Portland committee recommends First Light Commons for new park, backs trail agreement

[0:05] Troy Moon: I think it worked. No, it worked. Okay. Now I need to make us live. Cool. Start. Well, apparently, I got the tech to work. So here we go. Ready when you are, Councilor Lee. [0:29] Pious Ali: Hello, everyone. This is City of Portland's Transportation and Sustainability Committee. My name is Pius Ali. I am not the chair. I'm a member of the committee and the chair, she's grieving. So she's not able to join us. And she asked me to run the meeting on her behalf. So I'm going to pass it on to staff to introduce themselves and then we'll go from there. [1:03] Troy Moon: great and thank you counselor i am troy moon i'm the director of sustainability for the city and the liaison from the staff to this committee i will pass it to mr jordan good [1:19] Greg Jordan: evening, Greg Jordan, assistant city manager. Pass it to Kevin. Hi everyone, Kevin Kraft, director of planning urban development. I'll pass it to Ethan. Hi [1:30] Ethan Hippel: everyone, Ethan Hippel, director of parks rec and facilities. Just so you know, I'm traveling and so I'm staying keeping the camera off today, but I am here and I will pass to Megan who bled within parks rec facilities. Hope [1:47] Troy Moon: you're on mute, Megan. Hi [1:52] Megan Hudlett: everyone, I'm Megan Hoodlet. It's nice to meet all of you. I am a parks project manager and I will pass it to Emma. Hi [2:08] Unidentified speaker (Casco Bay Trail Alliance Board Member): I'm not Portland city staff, but I'm here as a board member of the Casco Bay Trail Alliance and I'm happy to participate and assist when that agenda item comes up. [2:18] Troy Moon: I think we have all our staff members and we'll meet Mark later on when the trail comes up too. Just one more, Troy. Oh, right. Director of justice, diversity, equity, inclusion for the city. Oh, sorry. I didn't see you on my square. Oh, good. And maybe Councilor Michniewicz is also with us tonight. [2:44] Sarah Michniewicz: Yes. Sarah Michniewicz, district one. Not a member of the committee, I [2:54] Pious Ali: think that's everybody. Council early. Oh, thank you. May I have a motion to approve the minutes from April 18th? So moved. Second. You say I'm a yes. Okay, I'm also a yes. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is updates, sustainability program updates. And that is great, right? [3:33] Troy Moon: Okay. I can take that, counselor. Okay. So just to run a few through of the normal updates we do at most meetings, so some quick staffing updates. So Katie Timms, who many of you have met over the past four years, left the city on May 1st to explore a new opportunity. So we'll definitely miss Katie, but we're recruiting for that position now. We were surprised to have over 200 applications, so we're sorting through those now. We're also will be joined this summer and fall by an intern from the from USM. Will be helping us with some projects, so you may meet Emma Comparado. Just a few other things, so we had a great success with our Earth Day celebration. We had the fourth annual celebration on April 18th at Deering Oaks. We had over 30 organizations participating, and we collaborated with the farmers market. That worked well, and then we had the Great Portland Pickup that we did in collaboration with the Portland Parks Conservancy. We had over 500 community members participate at over 18 sites. So people did a really great job of getting out there and cleaning up the parks and streets. So special thanks to all the neighborhood associations and volunteers who made that happen, as well as many local businesses that donated coffee and snacks. Just last week, we did a kind of a soft launch of our new initiative called Grow Wild Portland, which will aim to help transform Portland streets and yards into habitats for pollinating insects and birds and other wildlife. We'll be encouraging community members to plant native plant gardens in front of their homes. So we've been working with Public Works and Parks to develop guidelines to make sure that, you know, we don't obscure views or block intersections or reduce curb access. We're excited to partner with the main audubon wild seed project orland parks conservancy and others to develop kind of plant lists and garden designs so we're going to be encouraging community members to share their gardens on a story map and we're also collaborating with the munjoy hill neighborhood organization to do a kind of a street long garden on north street from cumberland avenue down to the east end school wall that will be planted later this fall so stay tuned for more about that we also have Launched a community survey to get input about the community composting drop-off. It's currently open now, it's going to stay open until June 2nd, so we promoted that through the city newsletter. We had people could we saw it at Earth Day, we have QR codes on all the drop-off spots, and are sharing on social media, so hopefully we will get a lot of input about that. We've been doing a lot of outreach, so we've been doing a bunch of things on Peaks Islands. We attended a workshop about energy on Peaks Island, we also did a workshop about shoreline erosion from on some of our island communities, and we're continuing to work on our workshop on Great Diamond Island that will be about nature-based solutions for shoreland stabilization. We just had our Coffee and Climate last week on the ecological the value of messy gardens and ecological gardening, and join us for our next Coffee and Climate next month, so I think that is it for my summary my updates [7:20] Pious Ali: Thank you. Now we're doing we're going to do the other update oh [7:26] Troy Moon: I think we actually I think that's it for updates this month, Counselor. We were going to have one but another one but I think we're going to put that off till June [7:38] Pious Ali: Yeah, and then the agenda says sustainability updates, which is president's presentation and discussion to name the water. Yeah, and I think we're gonna pass that one off to Masi all [7:56] Troy Moon: Right, thank you, thank you Masi, thank you Counselor, thank you Troy. I guess what I'll do is just give it just a brief background of the naming process in regards to the Harbor Commons Park, and then and then I'll put forward the three finalist names which we're presenting to the to the committee, and then I'll invite Councilman McNovich and to see if she has anything to add to that. So I'm I'm just following the documents that were provided as part of the agenda items, so the naming committee convened in December 2025, and then began or January 20 26, and then we began our meetings in February into March April, kind of going through submissions upon putting out applications to the residents of the city of Poland, who