After a decade, Westbrook residents near Route 302 are finally closer getting a recreational area in their neck of the woods.
According to the city administration, the location of the park will be decided in the next three or four months, plans made in the spring and the park completed by late spring or early summer.
Until that time, some officials would like to hold off on any sale of city-owned land near 302 until the city decides where the recreation and open-space area is going to be.
In a meeting Monday night of the council’s facilities and streets committee, Councilor John O’Hara voted against three requests to purchase city land in the north part of the city. He said he would vote against any such sale until the matter of the recreation area is settled.
Two of the requests came from residents seeking to purchase extra land adjacent to their properties, while the third request came from a natural gas pipeline company seeking to expand its pipeline operations through Westbrook. The panel voted to approve sending the requests to the planning board, with only O’Hara dissenting.
According to O’Hara, the city would need at least 10 acres to create a park and there are few parcels left in that area with that much acreage and access to a road. He said most of the lots the city owns are back lots that wouldn’t serve for an open-space area.
Councilor Drew Gattine agreed, voting in favor of sending the requests for purchase to the planning board for review, but reserving the right to vote against the purchases when it comes before the council again.
In a Sept. 21 letter to Mayor Bruce Chuluda and the council, the Westbrook Recreation and Conservation Commission agreed with one of the sales, but said it continued to oppose the sale of city land until a comprehensive recreation and open space is adopted by the city.
The sale that the commission agreed to is the one sale that the city has no real power to prevent. That sale involves about 37 acres off Methodist Road to Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline for the construction of a compressor station and metering station to accommodate the expansion of the company’s natural gas pipeline. Because it is an interstate pipeline, the company has power of eminent domain and can purchase the property without the city’s approval, according to City Administrator Jerre Bryant.
“This is moving forward with or without us,” said Bryant of the sale.
In other news Monday night, the committee approved a request to extend public sewer service to three homeowners on Harrisburg Avenue, who live in the only houses in their neighborhood without service.
When they were built, the three houses in question were considered too far from the nearby existing public sewer system to be cost-effective for the city to service, and have been on septic systems ever since.
“We’re the only three in an enormous landscape that aren’t provided sewer,” said homeowner Greg Bernier.
A new development of 94 homes is going in near the three homes, so the homeowners have asked the city to extend the sewer system being built for the development to their houses and help share the costs. It would require about 225 feet of gravity sewer line, according to Eric Dudley, the city engineer, who estimated the project would cost about $30,000.
“It’s a good opportunity,” said Dudley. “Good timing.”
The council agreed to move forward with the project, assessing the homeowners two-thirds the costs of the project.
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