Shawn Moody formally presents the Gorham Town Council Tuesday with his master plan to develop the former horse track on Narragansett Street.

GORHAM —  Shawn Moody on Tuesday gave the Town Council its first glimpse of his plans to develop the old horse racing track his company bought last year into a large business park.

Moody displayed a plan with layouts of lots that the American Journal published in January. The proposed development appears tailored to attract some big businesses.

“We’ve had a lot of inquiries,” Moody, founder of Moody’s chain of collision centers, told town councilors.

Moody’s bought the Narragansett Street property last year for $1.2 million from Hannaford, which years ago planned a store there before building instead in the village. The site is served by public water, sewer and three-phase electrical power.

The 62-acre site is well located near the  roundabout at Narragansett Street (Route 202) and the Bernard P. Rines Bypass that skirts Gorham Village.

The property is in the Narragansett Development District. Moody, a Gorham native and a gubernatorial candidate in 2010, said Tuesday that the development district was put in place for “big box” retail. He indicated he’d likely return to the Town Council with a zoning request.

Michael Phinney, Town Council chairman, said the board has been looking at ways to make development of the site work. He said Moody was welcome to come back to the board with specifics.

“I think it’s a great concept,” Phinney said.

Moody’s master plan divides the old race track into 12 lots. “The Cooperative Workplace Campus will create incubator space for start-up businesses partnered with growth-orientated, large scale office and industrial operations,” Moody said in a prepared statement released last month.

Town Councilor Marla Stelk called Moody’s plans an “extremely ambitious” project and encouraged Moody to look at new-technology tenants.

Moody said jobs provided in the development over time would ease traffic congestion through the town.

Representing Moody’s, Kylie Mason, senior landscape architect at Sebago Technics, said the old race track is three-quarters of a mile from the University of Southern Maine campus. Mason also said development of the race track would allow local residents to ride bicycles to work.

Rob Lavoie, a chiropractor and chairman of the town’s Conservation Commission, pointed out plans for a trail through the site that would link up with a network of other trails in the area.
Lavoie said the site is a great connection and with an increasing number of people bicycling to work,  “it’s a win-win for everyone.”

Moody said at the meeting that his company’s proposed plans don’t include marijuana farms and warehouses, and that he doesn’t want it to compete with businesses in Gorham Village, a mile away.

“We’re trying to preserve village character,” Moody said.

Moody has yet to submit any development plans to the Planning Department. “He has not filed a thing,” David Galbraith, town zoning administrator, said Wednesday.

Racing at the former track ended in the late 1960s and buildings were razed decades ago.

Robert Lowell can be reached at 854-2577 or keepmecurrent.com