Orono focuses on filling existing technology park

ORONO – Tentative plans for a regional business park west of Exit 51 off Interstate 95 have been postponed indefinitely after a unanimous vote at Monday night’s Town Council meeting.

No official plans had been drawn up for the park.

The project has been put off due to the substantial estimated construction costs and the lack of available federal, state and local funding.

In a related item, councilors voted unanimously to make the full occupancy of the Maine Technology Park the town’s highest economic development priority. The park is home to Sensor Research and Development, the Target Technology Center and call centers for MBNA and Microdyne Outsourcing Inc.

Town officials will still pursue development in other areas of the town, but the Maine Technology Park is the main focus, according to Town Manager Gerry Kempen.

“We’ll still work on Ayers Island and the village center, but we’re really putting the bulk of our hopes into the tech park as far as immediate opportunities for development,” Kempen said.

The town still owns two empty parcels in the park. Both of the parcels contain wetlands and the town assumed that neither was suitable for development. That assessment held true for one of the parcels, which contained valuable wetlands, but the other held some low-value wetlands that could be combined with the parcel’s nonwetlands to form a buildable lot, Kempen said.

In discussing the matter with the state Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kempen found that it would be possible for lines on the lot to be redrawn for development purposes and protection of the wetlands.

Bennoch Road Associates also owns five undeveloped lots in the park.