Portland residents ask jetport to increase parking without paving over woodland

Portland International Jetport officials say they need additional onsite parking because demand for 2,325 long-term spaces has increased, forcing travelers to use the 400-space, shuttle-served Pink Lot, located on city land at 150 District Road, off outer Congress Street. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Residents pressed airport officials Tuesday night to demonstrate the need for a proposed 6-acre surface parking project at the Portland International Jetport that critics say would expose the Stroudwater neighborhood to more noise, destroy wooded wetlands where spring peepers sing and undermine the city’s efforts to promote sustainable development.

About 100 people attended the meeting at the jetport, where residents repeatedly asked airport officials to consider alternative solutions to increasing demand for long-term parking, including expanding shuttle service to existing offsite lots with available parking, such as at the Maine Mall.

“The question isn’t can you do it,” Jim Wilberg said of the parking project, “the question is should you do it.”

Airport officials held the meeting before submitting permit applications to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and city planners. The cost of the project has yet to be factored but will be covered by the jetport’s unrestricted fund balance, which contains more than $35 million, said Paul Bradbury, airport director.

Bradbury told the audience that the project would include about 680 spaces but would add only about 350 spaces to the current total. It would correct storm water drainage problems; repurpose the former Park & Jet lot, a gravel area recently purchased by the jetport; and move the cellphone lot, a short-term parking area where people wait for imminent arrivals.

“We’re making a lot of improvements,” Bradbury said.

Airport officials say they need additional onsite parking because demand for 2,325 long-term spaces has increased, forcing travelers to use the 400-space, shuttle-served Pink Lot, located on city land at 150 District Road, off outer Congress Street.

Bradbury said expanding offsite parking is an unsustainable option in the face of increasing passenger numbers and a statewide market that lacks mass transportation. The mall and other property owners aren’t willing to lease available parking to the jetport on a long-term basis, he said.

Some residents disputed Bradbury’s assertion that onsite parking within walking distance of the terminal would have a smaller carbon footprint than shuttle parking.

“I don’t quite understand the math there,” said Meg Coleman, who noted that she has worked in the energy sector.

Residents said the jetport should do a data-based, cost-benefit analysis that considers other parking options, and raise parking fees until the existing parking garage can be expanded, which airport officials say is at least 10 years away.

Bradbury said concerns about the need for the parking project and its impact on about 3 acres of woods and wetlands would be addressed during the public review process. Construction could start as soon as summer 2024.

Airport officials attribute increased parking demand to a post-pandemic shift in work and travel habits, including extended business-related trips that have increased long-term parking times by 9% overall. Passenger numbers also have bounced back, with monthly totals since June surpassing pre-pandemic records set in 2019.

Opponents of the surface parking plan see it as a test case for multiple climate action initiatives endorsed by the City Council in recent years, from Sustainable Portland recommendations adopted in 2007, to the One Climate Future plan passed in partnership with South Portland in 2020.

More recently, the council has allocated $435,000 in federal funding to plant more trees, and the parks department is developing an urban forestry master plan to better manage a valuable resource.

Newly elected Mayor Mark Dion alluded to the forestry plan in his inaugural address last week, when he said Portland’s future requires “tangible efforts” to respond to climate change and rising sea levels, and “to enhance the viability of our green canopy as a strategy to add resilience to the ecosystems of our neighborhoods.”

City department heads who oversee sustainability initiatives and tree management issued a statement last week saying that they generally work to protect and expand Portland’s green canopy. The need to remove trees for the surface parking plan will be reviewed during the planning process, which includes the city arborist, they said.

“There is always a balancing of priorities when considering removing trees,” they said. “Sometimes we choose to remove trees for other city priorities such as housing, accessibility, transportation – even airport parking lots.”