ROCKLAND — An effort begun more than two years ago to envision what Camden Street (Route 1) from Rockland to Glen Cove in Rockport might look like with improvements culminated Nov. 26 at Rockland City Hall as landscape architects delivered the study and assorted designs, “Unlocking the Potential”, to the  Rockland City Council, Rockland Economic Advisory Committee, members of the Rockport Select Board and the public.

Click here to see the designs.

The study culminated a series of seven public workshops held to envision the future of the Route 1 strip. Rockland’s Economic Development Advisory Committee invited the nonprofit Friends of Midcoast Maine to work with the city more than two years ago to carry out this study and vision process.

Friends of Midcoast Maine Director and project leader Jane Lafleur said Rockport was included in the study because the two municipalities share a common border. The study focused on the stretch of Route 1 between Maverick Street at McDonalds to Glen Cove, representing a distance of approximately 1.5 miles.

Lafleur said following the presentation: “The city and the town have the ability to shape the future of this area. They can do that by changing the public spaces that they already own and control, and they can do it by changing the zoning to allow developers to do more and better things with their property. We saw that there are economic benefits, there are job benefits, and there are tax benefits that go hand in hand with having a different pattern of development in this area.”

The Rockland and Rockport study was funded by several grants and donations. The 90-minute presentation was followed by questions from councilors and committee members, as well as public comment.

The study focused on how to enhance the street for aesthetics and traffic flow. Ideas included decreasing the amount of pavement between the street and buildings, establishing medians, building roundabouts, better sidewalks and bike paths, and landscaping the area.

Following Lafleur’s presentation, Terry DeWan, principal landscape architect with Terrence J. DeWan and Associates of Yarmouth, and Sarah Witte outlined concepts of how the corridor could be developed.

Bill Pearce, who serves on the Rockland Energy Advisory Committee and the Parks Commission, advised that placement of the bike lanes be reconsidered.

“I used to own a bicycle as my only means of transportation, and one of my biggest fears was when you are going along street side parking and the driver opens his door and you try to fly through his window,” he said. “A lot of bicycling organizations want bicyclists to run in the middle of the lane. Accidents happen between pedestrians, motor vehicles and the bicyclist and if they don’t mix properly it raises your injury factor, so I think a little more time needs to be spent on this. I love the bike lanes, but if you’re a true commuter, you don’t really want this.”  

With big changes comes a potentially big price tag, where does that money come from?

“I’m not sure exactly what you mean by huge price tag except for the public improvement, because if the road is reconstructed that is a joint project between the state Department of Transportation, the federal government and local,” she said. “It’s usually a percentage match and I think it’s 80/20. That would be a decision the taxpayers would have to make in Rockland and Rockport for funding their share. There are grants, too. The question is, can the city afford to continue in this pattern when they’re not getting the best value for those properties.”

Give us a time frame here, 10 years, 15, 25, 50…?

“In every case of the private properties we show at least two examples,” she said. “One of them shows the existing building being redeveloped and the other shows the possibility if they wanted to start from scratch. If the zoning is changed within a year, that could be a one year to 50-year time frame. The road reconstruction could be five to 25 years. It’s up to the city as to how fast they want to move this project along.”

Rockland Mayor Larry Pritchett commented that the city would need to see what happens in the next couple of meetings. Pritchett urged all who were in attendance to make notes and see that they are forwarded to council members and not forgotten over the Thanksgiving Holiday.

“What I walked away with, as a member of council, is that along Camden Street there’s a 66-foot wide corridor that’s state and local owned,” said Pritchett. “How we handle that greatly impacts how attractive it is to someone who might develop that piece of property, how usable it is for neighbors. I think there is real opportunity for the city in the road corridor alone to take steps that may help this area redevelop in ways that’s better for the community.”

And if this comes to fruition, what’s a timeline?

“I think it’s really too early to tell,” he said. “In Falmouth, which I’m fairly familiar with, the project was at the low level planning stages for years. Then they hit a point of critical momentum where they went from the kind of presentation we saw tonight to actual public infrastructure proposals — how much would it take to put in median strips, how much would it take to put in lighting, how much it would take to put in sidewalks. There was this long window and they are now looking at putting projects on the ground this next construction season.”

And a comment in general on the work they’ve done for this presentation?

“I think it’s great,” he said. ‘I think it’s hard to get every player you like at the table, it’s hard to surpass all the different opinions as you saw with the roundabout at McDonalds and Burger King, but given the constraints, I think they did a good job.”