone — the cluster of piers and wharves between the Maine State Pier and the International Marine Terminal.

The ground floors of buildings there must be entirely for marine use. The berthing space can be used only for commercial vessels, except for 50 feet along each pier that is allowed for pleasure boats.

Pier owners originally asked that the restriction be lifted, allowing 50 percent of ground floor space for non-marine uses, such as offices, stores and restaurants.

Pier owners say they need more income to pay for pier maintenance and dredging, and non-marine tenants would pay them higher rents.

But fishermen were reluctant to embrace such a change, fearing that competition for parking and pier space with non-marine tenants might drive them out of business.

That led to a series of meetings between the city’s Planning Board, fishermen and pier owners.

Willis Spear Jr. of Yarmouth, who docks his fishing boat at Custom House Wharf in Portland, is serving as spokesman for the fishermen. He said: “We feel we have given up a lot, even with 45 percent (non-marine). We told the wharf owners that we need to be protected against development. If they don’t adhere exactly to what we’ve proposed, then there is no agreement.”

Spear said several conditions must be met: giving potential marine tenants first shot at vacant spaces, giving marine tenants first priority on available parking spaces, and preserving marine loading areas.

“If we are going to try to save the working waterfront, we have to have strict ordinances in place or we won’t survive,” Spear said.

Charlie Poole, who owns Union Wharf, said the proposal could generate more revenue for maintenance of Union Wharf, Chandler’s Wharf, Widgery Wharf and Long Wharf.

 

Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at: dhoey@pressherald.com

 

 

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