Some major changes may be coming to Portland's working waterfront. The city recently voted to relax zoning on its piers and wharves, making it easier for offices, restaurants and other non-marine business to move in. The state, which regulates shoreland zoning, must also sign off on these changes, the biggest of which would allow a certain number of non-marine businesses to go onto the first floor of waterfront buildings.
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They aren't allowed at all now, much to the frustration of Sam Davidson, an accountant who co-owns the three-story Maine Trade Center on the Portland Fish Pier. "We have been between 70 percent and 40 percent vacant on the first floor. We've never ever been full on the first floor, ever, in 25 years."
Current zoning is meant to support Portland's maritime tradition, and allow fishermen easy ground-floor access to fish vendors and bait shops situated on the wharf. This way they can sidle up by boat.
But with more groundfishermen moving south where they are allowed to keep lobster bycatch, Davidson says it's gotten really tough to find tenants in the marine biz. "So this is one of our bigger spaces and this has lain fallow probably for--my guess, eight years."
It's a 4,000 square-foot space that used to be a fishing gear shop, but Davidson says it folded from lack of demand. Davidson says finding a new tenant is not only good for his bottom line--more tenants means he will pay more rent to the Portland Fish Pier, which is owned by the city. "And it will bring more money into the fish pier for them to repair, and upgrade and take care of the whole fish pier."
It was, in fact, wharf owners who led the push for zoning changes, starting two years ago. Mayor Nick Mavadones says councilors voted 7 to 2 for the changes, recognizing how expensive it is for pier owners to replace pilings and pay for dredging. Councilors also saw a more active waterfront as good for the city overall.
"It'll not only bring higher property values on the piers, additional tax revenue, it will mean more people working on the waterfront, which those people support sandwich shops, places to get a hair cut, go pick up some presents for birthdays and holidays."
At the same time, Mavadones says, councilors want to protect the fishing industry and limited non-marine use in no more than 45 percent of waterfront building's first floor.
And, says Mavadones, marine businesses get first dibs on first-floor space. "And that will have to be advertised, not just with sign on building, but aggressively marketing it in the marine world, and if they cannot find a marine tenant at the end of 60 days, they have the ability to go after a non-marine tenant."
"We want to help the wharf owners but we have to be protected," says Willis Spear. He's at Custom House Wharf, unloading lobster traps off his boat, Providence. He was part of the zoning talks, and says despite the protections for marine businesses, he still sees scenarios in which they could be displaced.
"The wharf owner can still say to this fellow, 'Hey, we're not going to renew your lease, your bait stinks and you're going to have to go,' so this guy leaves, right. And the wharf owner brings in a tenant who he knows is going to pay some serious dollars for office space- -he'd be crazy not to."
Spear and other fishermen failed to get a zoning provision that would prevent non-marine businesses from displacing existing marine businesses. His only consolation is that the city plans to keep an inventory of how waterfront space is being used. "If non-marine is allowed in step by step, it'll be a slow strangulation. That's how I feel."
Spear's not the only one. David Etnier, deputy commissioner of the Department of Marine Resources, has opposed zoning changes on Portland's waterfront. Although berthing space is reserved for marine businesses, Etnier's concerned that landlords won't find a need to rent berthing space out to commercial fishermen because they can make enough money from non-marine businesses who typically pay higher leases.
"That waterfront in Portland and elsewhere that is being used for that now has been on increasing pressure for the last 30 years and is diminishing. Efforts are made to preserve it so Maine doesn't become like our neighbors in the south where it has virtually all disappeared and used for office space, condominiums and recreational vessel berthing, and commercial uses are given the smallest percentage possible," Etnier says.
But the decision whether to approve the zoning changes in Portland is up to the Department of Environmental Protection. Spokeswoman Donna Gormley says that the DEP will weigh the views of the city and other state agencies equally.
There's also the question of how incoming Gov.-elect Paul LePage will see the zoning changes in Portland. He has yet to appoint a new head for the Department of Environmental Protection.
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