Airport officials want to add about 250 parking spaces at the Portland International Jetport to address increased demand for long-term parking. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

The Portland International Jetport has two months to address city planners’ environmental concerns about an $8 million plan to add 265 long-term surface parking spaces in a wooded area at Maine’s largest airport.

The Planning Board tabled deliberations Tuesday night on a controversial proposal that calls for building a 667-space lot near the existing parking garage on 13 acres along Jetport Boulevard and Loop Road.

It would reconfigure and improve 402 existing paved and unpaved spaces, including a long-term valet parking lot and the so-called cellphone lot, a short-term parking area where family members, friends and Uber or Lyft drivers wait for imminent arrivals.

While board members and many residents continued to question the need for the project, board members noted that their role was essentially limited to deciding on several land-use-code waivers requested by the jetport, which is owned by the city.

“How far can we push this?” board member Maggie Stanley asked rhetorically.

A majority of board members indicated concerns about two waivers that would allow the jetport to fill about 11,000 square feet of wetlands and remove 153 of 178 trees in the project area, while planting trees and shrubs within parking peninsulas and elsewhere within the jetport.

They also questioned whether jetport officials had fully considered alternative solutions to growing parking demand and how long into the future this proposal would satisfy that demand. And they questioned whether this parking proposal complied with the city’s sustainability goals and whether it made more sense to build another parking garage now instead of later.

“It’s really hard to pin down what the need is,” board member Sean Murphy said.

Jetport officials and their consultants are set to return Jan. 28 with answers to board members’ questions and potential changes in the parking proposal. Board Chairman Brandon Mazer said the public hearing on the proposal was closed and additional comment on any changes wouldn’t be allowed.

The board received over 20 written comments on the proposal and heard testimony from a dozen residents during Tuesday’s three-hour deliberations. All of the speakers were opposed, questioning various environmental impacts and why the jetport wasn’t building another parking garage or using available offsite parking to fill mostly intermittent demand.

“It will worsen neighborhood quality of life, and it’s unnecessary,” said Charlotte Witt, who lives near the jetport.

Airport Director Paul Bradbury said the proposal will address growing demand for 3,121 long-term parking spaces already available in and near the parking garage and in the shuttle-served Pink Lot off outer Congress Street.

To help better manage parking demand now, the cellphone lot is being replaced by allowing drivers who are picking up passengers to park for free for up to one hour in long-term spots, he said.

EXCEEDING FAA RECOMMENDATIONS

Bradbury also displayed a fever chart and explained that in the last 12 months, jetport parking frequently exceeded the 85% capacity limit recommended by the Federal Aviation Administration.

“We were 85% full more than 34% of the time,” Bradbury said. “Our public lots have been above 85% on 54 of the past 61 days.”

Meanwhile, members of the Stroudwater Neighborhood Association submitted data that they say shows use of the jetport’s three primary lots is down from 2023.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is reviewing the project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has already authorized filling in the wetlands.

The Portland City Council also must vote on the jetport’s plan to spend $8 million from its $39 million unrestricted cash fund balance.