Parking Planned for Gorham
Earlier this year, we reported on USM’s plan to fund a
parking/transportation system that increases campus parking and decreases the number of cars on public streets.
Most of the attention has been focused on the design of a parking garage for the Portland campus, but planning is well underway for 132 new parking spaces in Gorham also.
USM is working with the Gorham Planning Board on a proposal for a new 90-space lot on university property at 134 School Street. USM purchased the property from the family of Eugene Schleh, a retired professor of history. The house on the property, which is located between the university’s 128 School Street (the large white house at the School Street entrance to campus) and USM’s McLellan House, will be used for office space. USM will build a 90-space parking lot to the rear of the former Schleh property at a cost of approximately $200,000. Though plans are not finalized, the university would like to eliminate the current driveway at 134 School Street and have people access the house and parking lot for safety reasons through an improved entrance at the McLellan House. Cars then would exit through the parking lot and onto the campus roadway leading to School Street.
Pending municipal approval, plans call for construction to begin this summer.
Construction will start later this spring on two additional
parking projects that have already received the required permits.
The first is a 32-space addition to the parking lot at 62 School Street. The building at 62 School Street, which is located on the right, just down the hill from the intersection of School Street and College Ave., houses USM’s Center for Workplace Learning. The Center designs and delivers continuing education and professional development classes at Maine work sites.
The second project is a 10-space addition to the current lot at 19 College Avenue, the building which houses Child Care Services and administrative offices.
“Based on feedback from the community, we know that we have to do all we can to provide more convenient parking on campus and decrease the number of cars on Gorham streets,” said USM President Rich Pattenaude. “These projects, which we’re developing in cooperation with the town, represent major improvements to campus parking.”
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