Portland officials unveiled its plan for a new waterfront park Thursday night at a public forum.
The design caught some criticism at the forum for being expensive, with a price tag of about $16 million. Waterfront Coordinator Bill Needelman says the city manager had asked for a plan that was “equal to the space,” without regard for the cost.
Needleman says the park is an investment in making the area resilient to the sea-level rise and increase in heavy storms associated with climate change.
“It is one of the co-benefits of making an investment down here, is that not only are we able to use this area, we can protect existing assets like Ocean Gateway, other upland development, and the space itself,” he says.
The plan for the park, by Stantec Consulting Services of Scarborough, elevates the land around the waterfront and has small hills to guard against surges.
Needelman says it’s not likely the completed park would look exactly like the plan, but that in some form, it could be completed by 2020. He says the city and the designers are exploring both public and private ways to pay for it.
