Bangor marsh-mall panel lays out plans

BANGOR – The newly appointed Penjajawoc Marsh-Bangor Mall Management Commission set a course Wednesday for some of their work over the next several months.

During their first meeting, held in the band room at the city’s parks and recreation facility on Main Street, members took care of some organizational tasks and set some short- and long-term goals.

If the faces around the table looked familiar, it is because they are.

The new commission is composed of essentially the same people who served on the Penjajawoc-Bangor Mall Area Stakeholders Task Force, a 15-member panel with representatives from five interest groups, namely landowners, land trusts, environmental groups, city officials and commercial developers.

The three city representatives – City Manager Edward Barrett, City Engineer Jim Ring and Planning Officer David Gould – are ex officio, or nonvoting members, whose role will be to provide staff support and advice, among other things.

Among the group’s first tasks will be to review proposed land use and ordinance changes aimed at putting the task force’s recommendations into action.

“That, to me, seems like a pretty immediate task that we ought to get going on as soon as possible,” Barrett said, adding that Gould already is working on some recommendations to that end. The recommendations could be ready for review as soon as next month.

The management commission was established on the recommendation of the task force, which worked more than 50 hours over last year and this year to come up with a balanced approach to development near the ecologically sensitive Penjajawoc watershed. To make sure everyone’s concerns were heard and considered, the city set aside $10,000 to hire a professional mediator.

In the coming months, the 15-member panel will look at a range of issues relating to the area, including traffic and development pressures, a water-quality study being conducted by the state Department of Environmental Protection, draft land-use recommendations and ordinance amendments, among other things.

Leading that effort will be Bangor Land Trust representative Shep Harris, who was elected the commission’s chairman, and marsh area landowner Tom Davis, elected vice chairman.

Bringing the affected parties together was the city’s approach to resolving what was becoming an increasingly bitter battle between environmental and economic concerns. The controversy was touched off by plans to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter near the Penjajawoc watershed, a plan that was rejected three years ago by the state Board of Environmental Protection.

The commission’s job is to develop a management and access plan for the ecologically sensitive Penjajawoc Stream and marsh. Specifically, the group will develop recommendations for:

. A plan to preserve habitat and environmental values while providing for public access and use.

. A plan for public access to support appropriate recreational uses and ecotourism.

. The use of public funds earmarked for the purchase of land or conservation easements, public access projects and water-quality improvement efforts. The city has agreed to dedicate for the next 10 years 25 percent of the tax revenue from future development in the marsh area.

The group also has been charged with working with developers of proposed commercial and residential development projects to minimize impact on the Penjajawoc watershed, and monitoring the implementation of the task force’s final report, which addresses a variety of needs for the area.

The group’s next meeting will take place at 1 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, at City Hall.