Ellsworth stores eye building changes Plaza plan spurs High Street moves

ELLSWORTH – The city’s Planning Board will review a series of projects later this month that, if approved, could drastically change the face of Ellsworth’s busiest corridor.

Three businesses – McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Coffee Express – within the Maine Coast Mall on High Street have proposed leveling their buildings to make room for three new versions of the same businesses.

Across High Street, pharmacy giant Walgreens is asking for approval to construct a 15,000-square-foot store behind Harmon’s Tire.

And at the center of the High Street construction is the proposed relocation of a traffic light at Maine Coast Mall that Ellsworth officials hope will ease congestion in that area.

The Ellsworth Planning Board will review the series of projects at a special meeting on July 18.

“What really set this in motion was the development on Beckwith Hill,” Ellsworth Assistant City Planner Jef Fitzgerald said Thursday, referring to Acadia Crossing, a 26-store shopping center planned for the triangle formed by routes 1 and 3.

In order to usher that project through the planning process, Acadia Crossing’s development plans were amended to include improvements to Route 3. Those changes, in turn, have made the High Street reconfiguration necessary, Fitzgerald said.

When the Acadia Crossing shopping center is complete, Route 3 will become a one-way, southbound road from the intersection of Route 1. All northbound traffic from Route 3 will be rerouted down Myrick Street, which connects to Route 1.

However, that change will affect traffic exiting the Maine Coast Mall at its southern end near McDonald’s.

“McDonald’s was going to lose its left turnout lane,” Fitzgerald said, referring to cars turning left onto High Street, heading north. “So, in order to compensate, we have to change that entrance at the [north] end.”

The north entrance, near the Holiday Inn, will be moved about 200 feet south so that a road can extend across High Street to where the Walgreens will be constructed. Several small moves were required for that to happen.

First, Coffee Express plans to move to allow Kentucky Fried Chicken to construct its new facility on that space. The old KFC building will be leveled to make room for the new entrance to the Maine Coast Mall.

McDonald’s will tear down its existing structure to build a new 3,880-square-foot restaurant more or less on the same piece of land, although the new building will be set back about 15 feet from High Street.

Fitzgerald said both KFC and McDonald’s had wanted to replace their buildings anyway.

The construction of Walgreens, on the other side of High Street, also forced the MedNow clinic to relocate to Oak Street and likely will result in the tearing down of an Exxon gas station on High Street.