received about 325 submissions and name applications. The naming committee narrowed that down to five over a couple meetings, and then the five down to three, and then landing on the three names that were shared in the documents, and that is First Light Commons as choice number one, and choice number two being Portland Harbor Common, and then three being Freedom Commons. And just points overview to regarding the names. Since the names were specific community related in the Portland area, it was important for us to do unnecessary due diligence with those communities. The first light comes from the general meaning of Wabanaki, people of the dawn, land. And so it made sense that we engage leaders in those communities and share the name with them, the prospective name, but also just getting feedback and thoughts and ideas about their take and trying to get their support around this. The other name is related to Freedom Common, is in connection to the Freedom Trail, and specifically connected to the location of Portland and Maine being the end of the Underground Railroad, where runaway slaves, their last stop before making their way into Canada. And so it was important to engage with leaders in the African-American community and do our due diligence from a research standpoint with that as well. And we have a listing of the folks that we engage in this process. This is something we are continuing to do. We haven't stopped yet. yet. And then in the second document, in the second write-up, there's a making of a distinction between the usage of the word common versus commons in explaining that common is generally related to a shared space and does not quite include or speak to the cultural and historical context which Commons does and Commons also kind of speaks to the shared resource and shared history of that space so you'll notice in the names there's the usage of both of those terms in the in the appropriate place. And then the second name is Portman Harbour Common. It was specifically connected to paying homage and respect to a particular individual that was very instrumental in bringing the project to life of the creation of the park and that's the name that he had given it. And unfortunately, we lost him last fall. And so the name is pretty important in kind of providing in kind of giving paying,, paying respects and continuity upon the great work that he did over the past decade and rallying up the finishing of this project. I'd say that 's the general outline and backstory of how we got here today. Councilor Mitnovich, do you have anything to add to what I just shared? [13:32] Sarah Michniewicz: Thank you, Masi. No, that was a great summary. I will say that this was a really, it was a really great process. It was a good conversation about all the background that you just went over, about the information that the Wabanaki representative shared with us. We had some really good discussions on what the meaning of, as Masi said, the meaning of commons, and I think we all collectively were leaning toward a name that would draw people in and represent both the land and embody multiple concepts. That was something that resonated. We were careful to ask if that would feel like it was not giving enough due credit to any one group, but there was a really strong support for a concept that embodied multiple perspectives. And since the list that we received and all the suggestions that we received were, they were dominant themes, but there was a lot of different perspectives in there. And so the names that we selected were intending to encompass what was shared by the public, but also really highly informed by the folks that were generous enough to share their knowledge with us in the Wabanaki culture and people who are working on Black history initiatives. So, very grateful for the process and the conversation, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the committee thinks about the names. [14:59] Troy Moon: And, Councillor, just before you pass it back to Councillor Ali, I just wanted to add and just highlight. So the naming committee's recommendation is First Light Comes, and the name was found to be extremely significant in capturing the Wabanaki history and cultural context, specifically in that area and in that park. And then simultaneously, it also kind of speaks to the First Light piece, thinking about the Underground Railroad and its significance towards the freedom of many slaves escaping slavery in the South, Portland being the last stop on the Underground Railroad before heading into Canada. And then also a lot of slaves deciding to stay in the Poland area, in Maine, in Greater New England. And we felt that the committee felt that the first slide really kind of touches on the very important and significant history of both those communities in relation to the area. Thank you. I'm passing on to you, Council. [16:19] Pious Ali: So thank you. I am going to take public comment from anyone who wants to comment on this, and then we'll come back and discuss, and then take a vote to recommend. Are we going to recommend the list that you have to the council to select, or are we going to deliberate and select one? [16:43] Troy Moon: The objective is to deliberate and this and select one, counselor. [16:49] Pious Ali: Okay, yeah, all right. So I will, I will take public comment, and then, counselor, unfortunately it's just the two of us. We are going to have to figure out which one we will forward to the council. If you are attending the meeting and you want to comment on this, please raise your. [17:21] Troy Moon: Not seeing anybody. We have four attendees. Not seeing any raised hands, so. [17:38] Pious Ali: I'm going to close. You have any name that you want to ask? Actually, sorry, Castle, early, some, somebody raised their hand, so I will, okay, I let a person speak and then we'll go from here. Nick, can. [17:59] Nick Saccaro: You hear me? Yeah, all right, okay. I'm Nick Saccaro, I'm a lifelong resident of Portland. I just wanted to thank everybody for the thought put into selecting those names. I would recommend Portland Harbor Common just because, first, like Common, I appreciate the history in honoring the Wabanaki, but I feel like it could really apply to any place in Maine. And if this were a park actually on the east end, that would be more fitting. But I feel like just Portland Harbor Common, while it's not that exciting, it is just the most functional name, considering that First Light could apply anywhere, I think. And they did submit a detailed written comment, hoping that we could honor the history of Fort Loyal, which was the area of the first settlement in Portland, right at that location of the park. But it would not exactly meet the goals of honoring the Native Americans there, but I did find some interesting names of some