I was shocked to read of the city’s plan to pay for the extension of Thames Street with taxpayer dollars, in order to create access to a private development and to sell a critical piece of city property to the developer for less than half of its market value!

There is no justification for requiring taxpayers to pay for the extension of Thames Street to provide access to CPB2’s proposed development. Let’s be honest: The street extension offers no public benefit.

The only benefit identified by proponents of this deal is road access to a park that may, someday, be built on city property. That park would need no new road to be accessed from the East End Trail, the Marine Terminal and multiple points along Fore Street.

It’s also misleading to try to sell city residents on the idea that the Thames Street extension will promote the establishment of what city Economic Development Director Greg Mitchell, paraphrased in the Press Herald, called a more “traditional street grid.”

Mayor Ethan Strimling is right. The proposed extension will go to one property – a private property that will allow no public ingress or egress from the opposite direction, because the eastern portion of the proposed development will be, like a gated community, impermeable to public access. This is not what is meant by a “traditional street grid.”

There are so many pressing needs for infrastructure repairs and investment in this city! There is just no justification for selling city property to CPB2 for less than half of its fair market value.

Tica Douglas

Portland

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