Calais board sees sketch of downtown plan

CALAIS – The city’s power company soon will have a new look.

Eastern Maine Electric Co-op presented the planning board Tuesday with an artist’s drawing of renovations it plans for its Union Street office building.

At the same planning board meeting, members agreed on an unrelated matter that they would have to look at some of the city’s ordinances once developers present their plans for construction of a $500 million liquefied natural gas terminal in the Red Beach area of the city.

The board also discussed possible zone changes at the north end of the city, where a third bridge is expected to be built.

The EMEC renovations are expected to cost around $100,000 and will begin in the spring.

The building will have a new facade that will complement the nearby Downeast Heritage Museum.

“We will be taking out the gray clapboard on the front of the building and replacing that with a more decorative siding and new windows,” EMEC spokesman Charlie McAlpin said. “There also will be a covered entrance.”

McAlpin said the bricks would be pressure washed, repaired and repainted in with earth tones.

Changes to the co-op are coming on the heels of changes to other buildings downtown.

Calais Federal Savings and Loan, across the street from the co-op, announced earlier this year it was going to undertake some exterior changes to its building.

The changes dovetail with renovations to the former city railroad station that for years was home to the Calais Press. Those renovations turned that building into the $6.6 million Downeast Heritage Museum.

The planning board weighed possible zone changes it will have to consider now that the city is looking at construction of a third bridge north of downtown, as well as a liquefied natural gas terminal on the south end.

Jim Porter, Calais community development director, said the Department of Transportation was concerned about big box development in the area of the soon-to-be-built traffic circle on Baring Street.

The traffic circle will serve as an entrance and exit to the third bridge. Porter said that big box buildings were the large Wal-Mart type projects. “One of our stated goals is we do want to protect the downtown,” Porter said. Merchants fear that construction of a third bridge outside of downtown will draw shoppers away.

Right now the city is served by two bridges: the downtown Ferry Point Bridge, which connects St. Stephen, New Brunswick, with Calais, and the Milltown Bridge north of the city.

Porter said if the city were going to allow big box development on Baring Street, the state might decide to expand the proposed limited access area along that route

Now that a proposed LNG facility is being considered for the St. Croix River, City Manager Linda Pagels told the planning board it soon would have to be up to speed on that issue.

If the project goes forward, the board will be asked to change the zone on that section of land under consideration between Devils Head Park and St. Croix Island. Right now it is zoned as rural shore land. It would have to be changed to commercial development to accommodate construction of a terminal.

Earlier this year St. Croix Development and the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township unveiled plans to build a terminal and storage tank facility along Route 1.

“It’s going to be the biggest issue that you guys face,” Porter said of the LNG project. Porter said nothing would be considered until the company approaches the planning board.

The board will look at a range of issues at a special meeting next month. A date has not been set.