Citing the potential the boost development, which could lead to more affordable housing and property tax revenue, the Ellsworth City Council voted in favor of a plan to provide access to a proposed new courthouse site off the busy High Street corridor.
The council met Tuesday for a special meeting to see if the city would foot the bill for an access road to the site. The state’s Judicial Branch has said Hancock County urgently needs a new courthouse in central Ellsworth that meets modern technology and security standards, but that the state would not build a road to access a landlocked parcel.
The council voted 6-1 Tuesday night in favor of building a road to the site via Merrill Lane. The projected cost of the quarter mile road from High Street to the site and utilities is $1.5 million. The property currently is owned by Alice Wardwell.
City officials identified the property as a potential site for a new courthouse last summer, after the state purchased a property on Surry Road and said it intended to build a new courthouse there. Residents along Surry Road quickly organized in opposition, saying it would harm the mostly residential neighborhood by increasing traffic and reducing property values.
State officials have said they are willing to build on the landlocked Wardwell property if the city takes responsibility for building a permanent access road with utilities to the site.
Ellsworth officials have said that it the city were to build the access road and the state were to build a new $55 million courthouse there, it would help prevent urban sprawl and concentrate development near High Street, the main commercial drag in the city.
It could help open up adjacent properties to development — including badly needed affordable housing — which would boost the city’s tax base and help control tax rate increases, city officials said. They also said they would seek out alternative funding sources to limit the impact of the road’s $1.5 million cost on local taxpayers.
The project could lead to public access and a conservation easement along part of Card Brook, which runs along the southeastern edge of the property, city officials have said.
The lone councilor to vote against the proposal was Steve O’Halloran.
He said he is not opposed to the state building a courthouse on the Wardwell property, but he doesn’t believe the city should build the road. That project should be left to the private sector, he said.
“I don’t believe the city needs to be in the development business,” O’Halloran said.
With Tuesday’s vote, the state is expected to trade the parcel it bought last year on Surry Road to Wardwell in exchange for the site off Merrill Lane.
