A committee on Monday looked further at parking and touched on landscaping as the state continues planning its downtown Wiscasset project.

The Public Advisory Committee heard more from Police Chief Jeff Lange about possible paid parking, including the lot planned to replace the Haggett’s Garage building on Water Street. Member Seaver Leslie has opposed the building’s removal and on Monday night, opposed the idea of shoppers having to pay to park in the new lot. The parking is supposed to replace on-street parking on Main Street, so it is a big, sensitive issue, he said. “We’re talking about our businesses.”

Lange, Town Manager Marian Anderson and committee members said no decisions have been made on paid parking, possible parking for residents, by permit, in a Middle Street lot, and any new time limits including possible one, two or three-hour ones discussed for a planned Railroad Avenue lot. They said selectmen will get a proposal when there is one.

“I want to be clear. It’s conversation, not cast in stone,” Anderson said. There have been no final recommendations from the parking committee and no decisions by selectmen, she said.

Parking rules are a town, not a state decision, Maine Department of Transportation project manager Ernie Martin said. Discussing them now gets the committee thinking about them and yields ideas to share the next time a public informational meeting is held on the project, he said.

Lange said he has looked at other towns with paid parking and the fees would more than cover Wiscasset’s cost for parking enforcement. Members discussed possibly varying restrictions by season and times of day.

The panel and Martin talked briefly about possibly preserving some bricks and the Haggett’s Garage name placard from the 1916 building in the new lot, as part of a kiosk or in a granite area with landscaping added around it. Member Steve Christiansen said he talked with a Haggett family member about the placard’s reuse. “I think it would be good. He does, too,” Christiansen said. 

Martin said MDOT would work with the town and the family to honor the site’s history.

He said the state will want input from the Wiscasset Historic Preservation Commission on aesthetics downtown, including lighting, bollards and other landscaping aspects. The panel plans to invite the commission to its next meeting, tentatively set for 5 p.m. Monday, July 31 at the municipal building. Anderson thought the meeting was far enough off for the commission or a liaison from it to make plans to attend.

When talk turned to trees, Christiansen, who works for the town’s public works department, said roots can be a problem. They pull up sidewalks, he said. When MDOT representatives said the roots might be able to be directed downward instead of outward, members wondered about possible interference with water or sewer lines.

Also Monday, Leslie restated questions he has raised since voters in June rejected project changes a ballot question cited. MDOT maintains the petition-initiated question was flawed. Leslie’s handout to the committee and attendees asked how the panel was going to “reconcile recommendation of a design plan the Town has indicated will not be approved,” and how MDOT justifies continuing to develop a project “that lacks community support ...”

Member Lonnie Kennedy-Patterson told Leslie the committee already decided it was moving forward with its work. He repeated the reminder multiple times as Leslie passed copies of the one-page sheet out around the room.

Martin also had a handout Monday, an updated FAQ. Martin said some people in town have been passing around false information and he wanted to clear the air. MDOT will put the document online with its other information on the project, he said. It will also go on www.wiscasset.org, Anderson said.