WISCASSET

Wiscasset residents took a decisive stand against the lawsuit between the town and Maine Department of Transportation aimed at halting a plan to remove on-street parking downtown.

As reported by The Lincoln County News, residents voted 578-303 against continuing the lawsuit Tuesday.

In effect, the question of the lawsuit comes down to parking in the downtown.

Located along Route 1, traffic bottlenecks in Wiscasset during the busy summer months, sometimes backing up cars for more than a mile. To remedy the situation, the state proposed two years ago to eliminate on-street parking, replacing it with two public lots to serve northbound and southbound vehicles.

According to the Department of Transportation, their plan reduced traffic and created a safer environment for vehicles and pedestrians. A building on Water Street would be demolished to make room for one of the lots.

While residents and town selectmen initially approved the state’s plan in 2016, last fall the town’s selectmen voted to file a lawsuit against the state. The town claimed that the state needed to receive a certificate from the town’s historic preservation commission before demolishing the building on Water Street, a requirement the state claims is not necessary.

But as signs posted all around Wiscasset make clear, the real issue is parking. While few in number, some business owners believe the 23 parking spaces along Route 1 are vital to their businesses. At least one business owner offered to pay the town’s legal fees to continue the lawsuit.

After Tuesday’s vote, however, his offer may be moot.

Maine Department of Transportation spokesman Ted Talbot told the Kennebec Journal on Tuesday night that “MaineDOT is gratified that the citizens of Wiscasset have again spoken loudly and clearly in support of MaineDOT’s downtown Wiscasset improvement project. Like the majority of voters, MaineDOT believes that it is in the best interests of Wiscasset and of the region to move forward with the project rather than to continue to litigate the town’s lawsuit. MaineDOT looks forward to the day when it can once again engage in productive discussions with town leaders so that the parties can work together on the implementation of the project.”

Lonnie Kennedy-Patterson, a spokesperson for the group Wiscasset Thinks Forward, told The Times Record last week that the state’s plan will help solve the downtown’s traffic woes, and the new parking lots would easily make up for the lost parking along the main stretch of road.

“This project is about moving Wiscasset into the 21st century,” said Kennedy- Patterson. “Right now it’s dying on the vine.”

The group thanked voters on their Facebook page early this morning.

The Facebook page for the lawsuit’s proponents, Wiscasset Taxpayers Alliance, was inaccessible this morning.

nstrout@timesrecord.com