LEWISTON — Craig Saddlemire, a Maple Street resident, has been involved in a few community planning initiatives in Lewiston for more than 15 years, mostly as a volunteer. Some have had impact, some have fizzled.

But Saddlemire, coordinator of the Raise-Op Housing Cooperative, said he’s never seen anything like the process that led to the city’s Choice Neighborhood transformation plan, which was unveiled last week.

“This has been the most transparent, inclusive and in-depth community development plan I have ever witnessed,” he said last week.

The 250-page plan, made possible through a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, envisions wholesale changes made through new and redeveloped housing, beautification projects and a focus on safety, health and education.

But, to arrive at the almost-completed plan, some 400 residents, neighbors and stakeholders participated in the yearlong process. It included neighborhood meetings, pop-up events, workshops, and focus groups to discuss issues such as housing, which a majority of participants said was a critical issue, especially lead poisoning.

Sarah Barton, interim coordinator and Healthy Neighborhoods planning council member, said that from the get-go, “we knew we wanted the plan to come from the community. We wanted the goals to come from the people that would be most impacted by them.”

A majority of participants live or work in the neighborhood, but Saddlemire said residents from other parts of Lewiston also participated “because they care about our collective future.” Eight languages were represented among those who took part.

While the numbers point to tremendous interest from the community in taking part in reshaping the neighborhood, it was also a lot of work for those involved.

Much of the organizing and community outreach fell to the Healthy Neighborhoods planning council, a coalition of residents and community organizations that was already in place prior to the city receiving the grant. The council established a series of committees, including one for community outreach.

The committee made it a priority to meet people where they were to get feedback, rather than relying on people showing up at public meetings. The committee held pop-up events where they thought a large number of people would be at certain times of day.

“It was about finding people where they’re at, and at places where people want to see changes in the neighborhood,” Saddlemire said.

Barton said the process also took into account specific populations whose voices, she said, aren’t always heard during planning initiatives like this.

“We wanted to have a plan for the future that people living here could see themselves being apart of,” she said. “The strength of the plan is that it comes from so many different voices.”

Amy Smith, a Lewiston landlord and owner of Healthy Homeworks, said that after each pop-up event where volunteers gathered both “broad input and specific feedback,” the Healthy Neighborhoods council reviewed the results and made sure that they were “incorporated and shared at subsequent events.”

“In other words, neighbors who attended multiple events could see that their voices had been heard and that their suggestions were incorporated in specific recommendations,” she said last week. “I recall at one event a young mother pointing to a specific idea and saying, ‘Hey, that’s what I said I wanted last time! So cool!'”

Misty Parker, economic development manager in Lewiston, said the feedback represented “a broad array of ideas and needs (that) we were challenged with incorporating” into the plan.

Saddlemire said that with the number of people participating, there was bound to be disagreement. He said some were on specifics such as beautification and parking.

“Half the population, including businesses, really like on-street parking,” he said. “And others would like to see us return our one-way streets to being two-way again. Within the existing right of way, we can’t accomplish all of those at once.” Those changes will have to be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

Another point of disagreement, he said, was over what type of housing is needed, and where. The transformation plan centers on the redevelopment of Maple Knoll, an aged 40-unit complex on Maple Street. Prior to redeveloping Maple Knoll into 13 new homes, at a “density and scale compatible with adjacent single family homes,” two replacement sites would be developed, including a 66-unit mixed-use project along Pine Street, and a 64-unit, family-oriented redevelopment along Pine and Bartlett streets.

Saddlemire said the draft plan reflects the needs expressed from the resident feedback, which was backed up by a market study.

“Many participants want to see as much family housing as possible, because there is shortage of three- and four-bedroom units for large families,” he said. “Other participants wanted to see more one- and two-bedroom units, because there is strong demand by young professionals as well as very low-income people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The market study confirmed that there appears to be strong demand for every unit size, so the proposed housing types reflect that range.”

As the plan was presented last week, dozens of Tree Streets residents, many of whom played a role in the plan, applauded at the conclusion of the presentation. City officials have largely been quick to laud the efforts of downtown Lewiston residents.

Word of the transformation plan has also spread. While Lewiston was the first city in Maine to be awarded the Choice Neighborhood grant, the editorial staff of the Portland Press Herald believes other Maine communities “should take notice.”

“If the plan just brought more affordable, safe housing to the neighborhood, that would be cause for celebration. But what Lewiston is doing is building a community, based on what the community says it wants,” according to the editorial.

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