Planning and Economic Development

Comp Plan Update Underway

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:03:20 -0400

The Town Council has appointed a Comprehensive Plan Committee to prepare an update of the plan over the next 18 months. The committee's organizing meeting will be at 7 p.m., Thursday, May 3, in the Town Council Chambers.

The update will cover all aspects of the Comprehensive Plan except for the portion of the plan dealing with the Forestry and Agriculture, the Low Density Residential, and Stillwater Ave. Overlay land use districts, all of which were updated in the 2009 amendments to the plan.

Progress, meeting dates, and other comprehensive plan news can be followed on the Planning and Economic Development Department's web page, at http://www.planning.orono.org/comprehensive_planning_update.

Business Park Application to Be Submitted

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:07:11 -0400

The Kelley Road Business Park Advisory Committee Tuesday night recommended that an application for the proposed site plan for the business park be submitted to the Department of Environmental Protection for a site location permit.

The target date for submission is April 13. Before then, the Town will host a public information meeting to answer questions about the permit application. The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 5, 7 p.m., in the Municipal Building's Council chambers. A draft of the application also will be available for review at that time in the Orono Planning Office and on the project website, http://krbp.ces-maine.com.

The site plan envisions a campus-like design that would accommodate about 140,000 square feet of professional office, technology/R&D, and hospitality space.

Shaw & Tenney Helping LL Bean Celebrate Centennial

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:28:11 -0500

Shaw & Tenney of Orono, makers of the world's finest wooden oars and paddles, has been selected by L.L. Bean to help it celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Shaw & Tenney is teaming with West Branch Heritage Timber of Millinocket, which harvests centuries-old logs that lie at the bottom of Quakish Lake in the north woods, to produce the paddles. Some of the wood dates back to the 16th Century.

Shaw & Tenney, located on Mill Street, has been handcrafting wooden oars and paddles since 1858. Its partnership with L.L. Bean and West Branch Heritage Timber was formally announced at Shaw & Tenney's plant in a ceremony Jan. 4. Sen. Susan Collins was the keynote speaker.

Congratulations to owners Steve Holt and Nancy Forster-Holt for carrying on the long tradition of Shaw & Tenney and for this deserved recognition.

Public Meeting: Kelley Rd. Business Park Plan

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:16:38 -0500

The Kelley Road Business Park Advisory Committee will host a public meeting Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 7 pm, at the Municipal Building to review the conceptual plan for the business park. The full public is invited.

The park will be located on 30 acres behind the offices of the Katahdin Council of the Boy Scouts at Exit 191. The Committee will review what it heard from area residents and property owners last summer concerning possible off-site effects and how it has addressed those. And it will go over the conceptual design for which permit applications will be prepared over the next few months.

The conceptual design can be viewed at http://krbp.ces-maine.com. (It should be posted early in the week of Jan. 9.)

Census Says...

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:04:43 -0400

(This is the second in a series of occasional snippets from the 2010 Census profiling the Town of Orono. This snippet covers households and housing units.)

While Orono’s population grew by 13.7% between 2000 and 2010, the increase in population living in households – rather than in dormitories or nursing homes – was a bit less at 8.3%. The number of households themselves increased by 5.2%, to 2,831.

The changing complexion of Orono is reflected in the changing make-up of households. The number of families actually dropped by nearly 5%, while the number of households comprising unrelated people living together jumped by more than 14%. Unmarried partners were a small part of this increase and might better be considered on the family side of the equation. But it appears that most of the growth was in student population living off campus.

Housing stock increased by 190 units over the decade, according to the Census, or 5.2% -- after accounting both for new construction and for units lost to fire or demolition. But owner-occupied units dropped slightly, by 3.3%, while renter-occupied units increased by nearly 13%. The Orchard Trails complex accounted for the majority of this increase, but there was growth in renter-occupied housing elsewhere in town as well.

About 56% of the occupied dwelling units in Orono are occupied by renters and 44% by owners.

Average household size increased very slightly, from 2.23 persons per household in 2000 to 2.29 in 2010. The average is 2.44 for owner-occupied units and 2.18 for renter-occupied units.

Watch for the next Census Says..., which will look closer at how Orono is growing.

Census Says...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:56:12 -0400

(This is one in a series of occasional snippets from the 2010 Census profiling the Town of Orono.)

Orono’s population grew by more than 13% between 2000 and 2010 – from 9,112 to 10,362. That’s an increase of 1,250 souls. That looks like robust growth – and it is – but the growth was concentrated in three age groups:

15-to-24 year olds – college-aged students – increased by 1,362, or 23%
55-to-64 year olds – the “baby boomers” now in their empty-nester, pre-retiree years – increased by 459, a whopping 48%
75+ year olds increased by 254, or 37%.

