A. Issues Common to Multiple Municipalities

A number of issues identified during Phase 1 of the study are common to multiple municipalities in the corridor. These issues and the methods for examining them will be articulated in the scope of services for Phase 2, consistent with the outline of work attached to this MOU. Issues prominently identified by at least one-third of the municipalities include:

• Speeding, including:
• setting, visibly posting, and enforcing speed limits
• speed limits that are thought to be too high near built-up sections of some towns
• Protecting the capacity, image, aesthetics, and open spaces of the Route 1 corridor
• At the same time, recognizing and planning for the need to increase property tax base through growth along Route 1
• Safety, including
• traffic safety at identified intersections and along identified segments of Route 1
• the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists
• the impact of multiple curb cuts from strip development along Route 1
• Lack of communication/cooperation among municipalities in
• land use decisions that affect more than one municipality
• resolving transportation issues that affect more than one municipality
• Noise and safety problems associated with truck traffic and lack of appropriate (vs. de-facto) alternate freight routes
• The need to protect and strengthen the viability and character of downtowns
• Potential for bus, rail, and multi-use path alternatives; and for promoting the use of under-used transportation facilities to help relieve over-used facilities
• Traffic congestion, where it:
• diverts traffic onto local residential or secondary roads in order to bypass the congestion, and
• directly or indirectly affects many communities, as with the Wiscasset bottleneck
• Conflicts that arise as the result of:
• competing goals, particularly MaineDOT's goal of safe, free-flowing traffic along Route 1 versus local goals relating to quality of life,
• inadequate mechanisms for communications between Maine DOT and communities, and
• inadequate communications and interactions between MaineDOT and communities and sometimes private developers when making design decisions for transportation or land use projects.

B. Issues of High Priority to the Municipality

In Phase 2 of the Strategic Plan, MaineDOT will evaluate and respond to the following issues identified as high priorities by the TOWN OF WISCASSET:

• The conflict between Wiscasset's historic downtown and the impact on business and quality of life of a severely congestion arterial highway passing through the downtown, and the need to resolve this matter soon
• The impacts, both immediate and potential, of high traffic flows on the quality of life, aesthetics, and natural resources of the town, including the use of side roads as de facto bypasses
• The potential impacts of strip development along Route 1 in the southern part of town on aesthetics and traffic safety, and the prospect of needing an extension of a future Route 1 bypass to serve this area as well.
• Lack of a progressive system of traffic and land use management in the corridor
• The pressure to take advantage of the Route 1 arterial for development in order to expand the local tax base, despite potential impacts on the aesthetics and quality of life that also are important to the Midcoast region's economic base