Railroad crossing rift delays project Shaw House wants to use waterworks

BANGOR – If the redevelopment of the Bangor Waterworks had started when originally planned, the work would be two-thirds complete, the project’s director noted Tuesday.

Instead, the project remains hung up in court. At issue is a railroad crossing critical to the project’s success.

“It’s a shame,” said Doug Bouchard of Shaw House Development Inc., which is working to acquire the State Street property that has been vacant since the 1970s as part of a $6 million redevelopment plan.

Shaw House Development Inc. is a for-profit subsidiary of Shaw House Inc., the nonprofit group that owns a shelter for homeless teens on Union Street.

The developer has been working with the city of Bangor and several development partners to convert the waterworks complex, a collection of brick buildings, into efficiency units for low-income adults.

In addition to helping fulfill a need for affordable housing, the project also would preserve the historic waterworks complex, which has been vacant for decades and has been deteriorating rapidly for the past several years.

The railroad crossing along State Street is needed to allow vehicular and pedestrian access to the city-owned site.

Maine Central Railroad filed a petition last fall in Penobscot County Superior Court asking the court to reverse the state Department of Transportation’s June 2003 approval of the crossing, citing safety concerns.

In a decision issued March 12, Justice Andrew Mead upheld the DOT’s decision to grant the crossing.

The next month, Maine Central Railroad filed notice that the railroad would appeal the decision to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

In its appeal, the railroad is asking the Law Court to determine whether Mead erred in affirming the DOT’s decision to grant the crossing, that the DOT exceeded its legal authority when it did so, and if the crossing is an “unauthorized taking” under the constitutions of the United States and the state of Maine.

Bangor lawyer Frederick Badger, the railroad’s legal counsel, was not available for comment Tuesday.

Bouchard said earlier the appeal forced Shaw House Development to postpone a real estate closing set for May and that it could cause serious delays in construction, originally set to start last September and then rescheduled for June.

On Tuesday, Bouchard said the Law Court likely would not take up the case until September.

He did say, however, that the development team remains committed to the project.

That team consists of representatives from Shaw House, the city of Bangor, the Maine State Housing Authority, general contractor Nickerson and O’Day Inc. of Brewer, WBRC Architects-Engineers of Bangor and Bangor Savings Bank.