The Dec. 29 Maine Sunday Telegram article on the South Portland pipeline was fascinating, putting the current status of the pipeline in an historical perspective. For some reason – which I realized later – I was intrigued by the idea of mothballing the storage tanks, valued at $45 million. The realization was that despite the unfortunate loss of jobs and related industries, wouldn’t it be a magnet for an investor (or a bunch of them) who might like to dismantle the storage tanks and develop the land for residential and commercial use?

Since Portland is developing housing and commercial property, why shouldn’t South Portland do the same? Apparently, the Portland area is attractive to a lot of people “from away.” Developers, although they do take risks, clearly see the Portland area as an acceptable risk.

And as a final note – I’m a South Portland resident “from away.” It’s a great community and some might fear the loss of the community feel if development occurred. Clearly some of the developed properties would be on the water and … oh, wouldn’t that likely increase my property value? It also would decrease the 18-wheeler traffic, which isn’t that bad but sometimes annoying.

Of course, there are no guarantees that if the pipeline industry disappeared that developers would appear. But this was just a speculation that might benefit South Portland.

Mark Schwartz

South Portland

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