CANTON – Townspeople will have a chance to learn about a possible new village center, and give their take on what they’d like to see, at a public informational meeting set for 6:30 p.m. today.
The Special Projects Committee, along with the Board of Selectmen, will present two design plans created by A.E. Hodsdon, an engineering firm from Waterville.
Diane Ray, Special Projects Committee chairwoman and grant administrator, said about 22 acres located three-tenths of a mile north of the current village center off Edmunds Road is being considered as a potential site for the planned village outside the floodplain.
Tentatively proposed are three or four multi-family housing structures, 30 to 50 single-family homes, several retail and commercial sites, possibly a community center, and room for expansion of the Victorian Villa Rehabilitation and Living Center, a nursing home that owns acreage adjacent to the proposed village center site.
Federal grant money is being used to purchase the 22 acres. Ray said the committee has come to an agreement with two of the landowners and is working with others.
If the proposed village center is developed, it wouldn’t be developed by the town, but by an independent developer.
Comments taken at today’s session will be used to create a final version of the plan, she said.
Once that is done, the committee will begin seeking infrastructure grants that would used to provide water and sewer access. The town will also actively begin seeking a potential developer.
“This plan is a baseline to get the project started,” she said on Thursday.
She said the selectmen and committee want to know whether residents have other ideas they’d like to see happen at the site, such as landscaping, additional open green space, and other building or housing needs.
The focus of the housing is for low- to moderate-income families, particularly those who will likely be bought out because their homes are located in the floodplain, and to integrate the needs of the nursing home.
Federal funds are being used to buy out many of the 66 homes designated as being in danger of flooding or those that have flooded in the past.
The last flood was in December 2003. At that time, more than $2 million damage occurred townwide.
Ray said the town will likely have to make changes in the land-use ordinance to allow smaller house lots at the proposed village site.
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