By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

 After meeting for more than nine months, Cape Elizabeth’s Shore Road Pathway Study Committee presented a proposal to the public for an approximately 10,000-foot pathway along the shoulder of Shore Road Nov. 19. Committee Chairman Paul Thelin said the group had recently received several requests to disband the project, a decision he said would be a “disservice to the community.”

“Our role is not to be an advocate [for the path] it’s to do what the town council asked us to do,” he said. “We are to assume if one existed, what would it would look like and where it would be located.”

In a proposal prepared by Portland’s Mitchell and Associates Landscape Architects, a majority of the pathway is on the western, or land side of Shore Road with a crosswalk at the south entrance to Fort Williams  Park and another near the town center. The firm’s spokesperson John Mitchell said both crosswalks exceeded a state-mandated 250-foot sight distance once some trees are trimmed. Opponents of the project said the 250-foot sight requirement for crosswalks was not enough since it assumed drivers along Shore Road were traveling at 35 miles an hour.

“I don’t think [the plan] promotes safety,” Shore Road resident Alice Rand said. “Cars speed on that road and they don’t slow down. Crosswalks invite trouble.”

Resident Kate Gillman, 8, said the path would make the road safe enough for her mother to allow her to go for walks to and from their Shore Road residence.

“It would be really cool to take my dog for a walk,” Gillman said. 

 Resident Sandi Dunham said she has never felt unsafe walking her dogs on Shore Road since she walks against oncoming traffic, something a two-way traffic pathway would discourage. 

“It would build a false sense of security,” she said.

Many people were concerned about the safety implications of having the trail directly abut the road pavement with no separation other than a white painted line on the road’s surface. Others were concerned about sections of the path that could be as narrow as three feet as opposed to the group’s original goal of five feet. Mitchell said the changes in location and width of the pathway were necessary in many places to “balance the guiding principles”  of the committee – which include preserving the character of Shore Road and creating a path safe for pedestrians and bicyclists.

“In many places these principles are in conflict with each other,” he said. 

To maintain a minimum five-foot esplanade between the path and the roadway, Mitchell said 28 trees, some as large as 30 inches in diameter, would have to be removed, at least 58 yards of ledge would have to be blasted, several utility poles relocated, an additional 200 square feet of wetlands would have to be filled and the southern crosswalk would be moved farther to the north. 

“The current plan requires the removal of 15 trees,” he said. “And no stone walls are being relocated or disturbed.”

Some residents voiced concerns about the potential cost of the project, including resident David Plimpton, who estimated the cost to be anywhere between $5 and $10 million. 

“You spend the same amount on two cruisers and two officers and get the same result,” Plimpton said. “Let’s get back to basics. This project ought to be torpedoed.”

Thelin said a cost estimate would not be included in the proposal until the committee’s next meeting on Dec. 3. 

‘If there are any figures out there, I don’t know where they would have come from,” Thelin said.

Although the town doesn’t have an estimate for the cost of the pathway yet, Town Planner Maureen O’Meara said Mitchell and Associates so far have received an approximate $35,000 for their work; $7,000 from a Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation Committee grant and the rest from a town drainage account.

Some residents have volunteered more than their tax dollars to support their stance on the project. 

In an email to the Sentry, Biddeford based public relations agent Mark Robinson confirmed that his services had been hired by “a loose association of folks called Shore Road Preservation Committee” for an amount members of the group were unable to determine. Prior to the meeting, Robinson supplied local media outlets with an article titled “Residents Want Cape Committee Disbanded,” the most recent of several emails aligned against the pathway. 

“Hopes for building a recreation path on Shore Road will sustain a heavy and possibly fatal blow on Wednesday evening,” Robinson wrote.

Supporters of the project supplied custom “Support the pathway” shirts and bumper stickers for those who attended the meeting, free of charge. Resident Rory Strunk said he and other members of a “grassroots group” had spent approximately $700 on the items.

“It was kind of an ‘OK, everyone chip in’ type of thing,” he said. “A lot of people volunteered [their services] as well.”

Committee member George Morse said the final recommendation could be presented to the town council by February.