By Rick Wright

Staff Writer 

The South Portland Comprehensive Plan committee asked for help and residents responded in a big way. 

They offered visions from preserving neighborhoods and keeping public access to the waterfront to improving school facilities, building a high-rise residential building in the Maine Mall for senior citizens and starting a ferry service from Bug Light Park to Portland’s Old Port.

More than 100 people attended the “Vision and Issues Forum” last week at Southern Maine Community College. 

Woody Leland, a South Portland resident for 32 years, said he saw a wide cross-section of people at the forum. He felt the exercise was very beneficial. 

“It’s grass roots,” Leland said. “You get information that can be used at the city council level.”

The forum was designed to solicit input for a new or updated South Portland Comprehensive Plan.  Comprehensive Plans are 10- to 15-year roadmaps communities develop to coordinate municipal and school activities and investments. 

The plans also address areas such as land use, economy, transportation, energy, housing, environmental protection and recreation. 

Committee chairman and city councilor Maxine Beecher said results of the forum would be shared with the council and used to help make future decisions for all these areas.

South Portland’s plan was written in 1992 and amended in 2005 with the addition of the Knightville/Mill Creek Neighborhood Master Plan.

Beecher said she was pleased by the large turnout. 

“This is remarkable that on a hot summer day you can get 100 people to show up. That’s such a sign that the city is healthy and well,” Beecher said.    

“(Residents) have the answers. They know what works and what doesn’t work in this city. They know what we should be aiming for in the next 10 years,” Beecher said. 

Susan Reilly owns the American Irish Repertory Ensemble in South Portland and said she came to the meeting because it was an opportunity to have her voice heard. 

“I thought what a wonderful thing to have an impact on the future of our city. We really treasure this city and we want to see it maintained. It’s a great place to live.” 

The large crowd was divided into small groups that spent  three hours working through three exercises. Each exercise required group members to answer the following questions:

• What is special about South Portland?

• What would you preserve or change about South Portland?

• What kind of development should be done in the city during the next 10 to 20 years? 

The groups generated many ideas that were collected and compiled into master lists by Planning Director Tex Haeuser and Assistant City Manager Erik Carson. 

Haeuser and Carson presented summaries of the groups’ work to the crowd.  Every participant will receive a written summary of the forum’s results by e-mail or regular mail, Beecher said. 

“Neighborhoods and diversity were the two things that came through the loudest. Those things had the greatest resonance,” Carson said.

Residents said they like the small-town feel of neighborhoods, waterfront access and the low crime rate, said Carson. Carson said respondents also liked the mix of businesses and people in the city. 

“This has been a fabulous evening with extremely special people,” Beecher told the crowd before it adjourned. “We asked you here because we know you know what’s best for us.  Everything you said was important.” 

Rick Wright can be reached at 282-4337 or news@inthesentry.com.