Employer sees town center at the Downs as a boon to employees

To the editor,

When I was exploring locations throughout Greater Portland for the future home of AV Technik, I was drawn to The Downs and the master planned community because of the promise it delivered — live, work, play. That simple combination of three words offered something powerful to all businesses in Scarborough.

In the events industry, we often work long hours and spend more time at work than with our own families. So having a vibrant community with amenities nearby, including a town center, grocery store, greenspace and walking trails is really important to keeping my employees happy — but it also provides me a strengthened ability to attract a skilled workforce. The Downs amenities, particularly the promise of a town center, have helped my recruitment and retention efforts tremendously.

For my staff to be able to live here; be able to grab lunch or a drink after work; or even pick up groceries on their way out of the office — that’s attractive to prospective employees. Half of our staff is under 30 years old ­— they are just now building their careers and starting their families. The new and affordable workforce housing within The Downs will attract a workforce, and that’s a benefit to many employers in Scarborough.

There really isn’t anything like this happening in Maine — and I would like to see the town center come to fruition for the sake of Scarborough’s small business community.

Daniel Willis
President, AV Technik

Town center is long time vision

To the editor,

The vision for Scarborough’s proposed town center has been in the making for 16 years. That is when residents and town leaders approved the 2006 Comprehensive Plan, which first laid out a directive to build a town center and provided the vision and goals for all future development in Scarborough. But don’t take my word for it — read it for yourself.

The 2006 plan calls for “an efficient, concentrated and dense neighborhood that includes community-scale retail and service uses … a variety of housing including affordable housing, municipal and community service uses, and recreational facilities as well as employment opportunities in business and professional offices and similar uses. The core … offers the possibility for creating a “Main Street” as part of the overall development.” The 2006 Comp Plan goes on to outline a goal to create “a vibrant, mixed-use center for the community that includes a variety of uses and environments and preserves significant open space and natural resources.”

It should be noted that this local development team is working to create something that is completely in line with the 2006 and 2021 Comprehensive Plans. They are working to deliver something our community wants and will benefit from — a privately financed town center and the site and revenue source for a municipally-owned community center. That’s a pretty good deal for the people of Scarborough!

Kevin Freeman
Scarborough

Town growing too fast

To the editor,

Nina McKee’s recent letter about the Council Corner Live event was right on target. It was a great event, and Councilors Anderson and Sither deserve our thanks for taking the time to listen and respond to resident concerns about Scarborough’s rapid growth. More listening is a good thing!

The event generated great interest — more than 25 residents attended the event in person at Town Hall and more than 50 others joined by Zoom or YouTube. Noteworthy was the nearly unanimous sentiment expressed by those attending. Of the 25 or so people who offered their opinions on Scarborough’s current growth, all but one of them said the Town is growing much too fast.

Some of the common themes expressed were:

• The current too-rapid growth is threatening our schools, our natural resources and our way of life.

• How can the Town even be considering a major exemption to the Growth Management Ordinance when such an overwhelming proportion of residents noted too-fast growth as their main concern in last year’s Community Survey?

• It seems like the developers are controlling the Town rather than the other way around.

Let’s hope that the entire Town Council was listening to the residents and will act to rein in the current unsustainable level of growth.

Brian Kanode
Scarborough

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