The Scarborough Planning Board was presented with a number of sketch plans from the developers of The Downs at its meeting last week, including ones for a proposed Market Basket, an adjacent retail building, and a nearby 76-unit apartment building with commercial space on the ground floor.

The proposed 80,000-square-foot grocery store is on a 7.7-acre parcel of land that comes with 410 parking spaces.

Adjacent to it, a 48,000-square-foot retail building that would accommodate three to five commercial tenants is proposed with a parking lot of 172 spaces. Those spaces would also be used by customers of the stores and restaurants to be located on the first floor of the mixed-use building. A satellite parking lot is also proposed behind the retail building.

Residents of the proposed 18,000-square-foot, 65-foot high, mixed-use building would have their own designated parking lot of just over 70 spaces.

The navigability of the site – both for those parking and walking – was a major focus for The Downs, developers said, and was also a major point of discussion amongst Planning Board members at the Feb. 18 meeting.

“This design is really premised on having enough parking, but not too much, and having a very shared and strategic approach around parking,” said Dan Bacon of M&R Holdings at the meeting.

Market Basket

At Market Basket, board member Rachel Hendrickson took issue with the lack of a walkway from the main entrance into the parking lot. She said they will likely need one in order to meet the town’s ordinances.

“This whole concept was the last thing that Costco caved in on,” Hendrickson said. “I think it’s important in terms of pedestrian safety, bring us something we can deal with, bring us something that matches the ordinance.”

Jim Lamp, an engineer at LT Development, said he has worked on building roughly 40 Market Baskets in the past 20 years.

“There are instances where it makes sense to put a walkway down the center island,” Lamp said, “but it’s kind of a push and pull as to whether it will actually be used and, in this case, we thought it would make sense to bring the walkway down the middle to get you to the handicapped spaces but not carry it all the way through the parking lot because there’s really, truly no destination for people.”

Most of the parking spots are located in other aisles, Lamp noted, and customers may use it and then have to cut through multiple parking aisles anyway.

“If the business comes into town and meets all of our requirements, guidance, ordinances … I tend to (believe) they know what they’re doing,” said board member Roger Beeley. “I know Market Basket is a very successful grocery chain and my tendency is: they know what they’re going to do, they know what they need to do to be successful and as long as they meet our requirements, regarding our ordinances, I give a lot of deference to them.”

Board member Rick Meinking agreed, putting an emphasis on meeting the town’s standards. He also said, if Market Basket needs the Planning Board to be flexible in some instances, “the burden of proof is on you.”

“It’s nice to see Market Basket coming to Scarborough and I think Roger summed it up. We do things the way our residents want us to do things and that’s all in the form of our ordinance along with our comprehensive plan,” Meinking said. “I know Market Basket is not new to Maine but you are going to be new to Scarborough and we certainly have worked hard on our vision of this town and vision of The Downs. The point I’m making here is your best friends are our Planning Department. Work closely with them and make sure you’re meeting the letter of the law with our ordinances.”

Retail and mixed-use buildings

When it came to the parking lot for the retail and multi-use buildings, some Planning Board members were worried there wouldn’t be enough spaces to go around as they would also likely be used by visitors going elsewhere within the development.

“I’m concerned that there’s going to be a lack of parking, and that’s why I’ve talked about (building) a garage at some point,” Beeley said.

Bacon said there are multiple locations where a parking garage could be located in the future, including the proposed satellite lot and another location elsewhere within the town center portion of the project. However, he said they’ve put an emphasis on ensuring they can make that adaptation in the future once they see the demand for parking in the area rather than building a garage before it is needed – if it ever is.

Meinking said he would like to see solar panels on retail and mixed-use buildings, both of which have flat roofs.

“There’s a real advantage to taking some of these flat areas and doing something with them,” Meinking said. “We’ve got a bunch of flat roofs coming in and I don’t see a lot of initiative from The Downs folks to jump on the Scarborough side of things and say, ‘We’re really committed to more sustainable and resiliency in our buildings and environment.'”

Bacon noted that the most recent seven flat-roofed, multifamily buildings The Downs has constructed have solar installed.

Now having initial feedback from the Planning Board, developers plan to bring forward site plans by March 24. Bacon said that would, hopefully, put them on track to receive approval by late April. If that happens, construction could begin this summer.