Acorn Engineering is assisting the City of Westbrook with the redevelopment of a vacant brownfields site located in the heart of downtown and adjacent to the Presumpscot River’s Saccarappa Falls. In accordance with EPA guidelines on Brownfields cleanup and redevelopment funding, the design and development team is working to foster community involvement through direct feedback and project participation. To that end, the design team has crafted a public questionnaire on potential park elements and programming options. Questionnaire links were hosted on the City’s website and promoted through social media, print news, and peer-to-peer connections, in order to generate as many responses as possible. The findings were then made accessible to property owners, residents, and other stakeholders through a series of community meetings.
Acorn has also participated in regular meetings of the town’s Brownfields Advisory Committee (BAC), made up of City, State, EPA and local business representatives, as well as community members at large. The BAC acts as an additional liaison between the design team and the public, advising on project development and promoting upcoming design charettes. During the forthcoming public design charettes, the design team will present the project and lead a series of participatory activities to gather feedback on the project and guide the development of high-level sketches. Schematic plans will be shared with the public at the conclusion of the community engagement phase.
