Penobscot Landing

Brewer Waterfront Planning Kicks into High Gear

BREWER — Though the ink on their contract with the city is barely dry, the team hired to develop the master redevelopment plan for the city’s somewhat neglected waterfront.

The team’s proposal was one of five the city received when it requested proposals last spring. The group led by MBIA offered the lineup most agreed would best serve Brewer’s waterfront planning needs. On Wednesday, several members of that team were in Brewer to deliver a project update to the waterfront panel and city staff, and to begin the task of coming up with a vision for the strip of land along the Penobscot River.

Among the tasks now under way are information gathering and work to identify some of the environmental and engineering issues that might need to be dealt with as Brewer attempts to breathe new life into its waterfront.

Brewer’s waterfront target area is the strip of land that runs along the Penobscot River from just north of the Penobscot River Bridge southward to the Orrington line. The city and the state own about a quarter of the land being eyed for redevelopment.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Michael Lawry of the Parrish Group led the waterfront committee in hammering out a tentative approach for Brewer’s waterfront revival effort. The group came up with these broad goals:

• to establish the waterfront as both a regional market destination, a category that includes people who reside within about a 50-mile radius or an hour’s drive of Brewer, and as a destination for the ‘‘pass through’’ tourism market, which encompasses tourists and travelers from outside the region;

• to position the waterfront as an attractive location for private investment and economic development, including new residential development and the beautification of existing structures; and

• to enhance and preserve the quality of life for those who live along the waterfront.

Meeting participants also began an inventory of the waterfront’s assets, identified some of its needs in terms of amenities and infrastructure and possible resources for filling those needs. In the coming months, the contractors will work with the waterfront committee, city staff and the community to produce a waterfront redevelopment plan that addresses economic development, public safety, blight remediation, parking, beautification and recreational access problems along the target area.

A first step will be to gather public comment and suggestions, an effort that now is underway.

According to Richard Stoltz of MBIA, individual information-gathering interviews are scheduled for today and Friday and will focus on a list of people drawn from the public and private sectors, from Brewer, Greater Bangor and the larger region. Later this year, most likely from August through October, the contractors and waterfront panel will conduct community meetings, also for the purpose of soliciting comment from the public.

Economic Development Director Drew Sachs added that those who wish may submit comments and questions via e-mail at PenobscotLanding@BrewerME.org at any time.

The City of Brewer
80 North Main Street
Brewer, ME 04412
207-989-7500
www.brewerme.org