Westbrook, ME

No plans posted yet on the Planning Board Materials page, but this is on the docket for the next workshop:

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It's these properties here. 7 Dana street is effectively two properties behind 907 and 901 Main Street, with the split in the property from an old rail ROW. 4 Dana Street is the old American Journal building on the other side of Dana Street. Sappi owns the land to the west of 4 Dana Street.

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Planning Board materials have been posted in the document center (not linked on the Planning Board page yet). Renderings and sketch plans for 4/7 Dana Street are here:


Looks like the Sappi land is being conveyed to the City for the parking in the northwest corner of the project. In exchange, the developer is extending the river walk well up the river past this development.

I'm not a fan of the corrugated metal looking façade, but overall I think the design fits well in the space with the river as a backdrop. It actually seems to borrow some design elements from the Vertical Harvest building. One more story on the building wouldn't have hurt, but I could hear the outrage from Westbrook residents already: "Why are we trying to be Portland?!?!?" 😂🤦‍♂️

Looks like part of Saccarappa Park is being used for additional parking, which might bring out some opposition. Why so much parking? Didn't the City just build a parking garage 325 feet away?

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I don't mind the siding, and agreed about one more floor. My only thought - the floor plans for some of the triangle shaped units are awkward. I wonder how they'll work out in reality. Definitely not an efficient use of space.
 
The only thing would be flooding from the river, I have seen it get over the banks. The Planning Department also needs to look at its requirement for parking. EV charging? encourage less cars.... the decks help break out the mass...
 
PWMFlyer said:
The only thing would be flooding from the river, I have seen it get over the banks. The Planning Department also needs to look at its requirement for parking. EV charging? encourage less cars.... the decks help break out the mass...
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I lived on the river next to this site for many years and the water even at it's highest never caused any damage.
 
I was going to say, even during the October 96 flood, the water never came over that bank (and that was when the dam was there).
 
Video of last night's Planning Board meeting. The workshop on 4/7 Dana Street starts around the 1 hour 24 minute mark. I didn't get a chance to attend or watch live, so I'm watching it as time permits today. I did note that they're planning to use CLTs in construction.

vimeo.com

Planning Board 7/2/24

This is "Planning Board 7/2/24" by City of Westbrook, Maine on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.
vimeo.com vimeo.com
 
Pleasantly surprised to hear mostly positive feedback from the Board and fairly minor and resolvable concerns from neighbors. Given the sites location I was expecting a bit of pushback from the low-density neighborhood immediately to the west.
 
Dr. StrangeHat said:
Video of last night's Planning Board meeting. The workshop on 4/7 Dana Street starts around the 1 hour 24 minute mark. I didn't get a chance to attend or watch live, so I'm watching it as time permits today. I did note that they're planning to use CLTs in construction.

vimeo.com

Planning Board 7/2/24

This is "Planning Board 7/2/24" by City of Westbrook, Maine on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.
vimeo.com vimeo.com
Click to expand...
Some fencing has gone up here ... maybe some demo soon.
 
This is the property where Jason Snyder proposed building the state's largest mall back in 2008, back when retail was just starting to die. I can't imagine how poorly that would have played out had they not boofed the whole effort and got in well over their heads.

JB Brown picked this up for a song after it was auctioned.

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Which brings me to mention the "elephant in the room" next door to this development--cemeteries. At what point will they be scaled back instead of continual expansion? And why does someone who died over 200 years ago get a piece of real estate for eternity? What kind of life did they lead? Are they worth it? I'd say many aren't. The one next to UNE is massive, and directly in the way for expansion. It's an emotional issue and one that will never be addressed even in the near future. 1,000 years from now, perhaps.
 
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