WATERVILLE — Sandy Cormier, one of the neighbors of a proposed new Interstate 95 interchange, said she is concerned the proposed project will scare off the wildlife in the area and change the character of the Trafton Road neighborhood.
“When we moved out here, we did it because we love it out here away from everything,” said Cormier, who has lived on Trafton Road for 33 years with her husband, Greg. “They don’t understand what they’d be taking away from all of us if they built that ramp.”
To the dismay of its potential neighbors, the proposed I-95 interchange near the Waterville and Sidney municipal boundary, recently cleared a hurdle when the Federal Highway Administration concluded the project would have “no significant impact on the natural or human environment.”
Residents who live near the proposed partial clover leaf ramp off I-95 have strongly opposed the project, and showing up en masse to voice their concerns at a public meeting about the project, while others repeatedly have written letters to the editor opposing the project.
“Our house value will just drop,” said Greg Cormier, whose home would lie directly adjacent to one of the ramps connecting to I-95. “We benefit nothing from this.”
The couple said animals, ducks, deer and birds inhabit the land the ramps would run through.
The interchange is planned as a partial cloverleaf with two semi-circular ramps and two direct ramps to the highway.
The primary hurdle for the interchange is the $6 million pricetag for the project, which was proposed by Trafton Realty LLC, owner of 921 acres near the proposed interstate exit and entrance.
Trafton officials have said that they want to build 450,000 square feet of manufacturing, warehousing and distribution space that would be served by the new interchange.
The plan calls for a third of the project’s cost to be paid by Trafton, a third by the state and a third by the city of Waterville.
While Waterville officials have voiced support for the potential economic benefits of the interchange, the city has not approved funding for the project, and officials said previously that money for the project would likely have to be raised through tax increment financing or not raised at all.
Kaitlin Schroeder — 861-9252
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