FREEPORT – When the Amtrak Downeaster makes its initial run into Freeport later this fall, passengers will have a familiar place to wait for the train.

On July 10, the Freeport Town Council voted unanimously to enter into a 10-year lease with L.L. Bean for the lighthouse-shaped building on Depot Street to use as a train station when Amtrak expands its Boston-to-Portland service to Freeport and Brunswick later this year. The town will pay a rent of $1 per year for the building, but as part of the lease, must forgive the approximately $1,200 in annual property taxes.

However, Town Manager Dale Olmstead said that the town could recoup that tax money. Olmstead said he plans to issue a request for proposals from local nonprofits to run the station and use the upstairs office space, and the amount collected from the rent would offset the property tax forgiven in the lease.

Freeport USA, the merchants organization, is housed in the upper floors of the building, and, Olmstead said, has expressed interest in submitting a proposal for the new station.

L.L. Bean will pay the initial cost of renovating the bottom part of building, which is used for public restrooms and a small information center, and the town has agreed to reimburse the company up to $50,000 for the renovations through the course of the lease.

The expanded train service will begin in the fall, though a specific date has not been released. When it does begin, the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, the body that oversees the Downeaster service, said that plans call for two daily round trips connecting Brunswick and Freeport to Portland and Boston.

The $38 million project to expand the popular train line, which recently marked its 10th anniversary, has been under way since August 2010, as crews worked to upgrade existing tracks to support passenger service.

While the state provided the money to build a train platform in Freeport, the town had to come up with its own indoor station. Olmstead said that after some consideration, the Depot Road building “became the obvious choice for a train station.”

Olmstead also said that the agreement provides Freeport with a train station at a fraction of the cost of other stations on the Downeaster line.

“This will be the least costly station north of Boston,” he said.

The council was pleased with the agreement.

“I think that this is great,” said Vice Chairwoman Sara Gideon.

Additionally, the council set an Aug. 7 date for a public hearing regarding the establishment of “quiet zones,” which would block trains from blowing their whistles when approaching intersections in town.

The Federal Railroad Administration instituted a rule in 2005 that required all trains to sound their whistles when approaching railroad crossings. But the agency also allowed for the establishment of quiet zones, where the trains would be prohibited from sounding their horns, provided the crossing had the proper safety measures installed to prevent collisions between cars and trains.

The council briefly discussed two options for the quiet zones. One is a so-called “quad gate,” where the intersection has four gates blocking the crossing instead of two, which would prevent any traffic from getting on the tracks while the train passes. The downside of this measure is the cost – about $100,000 per intersection – that the town would have to pay.

A second option, called “channelization,” would involvd installing soft barriers in the middle of the road approaching the crossing, blocking traffic from going into the other lane in an attempt to skirt the barrier blocking the crossing. The cost for this option would be about $15,000.

The public hearing will be held in the Town Council chambers at Freeport Town Hall on at 6:30 p.m.

This building on Depot Road will serve as the new Freeport train station this fall.(Staff photo by Mike Higgins)