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May 1, 2017

Bangor’s Urban Renewal Authority to disband

With nothing left to do, remaining members of Bangor’s Urban Renewal Authority have decided to disband.

The Bangor Daily News reported the authority, formed in 1958, has been dormant since 1991.

The authority targeted “slum housing, and there was plenty of it in Bangor when the authority was created,” former City Councilor Gerry Palmer Jr., one of the two members currently appointed to the five-member authority, told the BDN. “We also knocked down a lot of good buildings, and many of the citizens lament those buildings. I’m one of them.”

The authority was formed during a period of federally funded urban renewal. Federal funding ended in 1974, and the creation of the Community Development Block Grant program allowed city officials to carry out the same functions as the authority, the BDN reported.

But the group remained intact in case deed restrictions it placed on properties interfered with development projects or created title problems that needed to be addressed, said City Solicitor Norm Heitmann.

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