Hampden planners OK business park plan

HAMPDEN – The proposed business and commerce park is good to go, the planning board said Wednesday night as members unanimously approved the final site plan review for the 132-acre subdivision.

The park, on Route 202, “looks to be a well developed and thought-out use of land,” board member Beric Deane said.

Once the Department of Environmental Protection gives a thumbs up to the project, the Town Council can move forward with acquiring the land, Hampden Economic Development Director Bion Foster said after the meeting.

Things are rapidly falling into place for the 37-lot park, planned to open next spring.

Construction bids could be accepted as early as next month, while roadwork may be completed this fall, Foster said.

Several businesses have expressed interest in buying lots, according to Foster, who said they could begin construction by the middle of next winter or early spring.

Public water and sewer lines already have been brought to the external property lines, he said.

Earlier in the meeting, the chairwoman of the town’s Conservation Commission said the group liked the project but had concerns about the proposed green space.

“If the federal funding that has been talked about came through and the trails, pedestrian and bicycle pathways, park benches and picnic areas could co-exist with natural open green space areas, we would have fewer concerns,” Lynn Ryan wrote in a letter to the planning board.

Meanwhile, Robert Frank of WBRC Architects-Engineers in Bangor, whose firm is overseeing the development of the park, said federal funding could be available if the trails are determined to be part of the 2,600-mile East Coast Greenway.

The Greenway is a system of trails and sidewalks for pedestrians, bicyclists and equestrians that eventually will stretch along the Eastern Seaboard and will link Calais with Key West, Fla.

The business park will have close to a mile of pedestrian trails and sidewalks, Foster said.