Task force envisions vibrant downtown, innovative schools

WESTBROOK – A vision for Westbrook 10 years from now is starting to come into focus.

The Comprehensive Plan Task Force charged with crafting a new comprehensive plan that will guide Westbrook’s development for the next decade met again on Dec. 16 to discuss the results of a recent community-wide visioning day.

Before the task force begins working on revisions to the comprehensive plan, it has to send a proposed vision statement to the Westbrook City Council for approval. A draft of that vision indicates that residents want Westbrook to be a special place to live, work and visit that is anchored by a vibrant downtown and driven by green values.

The drafted vision, taken from input during the visioning day activities, suggests Westbrook is proud of its heritage, but is also a place that keeps up with the times. Locals said Westbrook should be host to innovative companies and schools that train young people for the jobs of tomorrow.

The drafted vision is still up for alteration, and there was some discussion of changes among the task force members. In keeping with the vision of Westbrook as a “green” community, the drafted vision states, “Westbrook is a place you can live without a car. Trails and buses provide easy access to shops, jobs and activities.”

Some on the task force, like Mike White, of White Brothers Construction, thought it unrealistic to envision Westbrook in 10 years as a community where people do not need cars to get around.

“For six months out of the year, you’ve got snow on the road,” he said, adding he will not “fall into the trap” of thinking bicycles and walking are the answers to Westbrook’s traffic problems.

His comments came during a presentation by Evan Richert, a land use planning consultant for the Gorham East/West Corridor study.

The study looks at transportation and land use in the corridor immediately west of Portland. This area has historically been the fastest-growing residential market in Maine and Richert discussed ways to continue development that will not negatively influence traffic.

Richert spoke out against the “sprawl” growth pattern, which involves spreading out from urban areas. He said this form of development worsens traffic congestion, leads to three times more intersection failures, five times more road failures and increased traffic on residential roads.

“It causes anxiety, heartburn and a lot of complaints,” he said.

Instead, he said, the city should look to designate core growth areas, or “nodes,” that would afford residents within those areas the ability to walk or bike to nearby destinations.

“The idea is to grow more compactly than we have over the last three decades,” he said.

Richert noted, for example, that if left unchecked, peak traffic on William Clarke Drive would grow 29 percent by 2035. If the method of growth changes, peak traffic would grow by only 4 percent over the same time span, he said.

Notes from visioning day suggest numerous discussion groups touched on the desire to make Westbrook a “walkable” city with self-sustaining neighborhoods that contain essential services.

Another potential issue with the drafted vision is that it mentions working farms as a key component of the city’s future. Mayor Colleen Hilton said farmers have indicated some resistance to a vision that dictates what they should do with their farmland.

“I feel like we’re imposing what we like,” she said.

It is a problem that the participants of visioning day were not able to resolve among themselves. Summary notes of the roundtable discussions indicate those from northern Westbrook disagreed on issues of open space, zoning and property rights.

“There is an ongoing struggle to balance the use of zoning regulations as guidance to help shape the character of a neighborhood and leaving it up to landowners to decide,” the notes state. “We discussed Westbrook as a farm-friendly city – but the group did not entirely agree on this and there was caution to be really careful about what we mean when we say that.”

In the south neighborhood’s discussion, participants mentioned that if farmers need to develop their land for financial reasons, they should look at developing like Pineland in New Gloucester, rather than selling to a big box store.

Pineland Farms is a 5,000-acre working farm with a diverse business campus and educational and recreational venues.

Task force members agreed that the vision draft, at nearly a page long, needed to be more succinct. Craig Freshley, the task force’s facilitator, said he would tighten up the document with revisions before the task force meets again on Jan. 6.

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