All other age groups, primarily family-aged adults and children under 15 years old, lost population. Collectively their numbers shrank by 825, or 28% -- a difficult trend for schools and aspects of town life that rely on families and an involved, middle-aged population.

The growth in population translated into a modest, 5% increase in the number of households. Meanwhile, population in “group quarters” – especially dormitories – increased by 24%. More on households and housing units in the next Census Says….

Annual Shuttle Bus Ridership Is Up

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:36:22 -0400

The Black Bear Orono Express -- the shuttle bus between Downtown Orono and campus -- completed its second year of operations with ridership of 41,080, an increase of 4.4% over its inaugural year.

The shuttle runs during the University's academic year, from the end of August to the middle of May. It was jointly funded this year by the University of Maine, Town of Orono, Maine DOT, and Orchard Trails Apartments.

The shuttle is available to all members of the public. It runs on the half hour from 7 am to 10 pm, Monday through Friday and from noon to 10 pm on Saturday.

It will resume service on August 26. The route and schedule can be found on line at http://umaine.edu/shuttle/.

Webster Mill Clean-up Bid Awarded

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 11:58:10 -0400

The Town has awarded a bid for the Phase II clean-up of the Webster Mill site to Gary M. Pomeroy Logging, Inc., of Hermon. The cost of the project will be $172,470, which will be funded through grants from the EPA and Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.

This phase of the clean-up focuses on the riverbanks of the Penobscot River and Stillwater Branch. The clean-up involves placing rip-rap over geotextile fabric on the riverbanks to both cover contaminated soil and control erosion.

Meanwhile, the Town's selected developer, Webster Point, LLC (organized by the principals of Developers Collaborative of Portland), is seeking its own bid for the demolition of the existing building to make way for a 24-unit condominium. The intent is to take down the building this summer, with the riverbank cleanup immediately following in early fall. This phase of the clean-up will take approximately 60 days to complete.

The remaining clean-up -- of the "upland" portion of the site -- will either occur this fall prior to the beginning of construction of the new building or next year once the new building is underway.

Ransom Environmental Consultants is the Town's engineer on the project. Contact Evan Richert, Planner, 866-5051, evanr@orono.org if you have questions.

Public meetings for Kelley Rd Business Park

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 08:47:24 -0400

The Kelley Road Business Park Advisory Committee has scheduled three public meetings. The Advisory Committee is in the earliest stages of planning for the business park, and the meetings will give members of the public a chance to discuss opportunities and voice concerns about a possible business park. The proposed business park would be located on about 30 acres behind the offices of the Katahdin Council of the Boy Scouts, near Exit 191 of I-95.

The meetings will be held in the Town Council chambers of the Municipal Building at 59 Main St. The dates are:

June 16, 7 p.m., with a focus on homeowners along Kelley Road;

June 21, 4:30 p.m., with a focus on larger property owners along Kelley Road; and

June 23, 7 p.m., with a focus on neighborhoods off Main Street, where there may be future utility or street connections.

While each meeting has a particular focus, the public can attend all meetings and the Advisory Committee will welcome all comments.

The Advisory Committee is:

Andy Perkins, chair, representing the Orono Economic Development Corp.

Peter Lyford, representing the Katahdin Council of the Boy Scouts

Sharon Quinn Fitzgerald of Kelley Road, representing Kelley Road homeowners

Leyton Sewall, representing larger property owners on Kelley Road

Michael Goldberg of Page Place, representing Main Street neighborhoods

Steve Colburn of Mainewood Ave., representing Main Street neighborhoods

David Thompson, representing the Orono Trails Committee and Orono Land Trust

Lianne Harris, representing the Town Council

New Orono Map Viewer On Line

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 11:55:26 -0500

Want to zoom in to get information on parcels in your neighborhood? See how your property is zoned? See how many houselots are within 1000 feet of you? Get an idea of where the flood plain is?

A new web-based map viewer for Orono is now on-line at http://webmap.jws.com/orono/. You can also link to it through the Town’s home page: click on the tab “Resources,” then on GIS map viewer.

Built and hosted by Sewall Co., the map viewer allows you to zoom in on an individual parcel or group of parcels and download certain tax record information about them (such as owners and lot sizes); to add different natural resource layers of information, such as wetlands, soils, and land cover; and to get or add other information, such as from the Town’s rental registration data base and its zoning map. You can also “jump” from a view on the map viewer to aerial images of the same view from Google, Bing or Yahoo.

A “help” button at the bottom right-hand corner of the map viewer’s main map page (scroll down the right margin) will give you information on the tools available to navigate the site.

