Maine
A former Camden tannery embodies Maine’s fight over growth
For eight years, Tom Resek has labored to determine what’s subsequent for the previous Apollo Tannery property in Camden, a three-acre website the place animal conceal tanning and different industrial actions had been carried out for greater than a century. So far, there hasn’t been a growth proposal he likes, although.
The tannery closed in 1997, and the city acquired the land six years later after the proprietor didn’t pay property taxes. Since then, the way forward for the location has been a giant query mark hanging over Camden’s Millville neighborhood — particularly for neighbors like Resek.
A self-employed businessman, Resek is evident on what he needs for the property alongside the Megunticook River. He’d wish to see a multi-use neighborhood park with a devoted house for the Camden Farmers’ Market, in addition to reasonably priced housing alternatives.
What he doesn’t need is the opposite proposals which were launched up to now, which embody a startup film studio, an ambulance middle, a three-story house constructing and a mixture entrepreneurial makerspace and housing growth. The 2014 ambulance middle proposal, which he thought can be too noisy and harmful for Millville, is what pushed him to assist kind the Pals of Tannery Park group. He needed the residents to have some company in what was constructed there.
However what Resek actually doesn’t need is for his activism in preventing for the way forward for his neighborhood to be given the often-negative label of NIMBY, or “Not In My Yard.” A couple of individuals have used that time period, which he sees as a phrase used to belittle those that desire a say in what occurs of their neighborhoods.
“It’s simply significantly better to speak in regards to the problem itself,” he stated. “It’s a label, and a label that’s used, typically, in a destructive approach, to marginalize a gaggle.”
The talk taking part in out across the former tannery website in Camden is echoed across the state, however maybe most acutely alongside the coast, the place growth pressures abound and residents wish to shield property values and their lifestyle.
From land-based fish farms to replacements for getting old bridges, to vitality transmission traces, to reasonably priced housing developments, numerous Mainers consider that their backyards — actually or metaphorically talking — aren’t the suitable place to construct them.
This pushback to growth has excessive stakes, and infrequently slows or stops tasks of their tracks. Relying on the problem and on an individual’s perspective, this may be both constructive or troubling for Maine’s future.
NIMBY 101
Although the acronym NIMBY started as a Nineteen Seventies rallying cry adopted by lower- and middle-income individuals preventing for environmental justice, it has advanced within the years to indicate selfishness. Critics of those that embody the phrase embody the rising YIMBY, or “Sure In My Yard,” housing advocacy motion. They consider that individuals who have already got one thing — a home, a job, cash, a view — are preventing to maintain others from having their share, too.
However it additionally is smart that, in a time when so many political or international issues really feel uncontrolled, fights over what occurs in an individual’s city and neighborhood really feel properly value having.
“Yeah, I care about what’s in my yard. I imply, who doesn’t?” Resek stated. “Would you desire a neighborhood that doesn’t care?”
Caroline Noblet, a College of Maine economics professor, stated that native opposition to proposed developments is occurring all over the place.
“We maintain seeing it over and over. There’s a sample,” she stated. “However it’s not a uniquely Maine factor to say that one thing’s proposed and we don’t prefer it.”
Causes embody “established order bias,” which is when individuals want issues to stay the identical. It’s a well-known chorus in Maine, the oldest state within the nation and the place many residents have deep generational roots. That issues, she stated, utilizing the instance that if somebody’s grandfather proposed to their grandmother on a bridge, it may be exhausting to help changing it — even when it’s a bit rickety these days.
“I feel we’ve all been someplace and cared about one thing, and seen it not be straight in our management,” she stated.
One thing else on her thoughts is the “drawbridge concept,” a time period to explain when individuals retire or transfer to Maine as a result of they just like the surroundings and different idyllic points, and don’t need that to vary.
“After which they wish to pull up the drawbridge behind them,” Noblet stated.
This group typically has schooling, time and sources, and is properly positioned to battle change, she stated. Which means they will discover themselves preventing for a similar issues because the generational Mainers, which might create highly effective, if barely uncommon, coalitions in opposition to proposed change.
“Maybe it’s uncommon for these two teams of individuals — rich, well-educated … retirees, and the oldsters who’ve lived on the town for a very long time and don’t have lots of sources, to agree on one thing,” Noblet stated.