chiefs who fought at that fort that we could also consider, but it would involve sending back to committee, so I'm not sure if that would work. Thank you. [19:14] Pious Ali: Thank you, all right, yeah, I. [19:26] Benjamin Grant: Really appreciate all the thought and work that was put into this. And Masi, I can see like the second one of this, I can see you getting your legs under you a little bit and this getting a little bit smoother of an operation. So I really appreciate your, you know, going with this new policy. So it sounds great. I mean, I think any of those three names are lovely. It's funny that what the public commenter just said, because my initial, so I'm a Maine kid and I was recently at a statewide conference and there was a delegation from Lubeck and the young people from Lubeck, they were very proud of being from Lubeck, right? And so they said where the day begins and, you know, made sure to remind me. And so my gut was also like, ooh, like, are we far east enough for that name? But I do know that like all of our licenses say it on it, you know, say where the day begins. And so I do think there's something special about the entire coastline of Maine being where the First Light is. And I love that it honors the history. So I am very comfortable, especially given that was what the committee wants. I'm very comfortable moving forward with First Light Commons, given all of the background and all of the work that was put in and the very impressive list of folks that were consulted. Counselor Lee, I don't have much else to add. I'm comfortable voting to move this forward. You tell [20:58] Pious Ali: me what you want to do. Thank you very much. I think I,, I agree with you. I think even just the name alone rhymes very well, First Light, and then the historical meaning of what it's, it meant for our state and our city makes it even compelling for us to move that forward. So I agree with you. And can you make them, is that a motion or you want to make a motion [21:26] Benjamin Grant: a formal motion? I will make a motion. So I motion that we recommend First Light Commons as the name [21:33] Pious Ali: of the new park and bring that to council. I second. And how do you vote? Yeah. And I'm also yes. Thank you. And thanks to staff and the volunteers that came together to deliberate, celebrate this, and make it easy for us to pick one. So the next item on the agenda is to consider and make a recommendation to the mayor to send a letter of support for Safe Streets for All in support Safe Street for All Grant in support of Levy Town traffic improvements. Director Kraft, I think this is yours. [22:19] Greg Jordan: Yes, thank you, Councilor. Just pulling up my screen here. So good evening. Thank you for having me. There's a detailed memo in your packet about the request tonight. So again, as Councilor Ali just mentioned, we're just seeking the committee's endorsement of having the mayor sign a letter of support as we are seeking a Safe Streets for All grant for construction. So a little bit of background. This project you all are probably very familiar with, the Libbytown Safety and Accessibility Project, really started out back in 2009 through a lot of community engagement, community neighborhood plans that evolved into an actual planning project with Maine DOT, our partners back in 2021, where we actually completed the enhanced project scoping. Following that process, Main DOT was actually awarded a Reconnecting Communities Grant for construction, and unfortunately, that grant was rescinded during the administration change in 2025. So shortly thereafter, we finished design with Main DOT, and the recent launch of the Safe Streets for All applications was released earlier this year. They're due in May, and in coordination with Maine DOT, we discussed and agreed that the city would proceed with submitting a grant application to try to seek that construction funding again. If we're successful, we would then move on to final design and construction. Purpose and need of the project, as you may know, the map you see here is actually the high injury network from the Vision Zero Greater Portland Action Plan. So, the goal here is to really enhance safety, connectivity. We want to enhance walkability and multimodal accessibility. There's resiliency components, stormwater components to this project, as well as speed management. And again, also supporting a lot of economic activity. This is a primary gateway into the city, as well as Maine Medical Center, Headlock Field and many other businesses on the peninsula. [24:25] Benjamin Grant: Ben, do you mind putting it in? Sorry, we're seeing, at least I'm seeing your view. Can you put it in? I think it's because you have two monitors. That would be my guess. [24:35] Greg Jordan: Let me stop sharing. Yeah, those weren't even the notes to this presentation. So that was, [24:40] Benjamin Grant: that's no mine. My eyesight's just not that good. Let's, let's share here again. [24:45] Greg Jordan: Let's try, let's try application window this time. How's that look? [24:55] Benjamin Grant: no it's still doing it 's so weird it's showing notes and yeah and next slide oh [25:02] Greg Jordan: It's, let me try one more time here. We do this several times a week, so I'm not sure. [25:07] Benjamin Grant: That was all right. Yeah, that was fine. I don't, that was even better what you just had. [25:13] Greg Jordan: What I just had once you stop presentation mode, it kind of went to your PowerPoint screen or slide deck screen. Okay, let's let's try again. This is my only other option. Are you seeing it now? Yeah, that's right. Okay. I'm scared to hit show from beginning, but here we go. Is that okay, counselors? All right. I'll be brief, as I mentioned. So project overview, again, idea here is to convert this street into a more safe and multimodal corridor. So converting Congress Street and Park Avenue from one-way streets to two-way operations, including a roundabout at Congress and Park Avenue, improving pedestrian crossings and ADA-compliant sidewalks, dedicated bike facilities, and enhanced streetscape elements. That results in this conceptual street layout plan, which has been broadly supported by the community as well as this committee in prior presentations in years past. I thought I would just show it here again so you could see Park Avenue, the Roundabout, and then Congress Street. And again, as I mentioned tonight, we're just seeking the committee's endorsement to have the mayor sign a letter of support to be included in our application, which is due on May 26th. And so far, we've received over 20 letters of support from the community, including all three neighborhood associations, Maine Medical Center, Northern Light Mercy, and many others. So it's been fantastic to see that type of community support. support so