Tell Council how you feel about parking at beach

To the editor:

There has been a lot of press about the proposed off-season parking changes at Higgins Beach and I urge residents of Scarborough to pay these issues close attention.  

I was personally saddened to see that a divided ad hoc committee made the recommendation to eliminate the current off-season, on-street parking at Higgins in lieu of six designated spots with a 30-minute limit. I was also surprised to see a suggestion to deed some existing town-owned parking spaces to Higgins Beach Inn.

I believe bringing the Higgins area under the current off-season parking standards that exists at Prouts Neck and Pine Point (including Acorn Lane), May 1 through Sept 15, is the fair thing to do, which was the original Ordinance Committee’s recommendation from earlier this year. That would eliminate the double standard that currently exists and afford our maintenance and enforcement officials efficiencies that would be to their benefit.  

As a regular user of on-street off-season parking at Higgins Beach (and other Maine beaches), I view the ad hoc committee’s six-spot proposal as being radical based on what the current ordinance allows for April through October. As far as deeding spots to the inn, I have great respect for that business and view it as an asset to our community but feel there is a current use standard that seems to be working just fine without giving away town property.

If you currently enjoy unrestricted parking in established spaces at Higgins Beach, please make your opinions known so our Town Council can make a decision based on the sentiments of the community.  

There will be a Town Council meeting Dec. 1 to address these potentially freedom-altering issues. Please consider taking action. Thank you.

Steve Stracqualursi 

Scarborough 

Neighborhood issue could be issue for others, too

To the editor:

Up until two weeks ago I felt both honored and proud to raise my family in such a fine town. When discussing the rezoning of our neighborhood to a commercial zone rather then a residential zone, we were told by a member of the council the increased traffic, light pollution, noise pollution and air pollution were much more attractive then dealing with families with their loud kids and their trips shuttling their children around.  

We were also told that change is coming to everyone in Scarborough and we all need to “suck it up.” The council wants to ignore the town’s 2006 Comprehensive Plan that states for R2 (residential zone) “allowed uses in low-density residential areas should continue to be the types of uses currently allowed in the R2 zoning district.” I am also deeply disturbed that we were lied to and told the state placed the land on the market because they needed the money, when in fact it was the business in question that pursued the state. 

This problem is not specific to the Green Acres neighborhood. Look around at any open land in your neighborhood. Do you want a 250-plus car parking lot with a commercial building in your backyard? If the town is going to ignore its own planning today, there is nothing stopping them from doing it tomorrow in your neighborhood.  

As residents we have to ask ourselves if we want to live in a town where families are looked at as a burden. Do we really want to support a council that encourages its residents to lie down and suck it up when trying to protect the ideals of our neighborhoods and town? Is this a lesson we want to teach our children?

Edwin F. Farrar

Scarborough 

Urge council to stop zone change at Green Acres

To the editor:

We have to rely on people we hire as our representatives to step up and steer things such as considering the best use of 6 acres of woodlands in Green Acres, our neighborhood. 

We are deeply concerned and woefully disappointed this property is under contract at all. For hundreds of families severely and directly affected, the risks to health, safety, property values and quality of life are exponentially increased with the destruction of our natural environment.  

In the same breath Maine Eye Care is claiming they’re “good neighbors,” they’re avoiding telling us about 13 months of debilitating assault – massive trucks beeping and air-braking from dawn to dusk, traversing roads with children, pets and people; the jackhammers, saws, concrete, piles of mess, stink of asphalt ... literally in our backyards. Good neighbors would do the right thing – apologize for their mistake, move on and develop where land awaits them.   Maine Eye Care is welcomed where there are no children learning to ride bikes without training wheels, elderly couples strolling, parents jogging behind their baby’s stroller or countless neighbors jogging or walking their dogs. 

Inside those woods there’s beauty. There’s natural, safe respite; there’s indescribable and immeasurable benefits to your heart and spirit. We live in those woods too, along with 6 full acres of wildlife. Please let it be. 

We need town councilors to stand up for us. We wait with hope that our property values might recover from this horrible economy, but there’s no hope with this destruction. More importantly, our quality of life would virtually be sacrificed. Please call your town councilors, ask them to stand for us. Ask them to invite Maine Eye Care to Haigis Parkway or another suitable location. We need your help here in Green Acres.  

Deborah Histen

Scarborough

Neighborhood is only one example

To the editor:

In courting Maine Eye Care, which wants to slaughter Green Acres Lane, Harvey Rosenfeld and the Town Council have a united message:  “The state put that land up for sale because it needs the money.” Rosenfeld said, “I started the process (of rezoning) without any specific business in mind, just types of businesses that could work.”  

