OLD ORCHARD BEACH — Saco & Biddeford Savings Bank has withdrawn its proposal to build a parking lot behind the Harmon Museum.
The Harmon Museum, located at 4 Portland Ave., currently does not have parking for visitors, and through an agreement with the neighboring branch of Saco & Biddeford Savings, visitors park in the bank parking lot and walk through the side yard of the museum to get to the building.
The bank and the museum had proposed an agreement in which the bank will construct and maintain a 13-space parking lot in the yard behind the museum and construct a ramp to provide handicapped access to the museum. Ten of the proposed parking spaces would be for bank employees, and the remaining three would be for the museum.
In June last year, residents approved by a slim margin, 515-484, an easement agreement that would have allowed vehicles going to the Harmon Museum to pass over the adjacent bank property on Portland Avenue to get to the proposed parking lot behind the museum, and would have allowed bank employees to park in the proposed museum parking lot.
Director of Bank Administration Jeffrey Vachon said in a phone interview last week that the bank had withdrawn its proposal, and the plan would not move forward.
“We feel bad. They’re good people,” said Vachon. “We put our best foot forward.”
He said the project wasn’t “all about the numbers” and the bank was looking forward to helping the museum.
“The museum was all for it, we were all for it,” said Vachon. “This just seemed like a good idea.” However, he said as the process moved forward, the bank wasn’t getting the support it needed from the community to move forward. There were some neighbors, he said, who were not in favor of the proposal.
At the time of the election, abutter Paul Dornan was very vocal about his opposition of the plan, citing among other issues, the loss of privacy and view of apple trees which are currently in the museum yard.
— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.
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