The park still faces more review before all state and local permits are satisfied.
NORWAY – Six towns have already put $180,000 into the Norway Lake office park, and three of them – Norway, Paris and Harrison – will be asked to contribute another $20,000 each at their June town meetings.
If voters pass those amounts, the $250,000 cost for design, engineering and permitting of the park will nearly be paid.
But before the first business can locate there, the towns will need to come up with at least $1 million more, to pay for major infrastructure work on roads, water, drainage and extensive environmental and aesthetic improvements.
That’s because the towns, which also include Oxford, Otisfield and Waterford, will need to share in raising around 25 percent of the estimated $4 million to $4.5 million it will take to actually build the park, Brett Doney, chief executive officer of Western Maine Development, said Friday.
WMD is spearheading the 10-to-20-year project for the towns, which have formed the Technology Park Development Corp. The vision is to attract office support businesses with high-paying jobs for upwards of 500 people.
Doney said he is hoping to raise funds for at least 75 percent of the park’s construction through state and federal agencies. He spent several days last week in Washington lobbying for the park with officials from the Economic Development Administration. WMD officials have also met with federal Rural Development officials, and Maine officials from the Department of Economic and Community Development.
Doney is optimistic about securing local funding for the office park, which he said will be one of only a few in the country featuring lake and mountain views.
The way the interlocal agreement is set up, the towns can contribute what they want. The more they contribute, however, the more they’ll get back if tax revenue is generated from the park. The park features 10 lots on 60 acres of the steeply-sloping 161 acres between Roberts Road and Route 118 that WMD bought for $195,000 two years ago.
The park still faces another six months or so of review before all state and local permits are satisfied. The Norway Planning Board still has to undergo a site plan review process, even after just completing an eight-month subdivision review process. State transportation permitting is all but complete, but the park still has to get a stormwater permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
“We’ve done a lot of the work, but we’re trying to get the project pre-permitted as much as possible so when a building wants to come in, it will have an expedited review,” Doney said.
There are many pieces to the puzzle of putting a master budget together, Doney said. The EDA, Rural Development, and state DECD “all have their allowable expenses,” and each needs a budget tailored to their needs, he said. WMD has put some preliminary figures together, but still needs more time before finalizing the project budget.
“We obviously want to have as much as possible funded at the state and federal level, and we’ll pitch it there first,” Doney said. “Then we’ll pitch it to the towns for whatever remains.”
Otisfield has been far and away the largest contributor to date. Voters agreed to contribute $100,000 in design funds last year, and agreed at this year’s town meeting to contribute another $500,000 toward construction costs. Otisfield’s funding is coming from the tax increment financing district created along the route of a natural gas pipeline, which brings in considerable economic development funds annually.
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