Latest news with #StroudwaterNeighborhoodAssociation
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Residents call for new board to oversee Portland Jetport
May 12—Neighbors of the Portland International Jetport are asking city officials to create a municipal commission to improve oversight of Maine's largest airport. Residents raised the idea at a recent annual meeting of the Stroudwater Neighborhood Association that was attended by Mayor Mark Dion and several other local and state officials, who are invited each year. The call for an airport commission follows the Portland Planning Board's recent approval of a controversial surface parking expansion project at the city-owned jetport. The association filed a court appeal in February claiming that the board ignored the jetport's 2018 Sustainable Airport Master Plan by approving waivers impacting wetlands, trees and other environmental factors. Association leaders say the board failed to consider alternatives to expanding surface parking, such as moving ahead with a planned parking garage expansion and providing shuttle service to unused parking spaces at The Maine Mall nearby in South Portland. They say the $8 million parking project shows how Airport Director Paul Bradbury is allowed to run the jetport with minimal oversight by the Portland City Council or other municipal boards. The jetport operates without taxpayer dollars using fees paid by tenants, travelers, transit providers and other vendors, and the council approves projects and expenditures as they are presented. An airport commission, including representatives from other neighborhoods and cities, would help ensure public input is fully considered as projects are developed, rather than an afterthought just before final approval, group leaders say. "Something needs to be done to improve communication about very complex issues and to ensure more citizen participation," said Woody Howard, president of the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. "We'd like to see what's in the master plan actually be enforced," Howard said. "What's the point of having the plan if you're going to grant the project five waivers?" The association has reached out and found support for an airport commission among several Portland neighborhood associations, as well as officials in South Portland and Westbrook, Howard said. The group is developing a proposal for a commission, which it plans to submit to the council's Sustainability & Transportation Committee this summer, as city officials advised at the association's annual meeting. When the topic came up at the meeting, Dion said he had discussed the idea of forming an airport commission "internally," but he wasn't prepared to commit to anything now. "I think what we have here is a problem with communication," Dion said in a phone interview Friday. "Are the residents really being heard?" Dion declined to discuss the parking dispute, saying that topic is off limits since the association filed its lawsuit. But Dion strongly disputed that Bradbury runs the jetport with little oversight. He noted that the council sets policies relevant to airport operations and reviews his annual budget, and that all jetport employees are city employees. "(Bradbury is) a department head," Dion said. "We're well aware of the projects he has to do and he has an added level of (Federal Aviation Administration) scrutiny." For his part, Bradbury said he's neutral on the idea of having a board oversee jetport operations. "There are pros and cons to each form of governance," he said. "As of this time, I have not been involved in conversations about this. It's really up to the City Council to decide." Dion said the neighborhood group may resolve its communication concerns if it goes before the council's transportation committee, which is chaired by District 3 Councilor Regina Phillips, who represents the Stroudwater area. Phillips didn't attend the group's annual meeting on April 26, notifying members afterward that she attended a funeral. She also chairs the jetport's Noise Advisory Committee and has attended one of nine quarterly meetings held since May 2023, according to minutes posted on the jetport's website. Bradbury runs those meetings in her absence. Howard said association members plan to meet in the next two weeks with Phillips and Councilor-At-Large Benjamin Grant, who attended the group's annual meeting. Neither councilor responded immediately to requests for interviews. Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Portland Jetport's parking expansion plan lands in court
Feb. 25—A controversial plan to expand surface parking at Portland International Jetport has landed in court less than one month after the city's planning board approved the $8 million project. The Stroudwater Neighborhood Association filed an appeal Monday in Cumberland County Superior Court asking a judge to reverse the Jan. 28 approval of a plan to add 265 long-term surface parking spaces near the existing parking garage. The complaint asks that the project be sent back to jetport officials and the planning board for additional information and reconsideration. The association believes the board failed to fully consider or require the city-owned airport to provide relevant information about the project's wetlands impacts and compliance with sustainability goals outlined in the jetport's 2018 master plan, said Woody Howard, president of the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. The board also failed to fully vet alternatives to expanding surface parking at the jetport, such as moving ahead with an anticipated parking garage expansion and providing shuttle service to unused parking spaces at The Maine Mall nearby in South Portland, Howard said. "Really, this complaint is about the process," Howard said Tuesday. "We came to the meetings well prepared. We feel like we weren't heard. The jetport didn't provide information that was requested, and when we submitted information based on data they did submit, they said we misinterpreted it." The association's 15-member board of trustees voted unanimously to file the lawsuit against the city, Howard said. City officials declined a request for interviews because they don't comment on pending litigation, said spokesperson Jessica Grondin. Airport Director Paul Bradbury and Assistant Director Zachary Sundquist didn't respond to a separate request. The parking project won reluctant board approval in January after jetport officials were asked to return with answers to environmental concerns that cropped up at an initial hearing in November. Faced with growing parking demand, especially during holidays and school vacations, the jetport plans to build a 667-space lot on 13 acres along Jetport Boulevard and Loop Road. The project would reconfigure and improve 402 existing paved and unpaved spaces, including a long-term valet parking lot and the so-called cellphone lot, which is a short-term parking area where family members, friends, and Uber or Lyft drivers wait for imminent arrivals. At the January meeting, board members voiced lingering concerns but acknowledged the city-owned jetport's importance to travelers across Maine and the limits of their purview in judging whether the project meets site plan standards. Board members were especially troubled by a requested waiver that would allow the jetport to fill about 11,000 square feet of wetlands when many neighbors and others dispute the need for expanded surface parking in light of the city's sustainability goals. They continued to question whether jetport officials had fully considered alternative solutions to growing parking demand and whether it made more sense to build another parking garage now instead of later. While many airports have shuttle-served offsite parking like the jetport's Pink Lot near Exit 46 of the Maine Turnpike, Bradbury has said parking needs to be within walking distance of the terminal to make it sustainable and have the smallest carbon footprint. The neighborhood group hopes jetport officials will reconsider shuttle parking at the mall, make more efficient use of parking they already have, and move forward with a parking garage expansion that would have a smaller physical footprint and fewer environmental impacts. "We agree there's a need for more parking," Howard said Tuesday. "That's why we question why they aren't building another parking garage already." Ultimately the board approved the project 4-1, with member Marpheen Chann opposed. Chann criticized the jetport's last-minute offer to add a conservation easement to prevent development of other wetlands on airport property, saying the board and the public didn't have a chance to fully consider the proposal. The board included the easement as a condition of receiving a building permit, with details to be worked out with planning staff. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is reviewing the project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has already authorized filling the wetlands. The Portland City Council also must vote on the jetport's plan to spend $8 million from its $39 million unrestricted cash fund balance. Copy the Story Link
