ROCKPORT — The Rockport Planning Office has, so far, circulated to approximately 200 citizens via email an invitation to weigh in with opinions about the future of the former Rockport Elementary School site on West Street, on the corner with Route 1.

Questions on the survey concern housing, the character of the town, and the priorities of individual citizens, as represented by art and culture, business, community identity, and more.

Following approval by voters (791 to 569) at the 2021 Annual Town Meeting, the town has contracted with the Portland-based NewHeight Group for $35,000 to provide a market survey to evaluate development feasibility, develop a conceptual site program, and work with professionals to create conceptual renderings for the former Rockport Elementary School site, “on terms and conditions that the Select Board determine to be in the best interests of the Town to maximize the value of the property to benefit Rockport taxpayers,” per the town meeting warrant article.

NewHeight’s proposal anticipates a vote to made on the sale of the land in November 2022, and any necessary zoning changes to the property completed prior to then. 

Located at the corners of routes 1 and 90, the 7.4 acre property is owned by the town, and a public vote is required to authorize the transfer of such land to a developer. 

From 1954 to 2011, the site fell under purview of the Camden-Rockport School Board, which constructed a series of buildings there over the decades to house thousands of local elementary school students. A mold problem, combined with crumbling foundations and deteriorating walls, resulted in the major expansion of a newer school — Camden-Rockport Elementary School — a half-mile west on Route 90 in 2009. The school district walked out of the old RES for the last time in 2008, and the school was demolished in April 2013.

The land subsequently reverted to town ownership, opening debate about what to do next with it, a debate that has continued for 11 years.

Now, the NewHeight Group is gathering opinions in order to produce a conceptual rendering for the RES site.

“In order for NHG to do this, they first need to collect some data from the Town,” wrote the town’s Planning Office, in an email to potential survey participants. “Please take the survey and circulate it amongst others. The more participation we have with this process the better the result will be.”

According to Rockport’s Planner and Development Director Orion Thomas, the town wants to ensure the survey respondents are solely Rockport residents. To do that, the town office is initially sending emails with the survey link to the addresses that the town has on file, already, as recipients of the Rockport municipal newsletter.

To date, a few hundred emails have circulated, said Thomas.

Both Thomas and Town Manager Jon Duke will interpret the answers and then lend direction to NewHeight as that entity composes conceptual drawings.

Then, the process is to begin public engagement, said Thomas.

He is hoping for a minimum 10 percent participation with the survey responses, which, “will give us a pretty good idea what people in the area really want to see at the site,” he said.

Thomas is hoping to have responses back by mid-February.

“That should give them [NewHeight] the rest of the month to get some ideas,” he said. “The end goal is something to aspire to, if there is enough support for.”

Rockport citizens wanting to participate with the survey are asked to call the Town Office, 236-0806, and ask for Orion Thomas.

Reach Editorial Director Lynda clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657