A van drives on Arcade Street between Cobbossee Stream, bottom, and the Arcade parking lot, top, Tuesday in Gardiner. Concerns have been expressed the Arcade lot isn’t well laid out to maximize parking and needs to be redesigned to be more practical, and more attractive. A community input session to hear what users of the lot and anyone else with thoughts to share about it is planned for 6 p.m. Thursday, at Gardiner City Hall. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

GARDINER — City officials looking to hit the reset button on the Arcade public parking lot’s design are seeking input on how to build it back better.

The lot, which sits between Water Street and Cobbosseecontee Stream is used by downtown visitors, shoppers, businesses, employees and downtown neighborhood tenants for parking, borders the scenic but flood-prone stream, a proximity that offers both promise and peril.

Its proximity to both the stream and the Kennebec River it flows into make it a great spot for a streamside extension of the Kennebec River Rail Trail, connecting to other footpaths in Gardiner. But its propensity to flood means whatever improvements are made to the Arcade lot are unlikely to include the addition of any infrastructure such as buildings, as they would also be prone to flooding.

Gardiner officials have been mulling what to do with the lot for years. Reimagining the Arcade lot was one of nine recommendations in a “Heart of Gardiner” master plan adopted by the City Council in 2021, including working to improve the appearance of the backs of Water Street buildings which border one side of the Arcade lot.

Gardiner officials say the design of the Arcade parking lot could be improved to be more efficient and attractive. City officials will consider input from a community session Thursday as well as results from a survey before proceeding. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Melissa Lindley, the city’s economic development director, said Gardiner plans to have engineers redesign the Arcade lot, with a goal of improving both its appearance and functionality as the current design doesn’t seem to be well laid out. But first, she said, the city wants to hear from people who use the lot, to learn what they think of its current conditions, any concerns they may have about it, and hear their ideas for how it could be improved to both look better and maximize use of the space.

“It definitely needs some work, some improvements, but we’ve been holding back on that knowing it really should be reconfigured,” Lindley said. “There are some concerns about pedestrian safety, and the (traffic) islands making snow removal difficult. And the parking just isn’t laid out the best way. We want to make it look good.”

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A community input session to hear what users of the lot and anyone else with thoughts to share about it is planned for 6 p.m. Thursday, at Gardiner City Hall.

Lindley said Gardiner officials also plan to conduct an online survey about the lot, which would be a way for people who can’t attend Thursday’s session to weigh in.

Both the input collected at the meeting and the survey results will be used to inform draft design plans for the space.

She said a brownfields assessment of the property may also take place, to determine if the soil used to fill in the area contains pollutants that should be addressed.

The city is in the process of applying for a $300,000 Community Development Block Grant that could pay for some improvements, but Lindley said a full redesign and rebuild of the Arcade could cost substantially more than that.

 

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