To the Editor:
Dear Newcastle citizens: the Newcastle Planning Board intends to present to the Selectmen a revision of our Zoning Ordinance for the Village District.
Presented under the banner of preventing sprawl and establishing a pedestrian based downtown, the proposal would radically alter Main St. (Bus. Rt. 1) in Newcastle.
The proposal makes many small detailed changes which add up to this: developers could build three story high buildings with only a small side set back (15 feet) and no front (road) set back. By making the ground floor of the three floors commercial, the minimum lot size would be reduced by more than half, to 3600 square feet per residential unit. Thus a building with six apartments and an entire ground floor of business would require less than one half acre.
This may not seem so radical but think of the consequences.
Main St. or Bus. Rt. 1 is the only access through town to Damariscotta. It is already crowded to the point of blockage in the summer.
There are at least five lots, and perhaps more, (Shadis Law Office, Parker Interiors, the old Bud’s Chevron, Maritime Farms, Newcastle Savings Bank, and perhaps the Riverview Eye Care and Sproul’s Furniture) that could be developed under this proposal. That would mean 30 or more new residences, plus the vehicle traffic for five to 15 new businesses.
The Planning Board’s rationale for this cockamamie idea is to create a pedestrian based downtown, but the premise has not been thought through. The 30 new residences are certainly not going to have their shopping and employment needs met entirely by the new commercial base.
What are the chances that a grocery store, pharmacy, etc. would occupy one of those storefronts, and those old storefronts are not going to survive on those 30 residences within walking distance. They will require vehicle traffic and parking.
It is reasonable to assume that those new residents will have cars and will drive for work, shopping et cetera, and to assume that those shops will survive only if shoppers drive to them. With 30 residences, we will be adding 45 or more vehicles traveling on and exiting and entering onto the half mile or so of Bus. Rt. 1. Then those five to 15 new businesses will add one hundred, two hundred, or how many vehicle trips to survive.
Where will these shoppers park? The six to eight new parking spots made by the DOT last summer?
In considering this proposal, all you have to do is look next door. Damariscotta had a pedestrian rich downtown 30 to 40 years ago: grocery stores, hardware stores, even a department store, and it had many apartments right in or within walking distance of downtown.
Why has it changed? Primarily one reason: parking. Even with both large parking lots there is not enough easily available parking space to allow many businesses to survive. Now consider the parking in Newcastle’s “downtown.”
Most importantly, think of the consequences of adding all of those residences and businesses, with all their vehicles, to the Bus. Rt. 1 traffic flow that is vital to both Newcastle and Damariscotta. Think of it today and then think of it in July and August. Then envision it in five to 10 years from now.
This proposal will not help sprawl nor will it help the Newcastle businesses community.
It will strangle both towns.
Speak to your Selectmen, your Planning Board members and other voters.
Come to Town Meeting. Vote!
Jonathan C. Hull, Newcastle
