The Portland Economic Development Division has a plan to create a business park absolutely void of any modern sustainability thinking.
First, the new business park will not be on a bus route. 8 buildings, 400 workers, all cars. Wait, call me surprised.
It’s on Westbrook Street, in the middle of a semi-rural, residential area bordering the Stroudwater trail network. The access point to Westbrook Street is the intersection with Congress near the airport (the traffic lights near Stroudwater). That intersection is already a traffic nuisance, but why think about that?
And, haven’t we learned that when you zone low density in the burbs you get crap traffic situations like driving to Gorham and the Maine Mall.
The developers want to lure you with their Silver certification in US Green building. But how much CO2 are people going to use commuting back and forth? Green. Hah! And there’s no restaurants or nearby cultural activities for lunch so everyone, hop in your car.
And because Portland has so much money (didn’t we just cut the budget dramatically?), we’re generously running utilities all the way there plus paving 950 new feet of roadway. Nice of us.
Thankfully the Department of Environment Protection has already declared the 10 acres of forested wetlands and vernal pools as having no “special significance.” That is, unless you enjoy woods and wetlands and clean air and things that Maine is suppose to represent.
Economic development doesn’t have to mean bulldozing the forested exurbs. There are lots of brownfield places within Portland with already established utilities and roadways and restaurants and bus lines. The Economic Development Committee needs to dig a little deeper than bulldozing forested lands half way to New Hampshire.
For those who want smarter solutions to jobs than urban sprawl, there’s a Portland Planning Committee workshop on November 23rd at 3:30pm in room 209 second floor of City Hall to view and comment on the developer’s plans.
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