thank you and apologies for the mix up with the presentation there thank [26:54] Pious Ali: you I am going to take public comment and then no counselor do you have any question okay and I don't either so I'm going to take public comments and then we will discuss and vote is anybody here that want to speak to this if yes please raise your hand Okay. [27:21] Troy Moon: We have one public comment here. Evan. [27:26] Pious Ali: Evan, please say your name and your address or your neighborhood. [27:30] Evan Lamar: Hi. My name is Evan Lamar and I'm actually was brought to this meeting on behalf of the Casco Bay Trail. But I am a resident of Libbytown and this is the first I'm seeing of the Libbytown bike safety plan. And as someone who lives in Libbytown and my partner commutes to maine medical center by bike i'm super excited to see some safe streets work being done there so just want to voice my strong support for this project so yeah appreciate everyone's work here and super excited thank you thank [28:12] Pious Ali: you is there any other hand okay now I can see it no all right counselor do you have any comment or questions [28:26] Benjamin Grant: Just gratitude. I know that this project has been quite the roller coaster, and so, you know, gratitude to the city staff, to the state, and to the neighborhood themselves for, you know, sticking with this and not giving up even when funding, the funding rug was pulled out from under us. And just, you know, really excited that we are officially applying for more Safe Streets for All money. I really think it's important that we get as much of that as possible because we should be like the shining example in Portland of, you know, adopting safe street infrastructure. So thanks, Director Kraft, as always, even though it was clunky. It was the best, you know, PowerPoint per usual. Love a map. So excited and, you know, good luck. [29:14] Pious Ali: Thank you, Counselor. And I will reiterate that. Thank you all. Thanks to everybody who worked on this. I'm going to take the vote. Counselor, can you make a motion in a second? Motion to recommend the letter D then I second and how do you vote yes and I am a yes thank you thank you all right the next item on the agenda is to discuss and consider recommending an interlock agreement and resolution regarding the Casco Bay Trail to the city council. So Mr. Jordan, this is yours. [29:59] Greg Jordan: Yes, thank you, Chair. So we had a conversation about the Casca Bay Trail back last month, actually. Casca Bay Trail representatives were here and gave us an overview of what that project is. So I won't go into too much detail about that, except to remind the committee that it's a 26-mile corridor trail, or could be a 26-mile corridor trail between Portland and Auburn along what used to be called or still is called the Berlin subdivision rail corridor. The Maine Department of Transportation has since designated that corridor as a trail corridor until such time as rail might be possible in the future. And so with that designation and the allocation of $600,000 in preliminary planning work, the state is looking to advance that project and to help coordinate all the various municipalities that are along that corridor. The Greater Portland Council of Governments helped convene all the partners to figure out how we can coordinate together as a single entity, ideally. And the GPCOG came up with the concept, or we actually built on, I think, prior work in this area for other trails, where we would form a Casco Bay Trail Board of Supervisors. And the vehicle for that would be an interlocal agreement that would form this regional district or body with representation from all the communities along the corridor, and would allow for that organization to partner with MaineDOT and, of course, with the municipalities themselves, be a single point of contact for MaineDOT to conduct the work, to plan and submit the funding, be able to even construct the improvements down the road. And so that's what's before you tonight is the draft interlocal agreement that would set out the formation of this district, its powers, its obligations. A few things I want to note in the agreement include the fact that each member municipality would have one voting member appointed. There would also be provisions for a backup alternate. There would also be non-voting members, including Casco Bay Alliance, GPCOG, and possibly others in the future. It would be a long-term agreement covering at least 20 years to give it time to do the work. And I want to also note the financial parameters of the agreement, because the body would be able to sort of pass budgets, raise money, compete for grants, work with Maine DOT on funding, and also would vote to sort of pass on or request local funding from the various communities. I want to be clear that forming the board and entering into this process does not obligate the City of Portland to contribute any future funding. Any future funding requests coming from this body would pass through our local or pass through our normal budget process and be at the sole discretion of the council to appropriate. So I want to make sure that was clear. There would also be withdrawal provisions as well outlining the agreement. So I think we're well protected. Corporation council has reviewed this and they have given us their proposed changes. We've incorporated those and so I think we're good on that front as well. Finally I want to note well a couple more things, sorry. So in our current CIP, we've already appropriated, and the council already approved, up to $15,000 to support our portion of the local match to match MaineDOT's $600,000. And so the other communities along the trail, too, would have to appropriate their respective dollars also. So I wanted to cover that. So we're asking for two things tonight. One is to endorse and recommend to the council that they approve the interlocal agreement. Another is to recommend to the council that they approve a resolution of support for the project. The reason that's in the packet now is in part to be responsive to MaineDOT's request that each of the communities pretty expressly state their support for the project. Again, this doesn't commit us to future funding other than what we've already appropriated. But it signals to the state that we're taking the project seriously and want to commit to seeing it move forward. And that is all. And if there's anything that Emma or Mark would like to add, maybe now would be the time. [34:42] Unidentified speaker (Casco Bay Trail Alliance Board Member): Thank you very much. I think that was a fantastic summary. So, and I appreciate the opportunity to present last meeting. The only thing I would add is that the city of Auburn has recently passed the interlocal agreement, which is a very exciting update. And