A Brief Introductory Message to LA Maine

AUBURN — A downtown plan that would transform city streets and zoning rules while targeting specific development block by block sounded great to city councilors Monday night, but they wanted more.

Councilors said they want more specific plans for encouraging growth in the rest of the city, better communication with city staff and an overall plan that shows where Auburn’s economic development efforts and dollars are going.

Councilors called Monday’s discussion to focus on the city’s development efforts and they stopped staff from presenting a long list of projects they’ve done in the past. Economic Development Director Roland Miller said the staff’s philosophy is to be ready.

“The program is really set up for preparedness,” Miller said. “We want to be able to take advantage of opportunity. We are working toward preparedness in a constant state of scarcity of resources.”

Councilor Adam Lee said communication has been frustrating, but simply being ready is not enough.

“This might be a useful space for us to inquire from you what you think we are telling you to do when it comes to a directive for economic development,” Lee said. “I don’t think our message is just about preparedness. I think we need more than that.”

One area for which staff did have specific plans was downtown. Economic Development Specialist Alan Manoian said his work helping to uncover the downtown’s history was finished for now.

“From this point on, I will leave the history to the historians and the historical society,” Manoian said. “We will not be doing special events or festivals or programming.”

Instead, Manoian said he hopes to continue work helping to get new zoning schemes adopted that will help make the downtown more walkable and attractive to business and customer traffic.

He also talked about dividing the downtown into sectors — such as the Minot Avenue corridor between the Rotary and Center Street or the Historic Old City Neighborhood around Auburn Hall. With that knowledge, the city can target development and other opportunities.

“I can now say that I have a working relationship with every single property owner in this downtown,” Manoian said. “I have met with them all, we have talked to them and we have consensus and they concur with the approach we are taking. So now, we are prepared to move forward.”

Councilors said they liked that approach and would like see it used elsewhere in the city.

“Clearly, something I’ve been talking about since the beginning is the whole Washington Street corridor,” Councilor Mary Lafontaine said. “For me, it’s about more than the road. It’s really about the ownership of all of the area and all the land along that way, how we can work with landowners along that way to build the attractiveness. Are there ways we can access funding? What can we do that is different than what we’ve done?”

Mayor Jonathan LaBonte said he wanted to see staff working from a unified plan to promote development and said there is evidence that is not happening. He noted that economic development staff have not met with folks from the new Norway Savings Bank Ice Arena to find ways to promote it.

“We made a major bet in that area, and there is not regular communication,” LaBonte said. “And then take our industrial areas. When I talk to folks out there, they are confused because there are four or five agencies they have to talk to. Our intermodal area, which we have hyped so much, our lease has expired out there.”

LaBonte said it hurts the city.

“We are dropping major balls right now that are hurting our tax base,” he said.

Howard Kroll, the acting city manager, said he would like to see more concrete direction from city councilors leading up to the budget.

“For staff to present a plan to you, that’s great,” Kroll said. “But if you don’t give them the blessing, so to speak, to go forward, I think they are wasting their time and there will be nothing but confrontation with the council. I would really like to see some direction from the council.”

staylor@sunjournal.com