Improvements have been made to the parking area to avoid flooding.
FARMINGTON – College students who park in a lot in the middle of a flood plain of the Sandy River won’t have to stress about their cars becoming submerged anymore.

On Monday night, the Farmington Planning Board voted to allow the University of Maine at Farmington to put a permanent, 129-space gravel parking lot on Prescott Field, just off of Front Street.

The field had been used as a parking lot for some time by students. But last December ice jammed the river, and heavy rains caused fast flooding, leaving 39 student vehicles partially-submerged. After the incident, the lot was immediately closed while the college determined its future.

At the Planning Board meeting, Roger Spear, UMF’s vice president of administration, said the school plans to raise the lot about 3 feet and reopen it to students.

That additional 3 feet should be enough to keep cars dry in all but the rarest of floods, which happen only once every 100 or so years, he said.

If the water is getting too high and there is a risk of cars becoming submerged, UMF has a contingency plan. Students would immediately be notified to move their cars and all cars not moved would be towed.

Department of Environmental Protection approval on the lot is expected within the next few weeks, Spear said.

Board members also approved an application from Foothills Arts Center, a nonprofit community arts organization that hopes to convert the former medical offices of Dr. David Hurst and Dr. Melissa Weekly on Route 133 into an arts center.

The only change proposed by Foothills at this time is to build two small classroom-sized additions onto the current building. The organization has not yet purchased the building and is in the midst of a campaign to raise the $300,000 or so needed to buy it.

The Department of Conservation got the go-ahead to put a 39-space parking lot at the trail head of the rail-trail multiuse recreational trail in West Farmington and Arleen Masselli got approval to set up a farmers’ market at 341 Knowlton Corner Road.

A subdivision application for Thomas and Scott Dillon was continued, as was a proposal from Farmington Ford.

Stewart White, owner of Farmington Ford, hopes to move the dealership from 361 Wilton Road to a nine-acre parcel between Irving’s Big Stop Restaurant and the Mount Blue Assembly of God Church.

The new dealership would have a 72-foot by 211-foot building and 247 parking spaces. Its access would be by a driveway from the main road.

Last month, the board continued the application, submitted on behalf of White by Main-Land Development Consultants, citing a need for a landscaping and lighting plan.

On Monday night, board members were given a hefty packet of information on the project, and stressed a need for more time to look it over. A decision should be made on the application in May and White said he hopes to have ground broken at the new site by June 1 and the new dealership open by December.

His lease at the current site runs out at the end of 2004.
sdepoy@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link