FREEPORT – The Freeport Town Council is soliciting the public’s help on what to do with the town’s recreation lands on Hunter and Pownal roads.

To that end, the council is hosting what it is calling a “Community Charrette” on Thursday, Sept. 27, at 6:30 p.m., at the Freeport Community Center. A community charrette is an intensive, hands-on planning and design exercise where planners, property and business owners and other interested people work together to discuss issues and potential solutions, create alternatives and settle on a preferred plan for the future of an area.

The meeting’s mission is to come up with a plan for submission to the state for the future development of the recreation lands as part of a required Maine Department of Environmental Protection Agency site plan review.

The town had explored the possibility of avoiding state DEP review of the site by transferring ownership of the 7-acre Pownal Road facility to Regional School Unit 5, which uses the playing fields for the high school’s football team, among other things. At a meeting on July 10, councilors voted 6-1 (Councilor Kate Arno opposed) against the proposed transfer, instead electing to hold onto the property for future town use.

Council Chairman Jim Cassida has said that the state requires a DEP permit for projects that exceed 20 acres in size, adding that as it has been developed, the Hunter Road facility is 19.98 acres.

Cassida said that the state review was triggered after the council rejected a proposed project from Seacoast United Maine to create an indoor soccer facility. The soccer club had sought to acquire land from the town between the Pownal and Hunter road fields to create a complex with both outdoor and indoor soccer fields. Cassida said that public sentiment was overwhelming against the indoor soccer facility, leading the council to reject the proposal.

When the town decided to hold onto the land that Seacoast had eyed for its project, it meant that the state considered the Pownal and Hunter road facilities as one, which, Cassida said, pushed the size above 20 acres and triggered the state review. If the Seacoast project had gone through as planned, Cassida said, a state permit would have still been required, but it would have been the soccer club’s responsibility to secure.

The town was given two choices by the state, Cassida said. The first was to submit to state review, or to divest itself of some of the land, bringing the project back under the 20-acre threshold.

While the school district is already maintaining the fields, councilors were hesitant to give away land, even if that meant having to submit to state review. The Hunter Road fields, a town project that opened earlier this month, are slated to be developed further, with plans including a structure for bathrooms and concessions as well as other amenities.