SANFORD —Community members weighed in Tuesday night on what they would like to see happen at the former Stenton Mill area.

About 60 people — city officials, real estate developers, local residents and others, gathered at City Hall for a workshop regarding the revitalization of the Stenton Mill area. The former mill site was the location of a fire on June 23, though city officials had been looking at revitalization of the area prior to the June fire.

Meeting facilitator Kristen Grant with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension said the idea was to bring community members together with housing professionals to create ideas for development in the Stenton Mill area.

Grant said there was no current plan on the table for development of the area. “This is about starting a conversation about what the community might be interested in seeing happen at that site,” she said.

Grant said officials thought that by getting input from the community, those who live in Sanford, work in Sanford, and know Sanford better than anybody else, they could come up with a plan that better reflected the needs and desires of the community.

A few audience members asked if the city had plans on tearing the former mill buildings down.

City Planner Beth Della Velle said the back tower of the mill site is now, after the fire, a “skeletal frame” and a one-story connector building was heavily damaged, though the front building is deemed structurally sound.

City Councilor Maura Herlihy said city officials are working with the EPA to see if it can get funding to tear down the back section and the connector, but there is no set plan at the moment.

Herlihy said she would like to see quality market rate and affordable housing at the former mill site, but she realized mill rehabilitation was expensive and a huge undertaking.

Community members wrote down their suggestions on what they’d like to see and not like to see at the former mill site.

A few wanted to see a hotel, others a community center, and a few other mixed-use development. One person wanted a bus station and another said they wanted the whole mill complex torn down. Many wanted to see housing. Some wanted affordable housing, others did not want to see subsidized housing, and others noted that they didn’t want to see tenement housing or row houses.

Now that community members have given their ideas, a professional team of architects and designers are volunteering their time to create drawings that reflect the community’s vision and could help guide future development plans.

Community members can view the drawing tonight at a community reveal at 6 p.m. at Sanford City Hall.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.