Bangor panel accepts easement for Stillwater Gardens buffer

BANGOR – City councilors this week agreed to accept a deed for an open-space conservation easement from Grant Trailer Sales Inc.

The 150-foot-wide easement will serve as a permanent buffer between the Stillwater Gardens subdivision and a tract of land on Stillwater Avenue that is being prepared for redevelopment. The site is located directly across the street from the new Interstate 95 interchange.

While city zoning rules require a 35-foot minimum buffer, the 150-foot-wide easement was one of more than a dozen conditions landowner Judson Grant and his development team were willing to meet to make a potential commercial project more palatable to neighbors, who defeated a similar redevelopment attempt in 1999.

The buffer, on the western property line parallel to Drew Lane, is meant to serve as a visual barrier consisting of trees, shrubs and other plants.

Now vacant, the site used to house part of the former Queen City Mobile Home Park. Grant’s development team in July asked the city to rezone the parcel from low-density residential to contract shopping and personal service to allow for a yet-to-be-named retail or similar commercial development there.

The rezoning was one step in a development process that also requires a site location of development permit, which will require that traffic, noise and light issues be addressed.

The issue brought Stillwater Garden residents to planning board and council meetings during which they expressed concerns about the proposed commercial project’s effect on their quality of life. During the meetings, several neighbors cited a proposed 1,000-car parking lot as an indication of the potential size and scope of development on Grant’s parcel.

The buffer will occupy 5.5 acres, or roughly a third of the developable space on Grant’s lot, which the state Department of Transportation earlier valued at $250,000 per acre, given its proximity to the Interstate and other commercial development, including the Bangor Mall.