As space gets tighter for vessel tie-ups, Portland’s working waterfront may get some relief from a proposed $360,000 public boat landing within the Ocean Gateway marine passenger terminal complex.
The landing would include 240 linear feet of floats for short-term public berthing, more than doubling the city’s current capacity, a city memo said last week. The L-shaped landing would be accessed from shore via a 50-foot gangway just east of the terminal, near a building currently used by the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum.
The landing would serve a variety of waterfront users, including recreational boaters, islanders, fishermen and commercial water taxi operators, and free up space elsewhere.
“While not intended as a commercial dock, the new public landing will relieve congestion and expand access to both commercial and noncommercial boaters, as typically seen using existing facilities,” Portland Waterfront Coordinator Bill Needelman wrote in the memo.
Along all of Portland Harbor, public landings can serve a total of no more than 15 vessels at a time. That number is tiny compared with over 1,500 walk-on recreational berthing slips and 12,000 linear feet of commercial berthing, Needelman said.
Portland would cover about $180,000 of the landing’s projected cost through in-kind contributions and operating funds in the current and 2022 city budgets. The city plans to apply for another $180,000 from the Maine Small Harbor Improvement Program, according to the memo.
The Portland City Council’s Sustainability and Transportation Committee is scheduled to receive a briefing on the proposal in a meeting at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. The project would require a site plan approval from the city, as well as permits from the Portland Harbor Commission, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
If approved, final plans for the landing would be drawn this year and construction would probably take place in 2023. The facility would have a lifespan of 25 to 50 years.