This is patronizing. Lies. Every negotiation from day one has been at the behest of Maine Eye Care, with Rosenfeld and the town at its service, providing thoughtful measurement, manipulation, and intentional omission of information dealt to us while they plan to sacrifice our families and our neighborhood.

 Carol Rancourt is concerned about “the least amount of harm to the neighborhood” but says suck it up and accept changes to Scarborough. What have you done to actually measure and define “harm to the neighborhood,” Carol? How complicit were you in the clandestine courtship  of Maine Eye Care to decimate our neighborhood? We have Judy Roy saying, “I see a building as a better buffer than now.” Poorly stated on top of being void of any scientific fact. She’s 100 percent wrong. This issue screams “Err on the side of caution!” It calls for careful, intensive measurement of the impact of such severe environmental conditions of the destruction and construction project of 13 months and by the conditions created by the loss of that natural element as the most effective filter over time for protecting people’s health, safety and well-being.  

Make no mistake people of Scarborough, we’re working hard here in Green Acres to help you learn how this absolutely affects you. Especially when, at its core, this is a story of intentional insult added to intentional injury, brought to you by your town officials. What or who is next?   

Bill Histen

Scarborough

Development at what cost?

To the editor:

I am a lifelong resident of Maine. I left the state after college to pursue better economic opportunities but my family and I consider ourselves privileged to have been able to return to Scarborough to raise our family. 

So what is it that made us return? Quality of life. I fully understand the importance of economic development as it has directly affected my life. I also want to give my children the opportunity to live in the community they grew up in, raise a family and enjoy the same quality of life we have. 

The Maine Department of Transportation is selling a 6-acre parcel of land adjacent to the Scarborough connector. This property was preserved and currently functions as an effective and aesthetically pleasing buffer to the existing neighborhood. While the town may have no recourse to stop this sale, a proposal is currently before the Town Council to change the zoning from the existing R2 zone to a Commercial BOR zone. 

This change would have a devastating impact on the character and quality of our neighborhood. A current potential buyer has “unofficially” proposed to develop this property with an estimated 50 cars per hour increase in traffic to this purely residential neighborhood. 

While I applaud Scarborough Economic Development Corp. and the Council for its desire to attract quality business to our town, there are many existing commercially zoned areas that are underdeveloped, such as Haigis Parkway and several sites directly located on Route 1, that have planned for such development and would have little or no impact on the quality of life of the surrounding residential community.  

Please join me and my fellow neighbors in writing the Town Council to voice opposition to the zoning change. The neighborhood you save might someday be your own.

Christopher J. Caiazzo

Scarborough

Consider safety of area children

To the editor:

I don’t think they should put a medical building at 20 Elmwood Ave. because if someone (like me) tried to go home from a bus stop, they would have trouble getting home because of all the traffic from cars trying to get to the medical building. 

When I was little, I learned how to ride my bike there because there was no traffic. And I would sometimes take walks with my family. I used to watch animals run along in the woods. When my friend and I were little, we used to explore the woods there and we made a bridge completely out of logs. If that land were developed, no other kid would experience that.

Justin Caiazzo, age 9

Scarborough

Building would hurt environment

To the editor:

It has come to my attention that some of the people in our town have considered changing the zoning in our own residential neighborhood and to that I say no way. 

The town wants to put a big building in that place making pollution, traffic and speeding cars come right into our neighborhood.  It hurts the environment a lot and has no need. The town built Haigis Parkway for this very reason. My family and I like to go on bike rides and walks around the neighborhood. We cannot do that if the place is changed into a big building, can we?  

We think it is a very bad idea on so many levels. It would hurt the environment, hurt our feelings and our trees. Trees give us oxygen to breathe and if we chop down all those trees and put in a building we will get a lot of black smoke instead of clean oxygen. I hope now you can see that the place is important to us. I hope you can keep this place happy and clean for a good future for me and you.  

Mary Jane Uzzi

Fourth grade, Deb Tewhey’s class

Wentworth Intermediate School

Council didn’t listen to public

To the editor:

Isn’t the Town Council elected to represent constituents? Isn’t it their obligation supposed to be us? As a resident of the Green Acres neighborhood I was absolutely appalled t find out the Town Council isn’t actually listening and considering concerns of my neighbors and myself but actually planning to rezone the 6 acres of forest that currently serves as a sound, light and emissions filter for the hundreds of people who live here (pay taxes and vote) so Maine Eye Care can raze it and build a new office building.

There was exactly one Planning Board meeting for the public to discuss concerns (and it voted 3-2 against rezoning) then two days later the council allowed us to voice our concerns, during which the council “listened” to the public speak out against the destruction of our neighborhood, considered it for the remaining minutes of the meeting and then commented that the land will be developed and we will need to suck it up and accept change. Spending less than one month to consider our many valid concerns and giving us only one public meeting to speak – where’s the due process?

Amanda Farrar

Scarborough