ROCKPORT — Multiple ideas about redesigning a complicated Camden intersection are being tossed around, and include rerouting some roads, eliminating portions of others, even building a new road along the edge of field and placing a four-way stoplight on Route 1 in front of Hannaford Supermarket.

And there are more suggestions: Construct a roundabout at the top of the highway near the former McDuck’s, or build a Diverging Diamond traffic interchange — a highway design that sends vehicles on lanes that flip from right to left, like driving on the wrong side of the road, before flipping back. First implemented in Missouri in 2009, the diverging diamond design was named among the top 100 innovations of 2009 by Popular Science. 

And whatever happens at that intersection will be integral to a larger goal of redesigning, and possibly rezoning, an area along the Route 1 corridor from John Street to Leonard’s clothing shop, approximately one half mile into Rockport. 

Concepts were aired Feb. 18 at a joint meeting of Camden and Rockport select and planning boards. By meeting’s end, the two towns agreed to move the discussion forward, and invite stakeholders to the table. Within the next 30 days, Camden and Rockport agreed to identify landowners and neighbors along the path of the intersection redesign, and to outline goals for a two-town committee that will be created.

While the intersection is demanding attention, the other factor in this renewed focus on Route 1 results from of a pending transportation grant to help engineer a pathway or sidewalk extending from Quarry Hill Road, in Camden, to Leonard's Clothing Store in Rockport. The stretch includes passing by Hannaford and Maritime Farms, where the Concord Coach Lines picks up and unloads bus passengers traveling north to Bangor and south to Portland and Boston. That grant is anticipated to get implemented by Camden and Rockport in 2016-2017.

A commitment to the pedestrian, with pathways or sidewalks, remains a constant part of the ongoing conversations. 

“We have such a varied set of constituents and citizens,” said Rockport Select Board member Geoff Parker. “That's why the level of work we have to do is significant.”

Camden’s intent to reconfigure the intersection where Conway Road, John Street, Route 1 and Camden Street converge has been a topic before the Select Board for more than a decade. The intersection can be a gnarling traffic headache, especially during the summer season.

The Feb. 18 meeting was historic and collaborative, representing the first time that the towns’ four boards have convened to talk about enhancing the region’s landscape. 

Last year, the Camden and Rockport select boards began meeting again after nine-year hiatus to talk about strengthening collaborative efficiencies. This year, they brought their planning boards into the discussion for this specific project.

The evening meeting took place in the Richardson Meeting Room of the Rockport Town Office as a storm rapidly deposited six inches of snow outside on a parking lot full of cars. Frank O’Hara, a vice president with the Hallowell-based Planning Decisions, Inc., led the discussion, separating board members into groups at four tables, where they sat with pencils and paper on which to sketch designs.

O’Hara stood in front of a flip chart, asking specific questions: What are your hopes in fixing the intersection? What are your fears concerning the process? What features of the communities are currently under-appreciated? What kind of developments would be desirable in the area? What road, trail, traffic signals and improvements would be desirable?

The consensus was to better integrate Route 1 and the properties abutting the highway for traffic ease, and for pedestrian safety. 

They feared, as articulated table by table, that the redesign would not be bold, or innovative and extensive enough; that the redesign would focus too much on cars and not enough on people.

They also feared that the design would be too cutesy, that it would result in the loss of green space, that the Maine Department of Transportation would not work well with the local community, that a redesign and rezoning would draw business activity away from Camden’s downtown. 

What they identified as under-appreciated ranged from town staff to community volunteers, the local water supply, the annual PopTech Conference, and the publicly-owned natural resources.

“The mostly under-appreciated thing of the area is the weather,” said Rockport Select Board member — and meteorologist — Ken McKinley. “This is a four-season community. No matter what the weather, whether I'm walking around Camden Harbor or Rockport Harbor, the weather is beautiful.”

Both Camden and Rockport planners outlined their respective municipal zoning treatments of the Route 1 corridor under discussion.

In Rockport, both sides of the highway there are zoned mixed commercial and residential.

“There is already a set stage for mixed used with some restrictions,” said Rockport’s Planner and Community Development Director Bill Najpauer. “Footprints are limited to 6,000 square feet, with landscaping provisions. We have the foundations laid.”

“What can we do to blend the two communities more softly together,” asked Camden Planner and Code Enforcement Officer Steve Wilson. “What do we as two towns want the area to look like.”

Camden Select Board members have talked informally about rezoning there, with an eye on a large field that abuts both Route 1 and Camden Street.

Rockport Select Board Chairman Bill Chapman drew parallels with the current effort at the other end of Rockport, where the town has been working with Rockland in an effort to make that section of Route 1 a more pedestrian-friendly area, and to encourage a mixed business and residential character. 

“There is a large diversity of businesses and talented people here,” said Rockport Select Board member Geoff Parker. “We need to be collaborating with our neighbors more often on more projects. We need to make it happen.”

While there was some discussion about the suitability of a roundabout at the John Street intersection — “The elevation doesn't work for a roundabout in that area,” said Camden Select Board member Jim Heard —  Parker introduced the diverging diamond concept: “This may be a candidate for new design and thinking,” he said. “I urge planners to look into it. It’s a little counter-intitutive but you get there faster.”

Naipauer emphasized the pedestrian focus, referencing the Camden-Rockport Pathways Committee’s goal of building pathways along Route 1 to the intersection of Route 90, and connecting to the two public schools on that road.

“Pedestrian connections not only to the high school, but to the harbor and back into Camden,” he said. “There are all sorts of possibilities for walking, for getting out of cars and shopping. We can shape this area for pedestrian focus.”

 Hopes

The purpose of a redesign, the board members said, would manage traffic and speed along the corridor, expand walkability between communities, improve aesthetics and buffer zones with the planting of street trees, encourage small businesses and new development, and improve safety.

Camden Select Board member Don White described a potential configuration of closing off part of Camden Street that intersects Route 1 and rerouting it down along a field that borders land owned by the existing animal shelter.

Others remarked that they wanted any redesign to look organic, tasteful, and as if it belongs there. It should be welcoming, they said, and the highway should be separated from pathways by an esplanade, a buffer of greenery or trees.

The goal, one table of board members agreed, is to “romote something that connects the dots and keeps some of the character of the villages.”

While there was a short discussion about keeping the municipal processes separate, the larger consensus was that the redesign effort should consist of the two towns working together.

They agreed to reconvene to their respective boards, but formalize one committee comprising members from both towns. They then decided to “bring the neighbors in,” as well as stakeholders, including the Maine Department of Transportation.

“These folks may have ideas we haven't even considered,” said McKinley.

Informal committee goals identified included tending to the intersection, readjust zoning, and emphasize pathways and connectivity.

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