BIDDEFORD — Locals gathered in the council chambers of City Hall for a public meeting on Thursday night to voice their opinions and concerns over the future construction of a new $65 million county courthouse on Elm Street.

Biddeford Economic Development Director Dan Stevenson and City Planner Greg Tansley also took time to discuss the zoning of the area where the courthouse will be, and what residents would like to see.

In January, the Biddeford City Council voted unanimously to sell land parcels, located at 511-515 Elm St., known as the Pate Property, and another adjacent parcel at 384 Hill St., to the Maine Governmental Facility Authority for $810,000. The sale was finalized in April.

The courthouse will centralize district courts currently located in Biddeford, Springvale and York, and the York County Superior Court, now in Alfred, within one 133,000-square-foot facility. State officials have stated that the courthouse would feature 12 courtrooms.

Thursday’s public meeting only attracted 10 residents, though every attendee voiced a concern over the courthouse’s potential impact on their property or the expected increase in traffic on U.S. Route 1.

“How are the roads going to handle it,” said one resident. “It seems like that’s going to be the biggest issue that I’ll have … On a busy Saturday (Route 1) can back up a long way. It’s just a basic two-lane road all the way down through Arundel.”

Rick Rosenhal, who lives within a development on Birchwood Lane, which is zoned residential and abuts the Pate Property, said when he bought the property he built his house 10 feet from the rear zone line, thinking there could be another house built in that area, but not any industry or commercial facility.

“If the city wants to rezone that area my concern is that I’d like to be able to buy a piece of property or have a buffer zone put back there up against my property,” Rosenhal said. “A lot of the houses right along the side of that Pate Property, they’re also close to that rear line. That’s zoned residential, and if the city wants to change that zoning I’m not going to have a house back there. I’m going to have all kinds of traffic right up against my house.”

Another couple that lives within a development on Lindale Avenue shared similar concerns over how the courthouse would affect their property.

“Our son will be able to see the courthouse from his bedroom window, and we second the traffic concern in that area, it’s already bad now,” said the residents.

Former owner of the Pate Property, Richard Pate, also took time during the meeting to inform those present that he did not expect the property he sold to the city of Biddeford in 2014 to be used as the grounds for a new county courthouse.

“I did not sell that property to the court that is going in there. I sold it to the City of Biddeford with the intent that it was going to be a business park, which would have alleviated the traffic that we now going to experience,” Pate said.

He added that given the volume of traffic that would come with the new courthouse, turning onto residential roads or from residential roads onto U.S. Route 1 would be far more difficult.

Construction of the courthouse is expected to begin this year and should be completed by 2021, said Mary Ann Lynch, spokeswoman for the Maine Judicial Branch, in April.

— Staff Writer Ryder Schumacher can be reached at 282-1535, or via email at [email protected].