Augusta plan would seek up to $30 million for Western Avenue makeover

The city of Augusta is considering whether to apply for grant funding of up to $30 million, most of it federal money through a transportation initiative meant to bring “transformative” change to communities, to make improvements to Western Avenue. Above, a rain-soaked Western Avenue on Sunday. Ashley Allen/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — Augusta’s busy, heavily commercialized Western Avenue, which most visitors use when entering Maine’s capital city, has been held up for decades as an example of how development should not take place.

Its four lanes of travel, surrounded by concrete and lined by fast-food restaurant signs and strip mall businesses, are intimidating and hard to cross for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Little about the stretch of road that takes motorists from Interstate 95 to Memorial Circle is welcoming or representative of Maine, according to city development officials and others.

In an effort toward improvement, local officials are considering whether to apply for grant funding of up to $30 million, most of it federal money through a transportation initiative meant to bring “transformative” change to villages.

Doing so would initially cost the city between $75,000 and $100,000 to help come up with a plan. And if the grant application were successful, it could bring the city as much as $27 million to make improvements to the gateway transportation corridor most visitors use to get to the state capitol complex.

“This is the area that most visitors to the capital city see first,” Matt Nazar, development director for the city, wrote in a memorandum to city councilors proposing the idea. “Having it be more representative of Maine as a beautiful place to visit, rather than a commercial strip similar to every other commercial strip in the U.S., could help continue the transformation of Augusta from its downtown out along its major transportation corridors.”

The Maine Department of Transportation’s Village Partnership Initiative, Nazar said, is meant to tackle large projects in village-like areas of municipalities in an effort to make transformative improvements that boost the areas’ economic outlook and accessibility by all modes of transportation. He said city staff members met with MDOT officials a few weeks ago and the state officials were enthusiastic.

Funds from the program were used as part of recent efforts to remove a crown on Water Street and make other improvements in downtown Hallowell , and to improve street and other access in the Belgrade Lakes area.

Nazar said due to the size of the Western Avenue project area, which he said would likely include Capitol and Armory streets, the makeover could cost up to $30 million, which he said is on the high end of the federally funded grant program’s limits.

He said the projects are generally funded at 80% from federal infrastructure funds, 10% local funds and 10% state dollars. If the plan were to move forward and be approved at the federal level, Augusta and the state would have to commit $3 million to the project, but could expect $27 million in federal funds.

To get to that point, however, Augusta and the state would have to put together a plan to address Western Avenue’s problems. Nazar estimated such a plan would cost between $150,000 and $200,000, half of which — $75,000 to $100,000 — would be the city’s responsibility, with the state covering the other half.

At their July 13 informational meeting, city councilors informally gave their support to having city staff members move forward and come up with a plan.

“I think $75,000 is a considerable amount of money, but it would affect potential new infrastructure from the interstate all the way to the rotary and Capitol and Armory streets that may be beneficial to us not today, but tomorrow,” Ward 3 Councilor Mike Michaud said. “We owe it to the city to see what this plan will entail. And if it’s going to be beneficial to the city 10, 20, 30 years down the road, then we need to really look hard at it.”

Mayor Mark O’Brien said Augusta’s potential $3 million cost is a lot of money, especially given the city has many other needs competing for funding, including contributing to the cost of building a new elementary school, bringing utilities out to the Riggs Brook area and improvements to the Augusta Civic Center.

Ward 1 Councilor Linda Conti, whose ward includes Western Avenue, said the city’s $3 million investment could reel in $27 million in federal funds for much-needed improvements, including making the area more walkable.

“We’re going to have a housing project built on Western Avenue and we want to attract more housing and other stuff to the area,” Conti said. “We want people to be able to walk around that whole (state capitol complex) campus, and extend that area so people have living and working options where they don’t have to drive.

“The $3 million gets us $30 million, so it’s something we’d never, ever, be able to do on our own.”

City Manager Susan Robertson said the next step is to determine from where the city’s share of the study’s cost would come.