SOUTH PORTLAND – This fall, voters in South Portland are being asked to approve borrowing $3.5 million to help pay for what the city is calling a “much-needed plan to modernize its sewer and storm drain systems.”

The total cost of the project is $12.1 million, according to Patrick Cloutier, director of South Portland Water Resource Protection. The goal of the project is to separate the sewer and storm drainage systems in the Thornton Heights and Pleasantdale neighborhoods, he said.

The benefits of the project, according to election materials created by the city, include “significantly” reducing basement backups and street flooding, “dramatically” reducing the degradation of streams and river systems and a redesign of Main Street.

The redesign of Main Street would include better traffic flow, wider sidewalks and bicycle lanes, safer pedestrian crossings and better lighting overall, according to the election materials.

Cloutier said the bond would not lead to an increase in the tax rate, but there would be a 4-cent increase on the sewer user rate for residential property owners.

Overall, he said, the separation of the stormwater from the sewer system “will dramatically reduce the volume of overflows at the three most active combined sewer overflow discharge locations (in) the city in order to meet the city’s obligations with the (Maine Department of Environmental Protection).”

If the sewer bond were approved, Cloutier said approximately 2,700 feet of Main Street, from Westbrook Street to Mardale Avenue, would be reconfigured and reconstructed.

“The design reconfigures travel lanes and on-street parking to provide traffic calming, reduce pavement width, add dedicated bicycle lanes and create green space in the form of landscaped esplanades and curb extensions,” he said.

Cloutier said the sewer separation work is necessary because the city is obligated, under an agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection, to reduce its combined sewer overflow discharges and because it continues similar efforts made in other parts of South Portland.

If the bond were approved, the work would take place in four phases. Cloutier said the city may need to bond similar projects in the future, but the timing and the need for possible funding is not something he can predict now.

In addition to the sewer bond, South Portland voters are also being asked to approve two charter amendments.

One of the amendments would eliminate the requirement for voting district representation on the Board of Assessment Review and the Civil Service Commission and allow up to three members from any one voting district to simultaneously serve on either committee, according to the City Clerk’s Office.

The second charter amendment would eliminate the requirement that the city provide at least one polling place in each of the five voting districts and would also make election wardens and ward clerks appointed officials instead of elected ones as they are now.

The full text of both proposed charter amendments is available in the City Clerk’s Office, on the city’s website, www.southportland.org, or at the various polling stations.