Sebago Technics Vice President of Transportation Services Steve Sawyer responds to a peer review of the Route 27 corridor improvement plan at the Boothbay Board of Selectmen’s meeting at the Boothbay Region YMCA on Aug. 10. (Abigail Adams photo)
The fate of the proposed roundabout for the intersection of Route 27, Corey Lane, and Common Drive in Boothbay will be decided by the town’s voters in the Nov. 8 general election.
The Boothbay Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Wednesday, Aug. 10 to place a warrant article on the ballot for Nov. 8 to ask if the town would like to enter into a Business Partnership Initiative with developer Paul Coulombe’s business PGC5 LLC and the Maine Department of Transportation.
The Business Partnership Initiative would jointly fund the construction of the roundabout at the intersections that surround the town common, and make related intersection improvements along Route 27. Its total price tag is $3.3 million.
The decision to send the proposal to a townwide vote comes after six months of public information sessions and an independent peer review of the proposed “SR 27 Corridor Improvements Analysis,” the official name of the proposal prepared by GHD Inc. and Sebago Technics.
The exact wording of the warrant article has not yet been determined, but selectmen’s decision to place it on the ballot will ensure it will go to a townwide vote in November, Chairman Dale Harmon said.
Developer Paul Coulombe and Danielle Betts, a civil engineer with the Knickerbocker Group, listen to public comments during an Aug. 10 information session on a proposal for a roundabout, as well as Coulombe’s plans for a future retail development in Boothbay. (Abigail Adams photo)
The final engineering design is also not yet complete, with options under development in response to feedback from the peer review and from public input, said Danielle Betts, civil engineer with the Knickerbocker Group.
A roundabout proposal has been brought before the town before, in 2013, and failed. Boothbay voters will determine Nov. 8 whether to move forward with a new proposal, which promises to be “transformational” for Boothbay, said Steve Sawyer, Sebago Technics vice president of transportation services.
Roundabout history
The proposal for a roundabout dates back to a 2002 Maine Department of Transportation study of the intersections of Corey Lane, Back River Road, and Common Drive with Route 27. The intersections have been pinpointed as a source of traffic congestion on the Boothbay peninsula.
In the DOT permitting process for the renovation of the Boothbay Harbor Country Club, the Knickerbocker Group learned of the 2002 DOT traffic study and the proposed roundabout, Betts said. Coulombe agreed to fund the initial efforts to bring the proposal forward to the town.
In a November 2013 referendum, voters were asked if the town would authorize issuing a $2.5 million bond for road improvements to the intersections around the common, according to Boothbay’s 2013 town report.
The 2013 proposal called for a roundabout at the intersection of Corey Lane, Back River Road, and Route 27 with Boothbay’s iconic Civil War monument in the center. It was defeated, 625-444. The placement of the monument was a major source of opposition, Betts said.
At the time, the town did not have a Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, district – a public-private partnership that allows the town to retain the increased tax revenue from development in designated areas, provided the revenue is spent on further development in those areas.
In the current proposal, the location of the roundabout has changed, and the TIF district is a crucial element of financing the Route 27 corridor improvement plan, which will allow the project to be completed at no cost to taxpayers, Coulombe said.
The money
The creation of a TIF district was also brought before the town in the November 2013 election when the roundabout was defeated. The warrant article to create a TIF district to encompass the country club, a stretch of Route 27, and the nearby industrial park, was also defeated, 626-516, according to the town report.
The proposal to create a TIF district was again brought before the town at the May 2014 town meeting, and passed.
Due to the creation of the TIF district, tax revenue from development in the district after 2014 is now retained by the town in a special account, Boothbay Town Manager Dan Bryer said. The revenue in the account can only be spent on development in the TIF district.
If approved, the $3.3 million corridor improvement project will be financed through the DOT’s Business Partnership Initiative, a program which allows developers, municipalities, and the DOT to jointly fund projects.
Coulombe’s PGC5 LLC will cover one-third of the project, the DOT will cover one-third, and Boothbay will use money in its TIF account to cover bond payments for the remaining one-third.
The country club is the only development currently generating money for the TIF account, Coulombe said in a public information session that preceded the selectmen’s meeting Aug. 10.
“I’m supporting the TIF 100 percent myself,” Coulombe said. “The truth of it is, it isn’t your money, it’s my money,” he said to the crowd of more than 100.
An attendee took issue with the characterization of the project as “free.” Regardless of whether tax revenue goes into the general fund or the TIF account, it is the town’s money and it will be used to fund the project, the resident said.
The project will cause no increases in taxes and the entire town will benefit from it, Coulombe said.
The design
The most recent roundabout proposal was publicly introduced in March. Since then, it has gone through several public information sessions and a peer review.
The final design for the project is still in flux as feedback from the public and from the peer review is being incorporated into the plan, Betts said.
The Back River Road entrance to Route 27, bike lanes around the roundabout, and the location of crosswalks are elements of the design that are being reconsidered, Sawyer said.
