ROCKPORT — Camden and Rockport have engaged Frank O’Hara, a principal in the Portland-based Planning Decisions, to lead a joint meeting of the Camden Select and Planning boards to talk about the stretch of Route 1 between Quarry Hill and Leonard’s, in Rockport. The Feb. 18 discussion, which is a public meeting, will also include the problematic intersection of John Street, Camden Street, Conway Road and Route 1.

The workshop will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Rockport Town Office in the Richardson Room, and will be preceded by refreshments before the boards “dive into the planning discussion,” according to a memo that was circulated Friday, Feb. 14, to the board members.

The topics are to include:

1) What kind of developments would be desirable in the area?

2) What road, trail, traffic signals and improvements would be desirable?

The meeting will involve breaking into groups, and then discussing the future process as a well as the community and stakeholder involvement.

Last fall, Camden’s Select Board discussed, but ultimately did not, put before voters in November a proposal to purchase parcels at 14-16 John Street, property currently comprising two dwellings and land approximately one half-acre in size. In October, the town obtained a 21-day option on the John Street property due to its strategic location. The option was to provide time to perform due diligence and determine if the property would be useful in redesigning the intersection for cars and pedestrians. The two land parcels and two dwellings are together assessed by the town at $67,000.

Camden and Rockport received a grant in April 2013 to construct a sidewalk on Route 1, which will run from Quarry Hill to Leonard's.

Camden hired Gorrill & Palmer traffic engineers to analyze traffic and produce preliminary design concepts, which both select boards have preliminarily reviewed.

On Sept. 24, the Camden board got its first look at draft diagrams of how the intersection might be reconfigured. At a workshop following a public hearing about using some of the town’s unexpended funds to lower the tax bills, the board reviewed the designs that ultimately would affect the sidewalk/pathway work targeted for that stretch of Route 1.

In early October, the two select boards met to begin discussions about the problematic intersection and to address potential collaborations around recreation, parks and trails.

The Feb. 18 workshop follows a growing acknowledgment that the two towns are closer in many ways than they have been over the last century, the two boards met last winter at the Rockport Town Office to talk about how to operate more efficiently together.  The meeting was historic in that the two boards rarely convene. The last time was in 2004, when the boards discussed partnering their police departments, even sharing law enforcement. A report was issued on that topic four years later in 2008, titled the "Camden and Rockport Police Consolidation Feasibility Study." The idea, and future discussions about tighter public safety relationships, were subsequently shelved.

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Editorial Director Lynda Clancy can be reached at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 706-6657.