And it’s simpler now than ever for opponents to seek out one another, because of social media and the web.
“I feel there have been all the time opponents,” Noblet stated. “Now, I feel typically a small minority [of people] appears larger, as a result of there are extra instruments to get the message out.”
Issues and questions
Peter DelGreco of Maine & Co., a Portland-based nonprofit group that works to convey companies to the state, stated that opposition is slowing growth of all types. Court docket circumstances, appeals and extra can alarm buyers and add a sense of threat to tasks. City conferences about growth tasks can run scorching, leaving communities solely extra divided and fewer prone to discover consensus on proposals.
“Native opposition is totally an element,” DelGreco stated. “What’s bought to occur — and that is in all probability an excellent factor — is that [companies have] bought to spend so much of time attending to know the neighborhood and what’s necessary to the neighborhood. That additionally means it’s incumbent on the neighborhood to seek out out for themselves what’s necessary to them.”
In any other case, what’s at stake for Maine is way bigger than the person growth battles counsel.
“A few of these questions are actually exhausting and difficult. We’re speaking about what’s our technique for progress? What does our future appear to be?” DelGreco stated.
He feels that what’s taking place in Maine is mirroring a nationwide pattern: America is a polarized place, and one the place individuals are fast to problem concepts and choices they don’t like.
“I feel there’s a pure mistrust of the whole lot, and other people throughout the nation are saying no to lots of issues,” DelGreco stated. “Generally simply because they wish to say no, and typically as a result of it makes them really feel empowered.”
However to him, a minimum of, the danger of simply saying no is obvious. That’s very true with regards to aquaculture, one thing that has been a part of the state’s financial growth agenda for many years. Corporations that wish to construct land- or water-based farms on the coast typically have run into sharp opposition from individuals who have the sources to maintain tasks in limbo, typically for years.
“What we now have is a handful of well-heeled those who have determined that we don’t need that,” DelGreco stated. “They’re fully altering the financial growth plans of a complete state simply because they’ve cash … I feel that’s driving NIMBYism.”
Vote of confidence
Past aquaculture, current points which have divided Camden embody whether or not so as to add paid downtown parking and what to do in regards to the tannery website and the Montgomery Dam on the Megunticook River.
“It’s positively a problem to make community-wide choices on advanced points,” Choose Board member Alison McKellar stated. “Generally all people simply has totally different objectives. Some individuals need there to be extra vacationers on the town, and a few individuals need there to be fewer vacationers.”
The query of what to do with the tannery website is nuanced, she stated. When the Apollo Tannery was working, it leaked chemical compounds onto a portion of the property. Whereas probably the most critical contamination was excavated and eliminated in 2008, extra low-level decontamination work nonetheless must be finished.
On a gradual stroll across the perimeter of the Camden tannery website, it’s not exhausting to see why Resek and different members of the chums group consider there’s potential within the property. Regardless of close by building work and the warmth of the July day, the trail is shady and peaceable because of the timber lining the banks of the Megunticook River. Milkweed, goldenrod, Queen Anne’s lace and meadow grasses develop unchecked over a portion of the property.
“It doesn’t take a lot creativeness to see this as a park,” he stated. “I feel we could possibly be perceived as NIMBYs if all we stated was, ‘Don’t do this.’ However it’s not a egocentric pursuit to try to get one thing finished for the neighborhood.”
Nonetheless, although proponents of turning the property right into a park have stated that no different critical entities needed to purchase it from Camden, when the city put out a request for proposals, that turned out to not be the case, McKellar stated.
“I don’t actually have an enormous or any agenda, myself,” she stated. “I’m simply so uninterested in having choices be made by speculating about what individuals need.”
So the city put it to a vote. Final month, residents voted 871 to 618 in opposition to giving the Choose Board the authority to get rid of tax-acquired property, together with the tannery website. In addition they voted 900 to 628 in opposition to giving the board energy to barter to promote the tannery property for a minimum of $250,000.
Resek and the Pals of Tannery Park consider the outcomes present a public vote of confidence within the park concept.
“So long as you will get a consensus or a gaggle of people that don’t simply reside subsequent to it, it goes from being a NIMBY problem to a neighborhood problem,” he stated. “We gained over the entire city. The group that’s behind making an attempt to make it a park has members in the entire neighborhood, not simply within the neighborhood.”