Susan Henderson lives in South Portland.

South Portland is developing a new comprehensive plan with guidelines for the city’s growth and development. The process has been controversial at times. Everyone pretty much agrees on values and goals, but there are concerns about affordability, environmental protection and lack of funds to deal with city problems. Conflict is most evident in discussions about the Shipyard District and Eastern Waterfront.

Those who want development on this parcel see great potential economic value via increased tax revenue. Others see it as a financial liability for the city from environmental and safety issues related to the tank farm: air pollution, soil pollution, danger of industrial accident. And sea level rise along the shore is inevitable.

There is a possible compromise that could meet the comprehensive plan’s goals for the Shipyard area and the city: preserving this whole area as an open-space monument to South Portland’s significant contributions to WWII.  

As the war loomed, homes and farms along Cushing’s Point in South Portland were taken by eminent domain. The land was filled to develop a shipyard in the race to get essential supplies to Europe.  At the yard, more than 30,000 workers turned out 266 liberty ships in record time. The whole area provided accommodations for men and women from all parts of Maine and New Hampshire to achieve this critical goal.

At around the same period, the Portland Pipe Co. developed a pipeline to bring oil from a pier in South Portland to a refinery in Montreal to supply desperately needed fuel to the East Coast. The contributions businesses, landowners and individual workers made to produce the ships and the pipeline were heroic and instrumental in winning the war.

But victory in a war is not without death and destruction, and South Portlanders made many sacrifices, from giving up their homes to losing loved ones in battle overseas. Those sacrifices should be remembered and honored.

The vast amount of open space surrounding the current Liberty Ship Memorial could be incorporated into an expanded public park. If the pipeline land was included in the park, the Green Belt would connect to SMCC lands and extend to Williard Beach.

The Eastern Waterfront area, featuring a deepwater port and harbor, has irreplaceable value to our city and the area. A public park with waterfront access would benefit everyone — residents and visitors alike — offering open green space for physical, mental and social well-being.

An open-space memorial park could be our way of showing gratitude for all we have while also sowing seeds of hope for our children’s and our environment’s future. It’s an achievable goal that could bring the city, landowners and businesses together once again to create something of great and lasting beauty that affirms our values, hopes and dreams.