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Bangor Area Renewal Authority: Director's Report 1970
Bangor Area Renewal Authority
Eleven more business firms were relocated during 1970 with 14 remaining on the workload. Nine individuals being housed at the New Waverly Hotel are also eligible for relocation services. Those businesses desiring new locations in the project area are the most difficult to resolve because of the lack of new facilities. Because of the liberalized benefits enacted by Congress for relocation payments, a deficit exists in this account. An amendatory order will have to be approved by HUD to encompass these additional costs.
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Bangor & Urban Renewal: A Report 1958-1968
Bangor Urban Renewal Authority
This report presents a condensed summary of activities in the Urban Renewal program in Bangor from the time of its inception in 1958 to the present day -- a span of ten years.
Bangor's program has been ambitious in scale; in attempting to renew the major portion of the central business district through the Kenduskeag Stream Project and in providing a new 130-acre subdivision development in the Stillwater Park Project area. Both projects have required a great amount of detailed planning and several innovative approaches have been developed to deal with the many unique aspects of these projects.
Progress has been steadily maintained in both projects. The Stillwater Park Project is, for all intents and purposes, complete with the exception of land disposition. The demand for residential building lots has been slow since the first offering of land was made in 1966. However, the market picked up substantially during the current year and it is hoped that sufficient development will take place in 1969 to enable the Authority to make application for a major completion Grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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Bangor Urban Renewal Authority Annual Report 1965
Bangor Urban Renewal Authority
The downtown renewal project entered the execution stage in 1965. Preparations were made for property acquisition, and by year's end, the Agency had acquired 4 commercial properties. Negotiations were held with potential developers, both the outside redevelopment specialist, and the local entrepreneur, as well as displaced businesses desiring land for relocation in the project area. Design consultants were engaged to assist the Agency in setting design objectives and criteria, which will be utilized in requesting proposals for redevelopment. At least 12 business firms had relocated into existing or new facilities.
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Bangor Urban Renewal Authority Annual Report 1964
Bangor Urban Renewal Authority
The year 1964 ran the gamut of local and federal approvals of the downtown projects from the filing of Part I of the Application for Loan and Grant in January to the execution of a Loan and Grant Contract in December.
The Kenduskeag Stream project embraces 50.7 acres situated in the central business district. The plan provides for the acquisition of 135 buildings while retaining 63 for conservation and rehabilitation. The assessed valuation of real estate that would be acquired is $4,200,000.
The principal objectives of the Kenduskeag Stream Urban Renewal Project are to preserve the economic vitality of the central business district as a retail center and wholesale market, to meet the demands for new retail floor space forecast in the Marketability Survey, to provide downtown sites for the relocation of existing wholesale uses, to develop new off-street parking areas which adequately support existing and new retail space, and to provide a circulation system which separates automotive from truck traffic and intercity from intracity traffic.
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The Urban Renewal Story, Bangor, Maine: How It Can Be Done and How It Can Save You Tax Dollars
Bangor Urban Renewal Authority
This booklet is presented with the compliments of Bangor's Official Urban Renewal Authority in the interest of Bangor citizens and taxpayers. Its purpose is to point out the need, the benefits and the urgency of this vital project. The documented facts will show that this is a now-or-never opportunity for Bangor to solve a serious community problem by accepting an outright Federal Grant, (not a loan) of $5,500,000 to accomplish this purpose.
Most important of all, it will show that if we act now, this vital, multi-million dollar project can be completed with an expenditure of about $120,000 in city funds and with the aim of helping to hold down local taxes.
Many misleading and frightening statements have been made about the impact of the downtown project upon the community. The information presented here is both factual and objective. The Bangor Urban Renewal Authority is interested only in the development and progress of the City of Bangor itself, and does not represent or speak for any private group or special interests.
We urge every citizen and taxpayer to acquaint himself with the facts and figures contained herein. It will then be evident that Bangor's Urban Renewal Plan is beneficial both to Bangor now as well as to the Bangor our children will inherit.
Urban Renewal Authority of the City of Bangor, Francis A. Finnegan, Chairman
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Vote No On Urban Renewal
Citizens Information Committee
An undated pamplet, likely from 1963 or 1964, which opposes urban renewal plans for Bangor, Maine.
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The Urban Renewal Story: Bangor, Maine
Bangor Urban Renewal Authority
This undated pamphlet (likely published in 1963) presents "the true facts and figures as well a clear picture of Bangor's downtown Urban Renewal Plan. You will then be prepared to vote in your own best interest as well as the interest of your city -- now and for the future." The focal point of urban renewal at the time was the Kenduskeag Stream Urban Renewal Project.
Many photographs of the area considered in need of renewal are included, as are architectural concepts for the renewal plans.
In June of 1964, voters of the City of Bangor indeed did approve the Kenduskeag Stream Urban Renewal Project at referendum by a vote of 4,044 for to 3,568 against.
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Dedication of the Kenduskeag Plaza Municipal Parking Lot, July 10, 1963
Kenduskeag Plaza Municipal Parking Lot Dedication Committee
Work started October 25, 1961, and was completed June 29, 1963, on the Kenduskeag Plaza Project. City Manager Joseph R. Coupal, Jr. presented a speech about the planning and construction of Kenduskeag Plaza during the ceremony. Photographs show progress on the project.
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Bangor's Housing Code Enforcement Program: August 1956 - December 1961
William J. Carney and Bangor Urban Renewal Authority
In May 1955, the Bangor City Planning Board received a report outlining Bangor's housing problems and prospects, "with a view toward establishing a local housing policy and program." Several of the recommendations of this report have been accomplished. A Housing Code was adopted. An Urban Renewal Authority was created. The City is about to execute its first redevelopment project.
