CAMDEN, Maine — A committee that has been working on recommendations for use of a 3-acre lot that had been the site of a leather tannery for generations is scheduled to hold a workshop Thursday evening to gain public input.
The Tannery Advisory Work Group will hold the meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the cafeteria of Camden-Rockport Middle School.
Roger Moody, who heads the group, said the recommendations could be forwarded on to the town by the end of the year.
Ransom Environmental Consultants will provide an update on environmental issues about the lot during Thursday’s session.
The group has been working for 10 months. The formation of the committee last year followed a November 2014 referendum in which residents were split on how to use the property. The result of that nonbinding referendum showed that 1,429 residents wanted the land used for commercial/business purposes, as had been recommended by an earlier committee in 2008. Another 1,360 voters said they would like the property used for a park or open space.
In 2008, the Apollo Tannery Redevelopment Work Group recommended that the town sell the site to attract a business that would create good-paying, year-round jobs in an industry deemed acceptable to the neighborhood and the town.
The town then tried for six years to sell the lot along the Megunticook River without success. Northeast Mobile Health Services was considering buying the lot for its regional ambulance center in 2014 but withdrew in the face of neighborhood opposition.
That prompted the referendum, which led to the new committee.