we have presentations and updates we're anticipating coming along with other municipalities as well. But we're excited about the momentum and I'm certainly available if there's any questions. [35:07] Unidentified speaker (Casco Bay Trail Alliance Representative): Thank you. And the same with me. We're here to help answer any questions. Just to express the excitement going on here, the trail really, Portland really is going to be a hub for this. Because once the trail 26 miles is created from Portland to Auburn, then you have major trail systems going south on the Eastern Trail, major systems going west on the Mountain Division Trail, and then now the major system going north to Auburn, Lewiston, also Brunswick up to Gardner on the Merry Meeting Trail, and then Gardner to Augusta on the Kennebec River Trail. So Portland becomes a hub once this is created, not just for the local trails, which are connected through Portland Trails, but also the major trail systems throughout the state. So it's a very exciting project, and Portland families and residents will certainly benefit, as well as all the visitors coming in. [36:16] Pious Ali: Counselor, do you have any questions? [36:20] Benjamin Grant: I have two questions. Do you want to take public comment first or do we need to take public comment? Yeah, we can do that first. Yeah. [36:38] Troy Moon: One member of the public would like to comment, Evan. [36:46] Evan Lamar: Hello Evan again. Do you guys hear me? Yes, cool, learning how to work Zoom here. Yeah, Evan Lamar, resident of Libby town, member of the Casco Bay board. And just, yeah, I want to echo Mark and Emma's comments here, especially Mark's comments about how the Casco Bay trail really kind of makes Portland a hub for trails. I, actually organize a weekly, ride on throughout the Portland trails. It's like gravel bike ride. And it's just like, it's pretty incredible. This as well as active transportation. And I'm just so excited about the Casco Bay Trail to get more people out on the trails and to kind of connect Portland to all these other communities. I grew up in Freeport, and so it's like awesome to see connecting all these trails together. And yeah, just trying to key into that kind of hub mentality that the trail will enable. There's There's so much momentum for trails in the region. NEMBA is building a bunch of mountain bike trails and this Casco Bay trail just kind of connects everything together. And also we'll get more people outside on bikes, do it using, there's so many, so many things to cover. But the main things I'll hit on are just the creating accessibility for people. Bike trails are an awesome kind of first step for people to get out on bikes. It's a safe place, it's accessible, it gets people into the outdoors excited and it provides transportation opportunities. So just yeah, super excited, just want to voice my strong support there and also happy to field any questions folks out. Thank you even. [38:43] Pious Ali: Let me see, okay, yeah. Thank you even, counselor. Do you want to make a motion? [38:54] Benjamin Grant: Sure, I will make a motion to pass this. I second. Do you have any comment? Yeah, so I had a couple questions. I don't know if you know this, assistant city manager, but what financial contributions in CIPs have other municipalities indicated that were already passed? [39:18] Greg Jordan: There's a formula. Well, actually, I don't think we formally agreed on a specific formula in terms of sharing that local cost. Right now, where I think we're still in the process of figuring out would it be an equal share regardless of the mileage in each community or would it be based on mileage? Village. Either way, our $15,000 covers us. As I understand it, the city of Auburn, as Emma just mentioned, has already passed the agreement. And so I'm assuming, although I can't say for sure, that they have appropriated the monies, and I may have more information on that. As to the other communities, I can't say whether or not they've appropriated that amount or not. [40:00] Benjamin Grant: Emma, do you or [40:02] Unidentified speaker (Casco Bay Trail Alliance Board Member): Mark know that answer? Sure. So in terms of there's two separate things happening. There's the $600,000 that has been allocated by DOT, and that comes along with the $60,000 local match, and that's only for Portland to Yarmouth. So for those four communities, that's being split among those four and the Casco Bay Trail Alliance. So as Assistant City Manager Jordan mentioned, I believe that's still in discussions, but the latest we understand is that there's a possibility of each municipality sharing $12,000 dollars and then the Casco Bay Trail also would contribute twelve thousand dollars. So I'm not aware of any of the other municipality status of where that is in the process, but fortunately it's for that portion, it's it's not a huge lift, and as was discussed earlier, there's no you know commitment implied for future funds. Any future requests would have to go through the normal budgeting process, and for Auburn, because they're not part of, they're not, it doesn't, the engineering study doesn't go up to Auburn yet. So by approving the interlocal agreement, they haven't yet been asked to contribute to a local match. And the final piece is that the Casco Bay Trail board has approved our last board meeting that should the interlocal agreement, should the board of supervisors created by this new entity require some startup funds up to $5,000, that our organization would contribute up to that amount for any startup costs, [41:37] Benjamin Grant: whatever those may be. Okay. And I know the cost for the entire trail is going to be up to 55 million. And there's an anticipation that 10% of that is going to need to come from member communities and from the Alliance. So I guess I know I see something about private donations. Is there a development plan already in place? Like is fundraising happening already? Ready. [41:59] Unidentified speaker (Casco Bay Trail Alliance Board Member): Would you like me to start with that one? Yeah. Whoever. Yeah. So we are giving that a lot of thought. I think there's a few different places that we could, I mean, of course, the big piece will be really aiming to get the 80% from federal funding and advocating to the Main Department of Transportation to contribute the state portion of that. And then for the local funds, yes, I think we're, we're looking, we'll be looking to private donations, potentially other grant options, and, you know, coordinating with municipalities for, you know, some portion of park funds or transportation contributions for that. But it's an, it'll certainly be an all of the above approach of figuring out where to get those funds, recognizing that a lot of municipalities are going through tight budgeting