By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Bates College still wants to build a controversial cluster of three-story dorms at the base of Mount David, but school officials have scrapped plans for a parking lot there.

They say they will try to limit the impact on the beloved nature spot – and the neighborhood – while they move forward with their master plan.

“I actually think it’s going to be a more attractive space,” said Tedd Goundie, dean of students.

Some neighbors, though, remain unhappy.

“It will be bearable, but it won’t be a nice situation,” said Richard Wagner, a retired Bates professor who lives next to the campus and heads the Mountain Avenue Neighborhood Association. “We feel there are other places they could go.”

At issue is a three-phase Bates College master plan that will take 20 to 25 years to complete. Phase One, the most controversial, is in development now. It calls for a 150-bed dorm cluster to be built at the base of Mount David near Rand Hall, the construction of a new 950-seat dining hall next to Central Avenue, the construction of new parking spaces and the creation of a walking path from one end of the campus to the other.

Many neighbors were outraged when college officials outlined the plan in January. They said the dorms would ruin the natural beauty of Mount David and would stop people from using the area. They worried that increased traffic would put neighborhood children in danger.

At the time, Bates College President Elaine Tuttle Hansen repeatedly referred to the plan as a “road map,” emphasizing that it could be changed.

On Friday, the college released its latest plan. It took away the parking area at Mount David. The college also changed the design so the dorms were more closely clustered, and it preserved more green space.

Officials changed little else.

Although they considered other sites after the January neighborhood meeting, including a spot near Page Hall on College Street and near Garcelon Fields, they decided that none would meet the college’s needs as well as the Mount David plan.

Some neighbors have grudgingly accepted the plan, Wagner said. Others are angry that the dorms won’t be built somewhere else.

Wagner believes the college is truly trying to minimize the impact on the area. “But it’s still a negative impact,” he said.

The plan’s new dining hall would have a mezzanine, lounge areas and a convenience store.

The store upset Mark Duchette, owner of Russell Street Variety, when he heard about it in January. He’s still upset six months later.

He worries that he’ll lose student business.

“Every year they’ve done a little bit more to keep kids on campus and not help out the little stores around here,” said Duchette, who bought the business eight years ago and says his Bates business has rapidly declined.

College officials say the new store would be open late and would sell prepackaged food for students who miss meals, but they didn’t think it would take business from area stores.

“It’s not like a 7-Eleven. It’s much more limited,” Goundie said. “Students are still going to call out for pizza and Chinese food, and run to Russell Street Variety.”

The college plans to go to the city for approval in the next several months. If approved, it will break ground on the dorms next summer and on the dining hall in the fall of 2006. The dorms would open in fall 2007 and the dining hall in January 2008.

Bates College plans to pay for the $45 million first phase through donations and bonds.

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