The Waterfront

The taskforce convenes

Brian Hanscom

The Waterfront Development and Master Planning Committee held its first meeting last Wednesday at City Hall to a full house. The sweat forming on the brows of committee members and spectators around the room may have come from the lack of air conditioning more than deep consternation, although some of the committee members were struck by the size of the task at hand.

"It was a little like first day of class in college," says Luke MacFadyen representing the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization. "You sit down and you're like, `Whoa, they expect me to do what?' "

What is expected is that the group will plan the direction of development on the Portland waterfront for the years to come, and committee co-chairs Karen Geraghty and Peter O'Donnell ushered in the 27-member taskforce for the meeting to start sifting through what promises to be a lengthy process.

"What we're looking for out of this process," said Geraghty, "is for the community to continue to refine its vision for the waterfront: what kind of activities we want taking place down there and what kind of development, and what the particular mix of businesses will be."

With the building of a new ferry terminal hopefully underway by 2002 and the surveying of the BIW land starting at the beginning of September, the committee has its work cut out for it. "We have decisions to make," said Geraghty. "The council, through community involvement, has to make some decisions about the redevelopment of the BIW parcel, and [to understand] how that will affect the other properties down on the East End."

There has been some unrest that the community involvement in waterfront development has not been all it could be. Phineas Sprague, who will be sitting on the Waterfront Development and Master Planning Committee representing Fore Street property owners, had been frustrated with the apparent lack of inclusion earlier in the process. Sprague, while noting that the property owners would be included in the Master Planning committee, was dismayed to see no representation on the Facility Building Subcommittee, a smaller committee which will ultimately decide how the BIW land will be transformed into a passenger terminal, and is thought by many to hold the real power in transforming the face of the waterfront.

"It would be great if we could have an unlimited size on our taskforce," says Geraghty, "but it was the mayor's decision to try and limit the number of people." Mayor Cheryl Leeman had hinted in June that she may have been open to adding members to the subcommittee [see "The master plan," Portland Phoenix, June 23], yet Sprague notes since that time, "We were told absolutely not."

Sprague is one of many who has concerns with the direction the waterfront has taken in the past years. "I think that Portland has really turned its back on the waterfront. It's related to the change in the way the waterfront has done business over the years, in the fact that Portland does not really earn its living anymore directly from the economy of the waterfront." However, Sprague and other members of the Master Planning committee were up-beat about the future of the committee process.

"I was impressed," says MacFadyen of the first meeting. "One of the things they said right away was if you miss two consecutive meetings you'll be replaced. I thought that was great. They showed right away they're serious. But this is just the first meeting. We'll have to wait to see what really happens."