seasons right now. Great, yeah, thanks for that and [42:53] Benjamin Grant: you hit the nail on the head. We, not only are we going through tight budgeting situations, but we've also experienced private sort of non-profit public partnership park models where we have been told that someone's going to write a grant and someone's going to fundraise, and then instead they come and ask us for a couple million dollars. So just making sure that there is a strong plan and that we're not going to be told three years from now that we promised something that we didn't promise. Not trying to be tough, I'm just being really transparent. Yeah, but excited about this and happy to support it. Thank [43:33] Pious Ali: you, counselor. I, are you done with your questions and comment? I don't have any question. I want to thank those who work on these diligently for several years. I think there was a time that we went and walked part of this from where the Royal Institute is going to be all the way to the other side of town. So I appreciate your commitment to this and seeing it's true. Councillor, I will, I'm going to take the vote. Yeah. And I'm also a yes. We are going to move it forward to the full council and hopefully it got passed there too so that this will move forward. Thank you for all the work that you've done and for reaching out to all of us over and over and over again. Good luck. Thanks very much. Thank you so much. The next item on the agenda is review and propose a pilot program for traffic management in Pacing Spark and Megan and Alex are going to take this. Are they still here? Yes, hi, thank you, counselor. [44:53] Megan Hudlett: Ethan, did you want to introduce anything or do you want me to take it from here? [44:58] Ethan Hippel: Sure, I'll just, Ethan Hippel here, just a couple quick words, director of parks rec and facilities department. This project really stems from,, a desire from the community and pace, surrounding Payson park and the friends of Payson park to, look at traffic calming. As people know, the, park is often used as a, kind of a through way and a shortcut, to get to two 95 for neighborhoods, on the other side of the park. People, we'll recall back to the summer of 2025, we hosted in Payson Park the first Back Cove Music Festival. And in addition to ticket fees and other revenue that we collected from that event, one of the negotiated terms of the agreement with the promoters of that festival was a $100,000 contribution towards a project in Payson Park. Park. So after doing outreach with the community on how we would like to see that spent and then bringing that actually to the Parks Commission as well for their input, the overwhelming message was people wanted to just increase pedestrian and bike safety through the park and just to increase the sense of safety. And we knew that was a council goal as well. And so that's where this project came from and how it would be funded if this committee kind of moves forward on this and gives us some feedback on which direction to go. So Megan has been working on this and has a presentation lined up for us. So I will pass it over to her to show you the details and the plan, but that's the background on the project. [46:42] Megan Hudlett: Great, thank you, Ethan. Again, my name is Megan Hudlett. I'm a parks project manager,, and this is the Payson Park traffic common project team. Alex Marshall is the parks division director and he was also as part of this team. And just to kind of reiterate what Ethan mentioned, some of the department met with Portland Trails, parks commissions, friends of Payson Park and other community members to gather some understanding of the concerns in terms of transportation issues in the park. And some of these concerns include vehicle speeding on both Catapult Drive as well as Arboretum Road, pedestrians and bicyclists feeling unsafe and uncomfortable, you know, a lack of dedicated multimodal facilities in the park. And as Ethan mentioned, also the vehicles using the park as a bypass to the main arterial. In order to quantify the speed concerns, we worked with the Public Works Department and deployed a speed study. We started that on March 20th in 2026, so recently, and we collected speed data for one week on both Arboretum Road as well as Catapult Drive. And the posted speed limit on both of those roads throughout the park is 50 miles per hour. And as you can see in the results table on Arboretum Road especially, we saw some higher speeds. The average speed was 24 miles per hour, the 85th percentile speed was 28 miles per hour, and I think a really telling piece of data here is that throughout the week, 97 percent of the vehicles using these Arboretum Road were traveling above the 15 mile per hour speed limit. On Catafalque Drive, we saw some higher speeds. The 85th percentile was 23 miles per hour, while the percentage of vehicle speeding was 58%. So almost 60% of the people there were also speeding. So in order to address these safety concerns, we've come up with a plan to implement traffic calming improvements. And this slide is an overview of all of these improvements. So as you can see on the red line, that is the pilot road closure on Caterpillar Drive. So this would be between Inlet Road and Baxter Boulevard. So we're proposing that vehicles would not be permitted on this segment of Broadway. However, pedestrians and bicyclists will continue to be able to use this road and it will be safer for them. And so vehicles will need to use inlet road during this closure. In addition, we are proposing to restripe both Catafalque Drive as well as Arboretum Road in order to provide five-foot bike lanes along these two roads. And the orange area is where we're proposing to add a four to five wide strip of compacted crushed gravel or reclaimed in order to widen that section so that people can park on the outside there. And finally, the last component of the traffic calming improvements, we're proposing to install three raised speed tables with pedestrian crossings to make it safer for pedestrians throughout the park. And so all of these traffic calming measures were aiming to, slow down the vehicle traffic throughout the park, provide dedicated space for all users to make it more of a complete streets, and then also to make the bypass traffic route less attractive. So now that I've given an overview, I wanted to zoom in to some of these improvements to kind of give some more details. So first here we have our Redem Road, and we're planning and proposing to restripe this section so that we can provide a narrower travel lane. So the vehicle lane would be nine feet wide. Then we would have a two and a half foot buffer between the travel lane and the bike lane. The bike lane is five feet, and then again in the section where we have the gray hatching, that would be