A couple of helpful tips: certain detailed information, such as the lengths of lot lines and certain natural resource information, is sensitive to how zoomed in or out you are. Experiment to see which scales work best for you. And for certain functions, like creating print pages, you may have to allow pop-up windows – so check to see if pop-ups are blocked.

Whether using it for business, school, or personal purposes, let us know how it works for you.

Shuttle bus ridership growing

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 11:01:43 -0500

Ridership on the Black Bear - Orono Express -- the shuttle bus between Downtown Orono and the University campus -- is up by more than 8% through December 2010 compared with the sampe period last year (the service's inaugural year). From September through December, the shuttle carried more than 19,000 passengers, compared with 17,600 the year before.

The shuttle is a joint project among the University of Maine, Orono Village Association, the Town of Orono, Orchard Trails Apartments, and Maine DOT. It operates throughout the academic year, with a 30-minute cycle from 6:55 a.m. to 9:55 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 11:55 a.m. to 9:55 p.m. on Saturday. For a full schedule go to http://umaine.edu/shuttle/. The service is provided by BAT Community Connector.

Council advances Webster Mill redevelopment

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:26:46 -0500

Following a public hearing Monday night (Jan. 10, 2011), the Town Council voted to submit an application to the Maine State Housing Authority to establish the former Webster Mill site as a tax increment finance district. Developers Collaborative proposes a new, mixed income, 24-unit condominium development at the site. The TIF district will provide financing so that 8 of the units will be affordable to households with average area incomes.

Comment Opportunities for Webster Redevelopment

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 10:20:44 -0500

The public has three upcoming opportunities to comment on the proposed redevelopment of the Webster Mill site.

First, the Town is submitting an application to Maine DEP for a permit that will allow remediation of contaminated portions of the banks along the Penobscot River and Stillwater Branch. Although many trees will be saved, much of the vegetation must be removed to make way for the soil cover with rip-rap. Comments may be made to Maine DEP.

Second, the Town Council at its meeting January 10, 7 p.m., will take comments on a proposal to establish an Affordable Housing Development District at the Webster Mill site. The developer, Developers Collaborative, proposes a 24-unit residential condominium on the site, including 8 units priced to be affordable to households with no more than 120% of the region's median income. The development district includes a tax increment financing program that will help finance the 8 affordable units.

Finally, the Planning Board will conduct a hearing on Wednesday, January 19, 7 p.m., on the final subdivision and site plan for the condominium project, which will be known as Webster Point. In addition to the 24 residential units, the plan calls for a public easement to overlooks of the Penobscot and Stillwater, connected by a public pathway.

Concepts for Katahdin Building Site

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 15:56:20 -0500

The downtown site of the former Katahdin Building, which was destroyed by fire in August 2009, has been sold to the University Credit Union. The credit union has expressed its willingness and desire to cooperate with the Town in redeveloping the site, which is next to the Town's parking lot. Early in 2010, A4 Architects of Bar Harbor prepared design concepts that will serve as guidelines for redevelopment. Two of these concepts are on display on the second floor of the Municipal Building. The drawing below shows a conceptual site plan for how the Katahdin Building site might be combined with the Town's property on Bennoch Road and the properties on Main Street for re-use for commerce, open space, and housing. The intent is for the site to serve as a “sentinel” for downtown, with traditional but distinctive architecture, space for new employment, a mix of uses, and outdoor public space. A4's work is entirely conceptual, but provides insight as to the capacity and design principles possible for this group of lots.

Planning for Kelley Rd Business Park to Begin

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 15:52:56 -0500

The Town has received a grant through the Small Business Administration for the engineering and permitting of a business park on approximately 30 acres behind the Katahdin Council of the Boy Scouts headquarters on Kelley Road, off Exit 191 of I-95. The engineering and design are expected to begin early in 2011, starting with a public discussion of the goals for the site and how the different elements of the business park – including streets and open space – should fit into the larger Kelley Road area.

Webster Mill redevelopment plans moving ahead

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 11:44:20 -0500

The former Webster Mill property has a new plan: a 24-unit residential condominium to be called Webster Point. The developer, Developers Collaborative, and Town have proposed new zoning for the project, and DC is now appearing before the Planning Board for its approvals.

Despite efforts to save the old mill building, this proved impossible. The 24 units will be in a new, 4-story structure that will include 8 units of housing affordable to people with moderate incomes and 16 market rate units. For more information, visit Webster Point's web site. The plan includes a public pathway to overlooks on the Penobscot River and Stillwater Branch.

Meanwhile, the Town and developer are cooperating on the environmental clean-up of the site. The first stage was completed this fall with the removal of asbestos from the site and demolition of the unstable southeastern wing of the building. Remediation of the contaminated soil on site will occur in spring and summer of 2011.