Options to address the feedback are currently in development, but the engineering design will be finalized prior to the November vote “so the town has a very clear understanding of what they are voting on, and to avoid surprises after the vote,” Betts said.
The corridor improvement plan addresses intersections along Route 27 from Country Club Road to the end of the town common. The roundabout would be constructed at the intersection of Common Drive and Route 27.
Corey Lane would be rerouted to feed into the roundabout across Route 27 from Common Drive, according to the plan.
For the past three years, Coulombe has purchased property along Corey Lane to allow for its realignment, he said. The headquarters of the Boothbay Region Ambulance Service was among the property purchased. In exchange, Coulombe is funding a new $1.6 million headquarters for the ambulance service.
Acting through PGC5 LLC, Coulombe also recently purchased the Clipper Mart lot on Route 27, north of the town common, Betts said.
The gas tanks from the lot will be removed and the curve will be remodeled to increase visibility for southbound traffic, Sawyer said.
Removal of the gas tanks is good news, Harmon said, speaking as an employee of the Boothbay Water District. The gas tanks are currently the only ones in Boothbay’s watershed, and their removal will be an environmental bonus, he said.
The plan also calls for adding left-hand turn lanes on Route 27 to Chapel Street and the Boothbay Harbor Country Club driveway, left-hand turn lanes on Route 27 to Country Club Road, and a right-hand turn lane on Country Club Road to enable traffic to exit onto Route 27.
In the initial proposal, Back River Road was also slightly realigned to feed into Route 27, north of the Civil War monument. Selectmen questioned connecting Back River Road to Route 27, asking instead if the road’s entrance to Route 27 could be blocked off and Back River Road could instead connect to Corey Lane.
The restructuring of Corey Lane and Back River Road will create an open space between the Civil War monument, the town hall, and a nearby park and cemetery, according to the report. With crosswalks and bike lanes, there will be more pedestrian access to Boothbay attractions than ever before, Sawyer said.
Options are under development for the exact location of the bike lanes and crosswalks in light of public input, Sawyer said. The peer review pointed out that bicyclists do not like roundabouts. If sidewalks are extended around the roundabout to accommodate bicyclists, it will increase the width of the sidewalk to 10 feet, transforming them into multi-use lanes, Sawyer said.
A small tract of land still needs to be acquired from a private landowner to enable the right-turn lane for trucks exiting Country Club Road, Betts said. The town and engineers working on the project will make contact with all abutting property owners in the project’s impact area in upcoming weeks to discuss the temporary impacts and disruptions the project may cause, Betts said.
Trust
While public comments on Aug. 10, at both the information session and the selectmen’s meeting, were overwhelmingly positive, public distrust of Coloumbe’s redevelopment efforts was evident.
A resident at the Aug. 10 selectmen’s meeting referred to the new ambulance service headquarters as “a bribe.” A resident also pointed to changes Coulombe has made which have had a negative effect on Coulombe’s relationship with the community, such as renaming the Boothbay Country Club the Boothbay Harbor Country Club.
Renaming the Boothbay Country Club was outside of Coulombe’s control, as the owner of the name would not transfer it when Coulombe bought the country club, Betts said.
Due to public comments, a 40-car parking area to the east of the Boothbay Common, privately owned by Coulombe, will be leased to the town for public use. The community has had the ability to freely use the parking area since it was constructed during the redevelopment of the Country Club, Betts said.
Residents requested a formal agreement securing their right to use it, so access could not be later denied, Betts said. “For some reason, no one trusts me,” Coloumbe said. “I don’t know why. I do everything I say I’m going to do.”
The Aug. 10 public information session, which Coloumbe and Betts spoke at, introduced plans for a future Boothbay Village Square development, a mixed-use retail development along the town common, to the public. The project is in its conceptual stage, but was shared with the public in response to questions from community members about Coloumbe’s future intentions for property he has purchased around the town common, Betts said.
The development has the potential to extend the tourist season in Boothbay year-round, Coulombe said. A resident expressed fear that Coloumbe’s development projects would price him out of his own community.
The development is not contingent on voter approval of the roundabout proposal, Betts said. However, the roundabout will be a catalyst for economic development on the Boothbay peninsula, Coulombe said.
Nov. 8
Corey Lane and Route 27 is a failing intersection that cannot handle its current traffic level, Sawyer said. With a planned expansion of the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, traffic at the intersection will only become worse, Sawyer said.
The traffic congestion on Route 27, which is, in part, caused by the intersections around the Boothbay town common, is an issue, according to DOT officials. However, it does not rise to the level of a regional issue that would allow the DOT to tap into state and federal funds.
The Business Partnership Initiative will allow the town to address a long-standing issue, to everyone’s benefit, at no cost to taxpayers, Coloumbe said. “How any reasonable person could be against this is beyond me,” he said.
Boothbay voters will have the final say on Nov. 8.
Correction: The original version of this article incorrectly identified Steve Sawyer as a DOT project engineer. Sawyer is vice president of transportation services for Sebago Technics, one of two engineering firms that developed the Route 27 corridor improvement plan.