the eight foot wide parking lane. So as you can see, the first crosswalk would be located right here to provide people that are parking on the side a safe way to cross the road over to the fields. And we also plan to remove any parking signage or any other signage that is no longer relevant to the curb use that we're proposing, and we would install parking signage to indicate where people are permitted to park and where they're not permitted to park. And we're also proposing to use flexible traffic posts to channelize the vehicles to remain in the travel lane and to shorten the pedestrian crossing to make it safer for all users of the road. And the next section I want to highlight is Catapult Drive. So in this area we're also proposing to narrow the travel lane slightly so that we can accommodate five foot bike lanes in each direction, and they would be in both directions all the way up to where the sledding hill parking lot is, and then it would just be one lane towards Ocean Ave. And this is where the third raised speed table would be located just north of Arboretum Road to provide better access for pedestrians in this area and to also sew down vehicles. And the final component of the traffic calming improvement plan is the pilot road closure on Catafalque Drive. So again I mentioned that's between Inlet Road and Baxter Boulevard, and so pedestrians and bicyclists would be able to use us safely. We plan to, you can see in the larger circles, that's where we're planning to install planter barricades and closure signage to clearly communicate with drivers that this section is closed. And then the final slide that I have is just sort of an overview of all of these elements, just giving a summary of what we're planning. And the staff will work to implement these projects throughout the summer of 2026. And again, as Ethan mentioned, it'll be funded using the $100,000 donation from the Batco Music Festival. And that concludes the presentation. Are there any questions? Any other questions? [53:37] Pious Ali: Councillor Mouley, do you have any questions? [53:41] Benjamin Grant: Do we have to take public comment? Yes. [53:44] Pious Ali: We'll take public comment. [53:47] Benjamin Grant: He just said we don't. [53:49] Troy Moon: Yeah, there's no council. This is an advisory. I just wanted to let the council and the committee know and get any feedback you guys have. There's no formal action required. Okay. [53:59] Pious Ali: So, Councillor, do you have any questions? [54:02] Benjamin Grant: Question no questions I don't think wait I had a question about Catapult Drive okay the first thing I want to say is thank you so much Ethan I know Alex is not here and Megan lovely to meet you I'm excited that this if you don't know this is my district I these are my constituents this has been a long time coming I probably field emails like once a week being like can't we just close out of Raven Drive and I have been very nervous about soccer season because I know that PISA is going to be at Payson for another for another fall and so very excited to hear about the parking I still think we'll need some like extra parking mitigation for this fall but Ethan and I can talk about that separately my only question I get or not really question but my only sort of maybe piece of unsolicited advice is to ensure that we're like bringing in other partners I could see the potential for like an awesome project of like painting Catapult Drive like a temporary you know paint installation on the street I would imagine that there might be a group whether it's Portland Trails or someone else who would be interested in bringing together like groups of volunteers you know and kid kiddos to make that really bright I will just anecdotally tell a story about Hazen Park and a day that we were setting up for something and so not Catapult but the other one Inlet no Inlet was closed so the connection from that intersection to Baxter Boulevard and we had like every barricade you could imagine up right and like the mayor and I were there Sarah McNovich was there too and someone pulled in anyway like with their car like knocked over the barricade and just was driving and Mayor Dion came out and he was like stop and she was like who are you he's like I'm the mayor and you can't drive here it's closed for a reason we're setting up for something so it is really bad so like I appreciate that it's recognized that there that something needs to happen. And, you know, I hope that I will, I will try to message this to the community that this like is called a pilot for a reason. And I think that will be important. I think whenever we do something, the community assumes that it's like the be all and end all. So we'll try to make sure that we message this appropriately and bring in some community partners, but now I'm just rambling. Thanks so much. I'm happy to see that this is happening my constituents will be really pleased my last question is when do you anticipate being able to start some of these projects oh thank you counselor yes we will definitely be starting [56:59] Megan Hudlett: most of these projects this summer. So we're going to be working with some of the contracts with the Public Works Department to try to, you know, work using their contracts for some of [57:11] Benjamin Grant: use to implement. Fantastic. And they have a vested interest in this because I don't know how much you know about their own vehicles cutting through, but this is a major thoroughfare for our own DPW vehicles cutting through every day. So as long as they are also modeling safe speed behavior, that's great. Thanks so much. Thank you. [57:35] Pious Ali: You thank you. So I may have missed part of this because of my internet connectivity. Are you closing it permanently or in certain time of the year or when there are events at the park [57:58] Megan Hudlett: for the roads? Were you asking about the road closure? Yeah, I think we're gonna, I'm I'm not sure how long the period is, but I think it's just like a pilot to see how it goes and then go from there. [58:14] Pious Ali: OK, I have seen cars speeding through that small park as if they are on a race course. I wish we can close it permanently and only leave it for pedestrian. But I also don't know the impact that it's going to have to the general transportation in that neighborhood. So thank you for taking the lead on this. I'm looking forward to what will come out of it. [Megan Hudlett: Thank you, Councilor.] All right. You can stay or you can go home and have your dinner on time. [Ethan Hippel: Thank you, Councilor.] I think the next item on the agenda might be the last one. Review the process for developing recommendation for amendment to Chapter 6 regarding energy standards for city-funded projects. Director Moon, this is yours. [59:10] Troy Moon: Yep, thank