An informal citizens committee and the Great Works Regional Land Trust are taking steps to develop a walking trail along the Salmon Falls River, at Counting House Park.
Speaking before the Planning Board at the April 22 meeting, Scott Landis, of Academy Street, requested the board amend the town’s shoreland zoning ordinance to allow three footbridges and a boardwalk necessary for the three-quarter-mile trail.
The Landing Trail would start at Counting House Park, cross Sewer District land, run through a wooded area owned by the Liberty Street Homeowners Association, cross the Chadbourne property owned by the Land Trust, and end at Leigh’s Mill Pond where walkers could loop back to town on Vine Street.
The proposed trail would be within 100 feet of the river in the Resource Protection zone, where structures and vegetation removal are restricted under town ordinances. State law, however, allows structure exemptions to shoreland zoning if an area is part of a downtown revitalization project.
The Town Council on March 10 voted to approve an amendment to the Downtown Revitalization Plan to include the proposed Landing Trail after a public hearing Feb. 24.
Land Trust Stewardship Director Jill Crosbie emphasized at the April 22 meeting the Land Trust strongly advocates for shoreland zoning and its role in protecting waterways.
“The exception is only because it would be part of the Downtown Revitalization plan [and] can be accessible to people walking from town. It will not extend to other things,” said Crosbie.
The project would require footbridges to cross two gullies and a tidal stream as well as a cantilevered boardwalk – a design that supports a structure on one side like an overhanging roof – on Sewer District property, to minimize disruption of the shoreland, she said.
The citizen group, which includes some Liberty Street Homeowners Association residents and others from the Vine Street area, is far from its goal of installing the trail, Crosbie told the South Berwick Reporter.
Besides securing approval of the shoreland zoning amendment, engineered drawings must be completed and submitted to the Department of Environmental Protection. The Sewer District and Land Trust must also finalize an easement agreement for the trail to cross Sewer District property.
Lastly, the project would need final approval from the Planning Board and Town Council after additional public hearings.
The project has been reviewed by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, as required by state law, because the area is already known to have historical significance, according to Crosbie. An independent archeologist has been contracted to assess whether the project would disturb any historical human activity.
Work on the Landing Trail project thus far has been funded by grant money from the Quimby Family Foundation, originally awarded for a pedestrian and bicycle bridge near the dam at Leigh’s Mill Pond, proposed in 2007, according to Landis. That bridge was suggested after the Vine Street Bridge near the pond was condemned by the state, splitting the street into two dead end roads.
A bridge for foot and cycling traffic over the dam is not part of the present effort for a riverside trail, Landis noted.
The Quimby Foundation granted the committee’s request to transfer $16,842, the remaining funds from the original $20,000 grant, to the Landing Trail project with Great Works Regional Land Trust as the fiscal sponsor, Landis told the Reporter.
The grant money will be spent in the design and permitting process, according to Crosbie, and the committee plans to raise funds for construction and long-term maintenance of the trail.
