A recent study recommends small business rather than an industrial park.
By John Plestina
Special to the Sun Journal

GREENE – A planning consultant said Monday night that Greene, Leeds, Monmouth and Wales are in the process of suburbanizing.

A federal Community Development Block Grant from the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development funded the study for the four adjoining towns. Leeds, Monmouth and Wales were not represented at the presentation at the Greene town office.

Frank O’Hara of Planning Decisions of Hallowell recommended against a regional industrial park.

He said the four towns would be better off to opt for small developments with professional offices and more convenience stores.

“These towns are in the early stages of suburbanizing,” O’Hara said.

He stressed that traditional industries that are lost will not return. “You can’t think about going back to some of the businesses that used to be here or some of the things that used to be in the Lewiston-Auburn area,” he said.

“The traditional industrial park really doesn’t fit here,” O’Hara said.

That is because the railroad is not likely to agree to add a stop unless it is for a large customer and potential sites for industrial development in both Lewiston and Auburn are near both the rail line and the Maine Turnpike.

The report recommends small commercial buildings with less than 10,000 square feet. O’Hara said 450 health services jobs are projected to open up in the Lewiston-Auburn area. “Hospitals like to locate facilities in different towns, particularly growing towns,” he said.

In addition to professional office space, convenience stores and high-end retail businesses could locate along Route 202, O’Hara said, adding that businesses that include specialty coffee shops could move into the area.

After the presentation, the Greene selectmen discussed the possibility of meeting jointly with the other towns. They agreed that their strongest connection for joint development projects would be with Monmouth.

“It (the study) didn’t go the way we were thinking it would go. We were thinking along the lines of an industrial park,” Selectmen’s Chairman Ronald Grant said.

In addition to likely development along Route 202, Greene has a 65-acre potential development site on Sprague Mill Road and the former Dumont Industries site in Monmouth village was said to be another potential development site.

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