you, Counselor. So we talked a bit about this earlier in the year as we were developing our work plan because there's been a lot of conversation about the energy requirements of Chapter 6. And, you know, it's been challenging for both developers and staff to kind of follow the process and understand how to do it. It's led to some, you know, waiver requests because of some of the challenges and interpretation and how to apply it. And also in some of the difficulty in meeting some of the standards as they're currently drafted. Drafted and so we wanted to take this opportunity kind of to expound a little bit on, you know, some background on where we are now versus where we were in 2020 and outline some of the objectives that we want to fulfill as we and before we come back to you later this fall. So just a little bit of background, so back in 2020 our, the Portland voters adopted the Green New Deal referendum questions and one of them was to do with energy performance standards for, buildings that receive more than Fifty thousand dollars in city funding. At the time the state's move back the energy code adopted by the, by the state was like not advanced at all. They were still using the 2009 energy code, so it's completely made a ton of sense that we would try to do something locally here to have higher performing buildings in any way that we, that we could. But also since that time there's been very significant changes in move back in the state's energy code and in great measure thanks to advocacy by the city Council and supporting and directing staff to support a lot of changes in upgrading the energy code. So back in the early 2020s, we worked with MUBAC and the legislature and drafted some new state law that requires the state to be no more than two phases out of code. So currently, we have the state MUBAC, the energy code by the state is the 2021 IECC. And also, as you know, again, through advocacy from the city council, requesting that some communities be allowed to adopt an energy stretch code. And so that was adopted. And so currently the city of Portland is currently on the stretch code, the ICC 2021 stretch code, which is 15% higher than the base code. So we, the code is really advanced and it's become, you know, quite, rigid and, you know, quite getting closer and closer to net zero. In the meantime, the city has also done a lot of work around recode and updating the building, the site plan requirements. So we now, any new building in Portland, regardless whether it's city funding now has to do a cool roof, cool pavement. And as upgraded standards for stormwater management and these are all things that are referenced in chapter six around the green new deal ordinance. So as part of this evaluation and potentially to bring some recommended changes to the council and to the committee first, we would be exploring a technical review. Number one, how do the current state and city requirements for building performance compare to the requirements outlined in Chapter 6 that were part adopted in 2020? We want to consider whether it's possible to streamline the compliance pathways because right now there are several ways potentially to achieve compliance in the ordinance, but it's really we found confusion both from the staff and from people trying to comply with it, which ones to, you know, how to interpret and how to understand it. So there might be some ways to clarify that. We also wanna look at whether there should be compliance pathways for projects that are major renovations as opposed to new construction. There's definitely some unique challenges for taking an old building and repurposing it. And so how do we, does it make sense to address those in a different way? Again, to make sure we still have high energy performance, but have a way that those can be achieved. I know we've looked at some other communities around the country that have high-performing building standards that have found different ways to deal with major renovation projects. And finally, we want to look at whether the ordinance can reference or benchmark the state energy code so that architects and designers and code officials are operating within a framework that they're familiar with and that would hopefully speed up review and reduce costs and burden for both staff and for the development community. Again, the point would not be to weaken performance standards, but to clarify the requirements and better explain the pathways. I think we wanna make sure that we're staying in alignment with the council's goals to have, you know, meet net zero emission buildings by 2040 and 80% overall community carbon reductions, 80% by 2050. So we wanna make sure that we, What we come up with continues to meet those goals. And we have planned to work with a couple of consultants who are expert in green building. So Mike Pulaski and Gunnar Harbreder live right here in Portland, but they work internationally and are great resources and are willing to work with us on this endeavor. And we're excited to see to undertake this technical review and come back and talk about this in greater length with you later this fall thank [1:05:24] Pious Ali: you counselor do you have any [1:05:26] Benjamin Grant: question is this just buildings or also city-owned vehicles that are covered in this part of the green new deal in the code this is just buildings okay and then who did you [1:05:40] Troy Moon: you just say would do the technical review so it would be staff in conjunction with working we have your consulting some consultants so which mike plasky and gunnar harvard they were formerly with thorn and thomas city but they now currently have their own workshop okay and how much is that going [1:05:58] Benjamin Grant: to cost less than five thousand okay and you presumably budgeted for it yep i spoke with [1:06:07] Troy Moon: assistant city manager, Dina Libner, and we have funds available. [1:06:13] Benjamin Grant: All right, cool. Yeah, it's interesting that you bring this up. We just had to do a similar thing with regard to the electric buses on the Metro board to revisit and revise some of our now outdated goals based on what's happening in the world of not just funding, but also energy technology so i definitely think it's time to do this and fully support so thanks for i love it when you guys do preventative actions rather than reactionary so glad to see this coming to us now thanks thank [1:06:55] Pious Ali: you thank you director moon this is exciting and as like any of the stuff that was presented today i'm looking forward to see what will come out of this on that note may I have a motion to adjourn [Benjamin Grant: so moved] second how do you vote councillor Boulay and I'm also a yes and for the record councillor Philip did not join us because she is bereaving the passing of her dad so thank you