Gateway Route 1

Although this project has been going since 2004, I ran across it just the other day. The mission sounds admirable: to plan sensible development and to preserve rural character for the twenty-some towns and hundred-plus miles of Route 1 from Brunswick to Prospect. One should realize, however, that the project is run by the Department of Transportation, the same folks who rode roughshod over lawns and trees and driveways in Warren a few years ago in the infamous widening project, and tried to do the same north of Camden. Ever optimistic, from what I can see Gateway is an attempt to be a little more sensitive to the needs of real people, rather than directives from Augusta or even Washington, complete with a healthy PR effort from Morris Communications.

I do like the idea of increasing the density of towns already established. To have schools and stores and houses closer to each other, to build up rather than out, to build villages rather than big boxes or malls might leave the countryside open for views, moos, and moose. The spaces between towns on Route already are shrinking, thanks to unchecked development. Whether DOT can persuade towns to alter their Comprehensive Plans is another story. Local zoning boards have all the sins and virtues of small-town life.

Rockland voters recently denied Walgreens the chance to build yet another drug store, between a large Rite-Aid and a Walmart just a mile apart. A very hopeful sign for Rockland, but I worry about 20 towns acting together on complex issues. And will the toothpaste just squirt past Prospect into Washington County if bottled up down south?