BIDDEFORD — Outraged Biddeford residents and business owners expressed their concerns about the City Council’s proposed parking garage plan during Tuesday night’s council workshop.

As the council gets closer to its Sept. 17 meeting, when members will vote on the proposed 640-space parking garage to be  located at 3 Lincoln St., residents at the workshop on Tuesday at Biddeford High School’s Little Theater complained that their voices are not being heard.

Many attendees held signs up during the workshop that read, “Don’t ignore our vote,” and “No Parking Garage.”

City officials who are proponents of building a parking garage at the site of a former trash incinerator said say the garage will bring more development to the downtown and mill district, which will help stabilize property taxes.

City Manager James Bennett presented the council with the plan’s overview, projecting a little over $16 million revenue increase from property taxes over a 10-year period for the city with the installment of the garage and a net benefit of $39 million over 25 years.

The project would include a contract with Treadwell Franklin Insurance Infrastructure Captial and James W. Sewall Company to create Biddeford Innovations Inc., which would be responsible for establishing and maintaining the garage, said Bennett.

“I think it’s important that we all hear the same information tonight,” said Mayor Alan Casavant at the start of the workshop. “Mainly because there’s a lot of misinformation going around and what it means and how it plays out.”

The projected cost to build the garage would be $21 to $22 million on the lower end and $25 million on the higher end, Bennett said, with some of that cost coming from users and another portion coming from the Mill District Tax Increment Funding (TIF).

Many residents said they were unsure how a parking garage could improve the downtown area during the public forum section of the workshop.

A number of other speakers also addressed their problems with the safety concerns that they believe the garage may cause.

City Council member Amy Clearwater said that she is working to improve the safety of the downtown crosswalks, and she added that the more pedestrians who are in the downtown, the safer it will become for them.

Jason Litalien, who is running for mayor against Casavant in the upcoming election, said he would file a lawsuit against the city if the project is approved.

“Are we supposed to trust Biddeford Innovations?” he said. “You’re going to agree with a company that doesn’t even exist. I could register that trademark on my phone, and within 30 minutes I could be Biddeford Innovations… This plan is not the only way to stabilize taxes — that is backwards thinking.”

Kathy Russell, another Biddeford resident, agreed with Litalien, telling the council members that if they truly believed the public wants the garage, they should allow the public to vote on it.

One resident and downtown business owner, Julian Schlaver, said he was supportive of the decision to build the garage, wishing the conversations and debates would finally end.

“I think that this parking garage will support the growth of the downtown,” he said. “I also think it would be wonderful to see the Lincoln Street area be developed. It’s sort of sad to see that empty lot right now. There’s nothing there, and it would be wonderful to see new buildings and new life downtown.”

Former Biddeford Mayor Joanne Twomey said that the City Council needs to take the public’s opinion into account.

“If you continue to do these projects without asking anybody, you’re not doing your job,” she said to the council.

-Catherine Bart can be reached at cbart@mainelymediallc.com or 780-9029.

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