A section of this report is herewith quoted as a point of reference to evaluate the progress of housing, improvement in the past several years. "If Bangor's housing as a totality is to be kept from settling into a state or progressive degradation, means will have to be provided to assure; (1) the conversion of the precious existing supply of good dwellings and neighbornonds, (2) the rehabilitation of salvable dwellings and neighborhoods and (3) the studied elimination and redevelopment of certain cancer-like growths of blight and shums in existence in the community today.
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Bangor Urban Renewal Relocation Guide
Bangor Urban Renewal Authority
One of the major objectives of Urban Renewal in Bangor will be to provide suitable, safe, decent and sanitary housing in well-planned and maintained neighborhoods. The removal of substandard structures is not enough. Definite efforts must be made to raise the quality of living accommodations as well as the homemaking habits and aspirations of those segments of the population who now are living or formerly have lived in slum settings. A cooperative endeavor among public agencies, home builders, realtors, civic groups and others is involved.
A Relocation Office will be established in the Stillwater Park Area to afford maximum accessibility to project site occupants. The office will be situated in a building slated for demolition in the final stage of the Relocation Program and will serve as a clearing house for information and service to site occupants. The Relocation Staff will work out of this office aiding in the social, psychological and physical adjustments required of families in their transition from one area of living, and one pattern of habits to another.
Commissioners included former Governor of Maine Robert N. Haskell, Mabel S. Wadsworth, John E. Coney, Max S. Kominsky, and Joseph R. Coupal, Jr.
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Building a Better Bangor: Annual Report 1960 of the Bangor Urban Renewal Authority
Bangor Urban Renewal Authority
The Bangor Urban Renewal Authority of Bangor, Maine, was organized in August of 1958, making the year 1960 the second year of operation. This report reflecting its events for the past calendar year is in accordance with the By-laws of the Authority.
It is the purpose of the Authority to deal directly with the Federal Government, through the Housing and Home Finance Agency on behalf of the City of Bangor for the partaking of Federal loans and grants to eliminate substandard, slum or blighted areas within the city.
Commissioners include Robert N. Haskell, Mabel S. Wadsworth, John E. Coney, Max Kominsky, and Joseph R. Coupal, Jr.
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Marks of Growth: Bangor, Maine 1960
City of Bangor, Maine
Brief pamphlet explaining the expenditure of the taxpayer dollars of Bangor, Maine, circa 1960.
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City of Bangor Factual Data: 1960
City of Bangor, Maine, Industrial Development Department
"Dear Mr. Businessman and Mr. Industrialist:
We welcome your request for information on Bangor's facilities and services.
In Bangor you will find space for growth and a willingness to assist new, as well as existing, industry. Many out-of-staters have found our City a good place in which to work and live the year around. The outdoor activities provided by the area's woods, mountains, lakes, streams, and coastaI waters is well known.
People from other sections of the country have the erroneous idea that Maine is snow bound in winter. There was some truth to this beIief 50 years ago, but no more. Thanks to power ploughs and other modern snow removal equipment, we take winter in stride. A snow storm that would cripple a larger metropolitan area slows activities in Maine very little.
The state's industrial climate is also good. The tax situation compares favorably with other states of northeastern United States. Also, this is true of labor management relatlonshlps.
If you are associated with an industry that has plans to relocate, you might consider the Bangor area as a plant site. We welcome further inquiry and would be happy to provlde more specific details keyed to your needs."
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Program for the Official Dedication of the Industrial Spur, Bangor, Maine, October 30, 1959
Maine State Highway Commission
Just over two years ago one of those modern marvels of construction machinery, a backhoe, crooked its steel arm into the air near the Bangor City Hospital and dug its steel fingers into the earth. It was the first ground broken for Interstate highway construction in the Queen City.
Today, 3/4 of a million yards of earth later (plus quantities of concrete, steel and gravel equally as astronomical in their proportions) traffic is humming over the broad four lane highway of the Industrial Spur from the Main Street interchange to Odlin Road. Traffic recorders are busily clicking off over 6000 vehicles a day. The Spur will not only "tap off" thousands of vehicles a day from Hammond and Union Streets and relieve congestion in the downtown area, it will also make Bangor's new industrial areas near the Spur attractive to firms seeking new and more functional quarters.
A modern highway to serve these industrial areas ha-s been a dream of the city's progressive citizens a dozen years or more. Now that dream has been realized in rugged, long-lasting asphalt, steel and concrete.
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Bangor's Industrial Parks: City of Bangor, Maine, Planning Board and Industrial Development Department, 1958
City of Bangor, Maine, Planning Board and Industrial Development Department
"Modern industrlal management wants to avoid the inherent dlfflcultles of city locations, parking, crowding and lack of growth space, and stilI maintain the advantages of a ready labor market and of transportation that the city provides. Space for one story plants, off street parking and loading, and future expansion are relatively impossible to find in any decent sized city. The large city is by its very nature a crowded, densely populated area. Only a planned industrial park site can offer management what it wants.
When he chooses to move into an industrial park an industrial manager can be assured that he has the needed facilities and the needed zoning protection to operate efficiently. Most important of all the industrial park offers the industrialist elbow room and freedom of expansion within a planned industrial community.
The advantages are not aiI on the side of the industrialist. By developing a large piece of land, Bangor can segregate industrial activity into one location which can be better control led and serviced. By controlllng the area through zoning and restrictive covenants better and more stable firms can be attracted to the area with a beneficial result on the economic base of the community. Control of architectural and structural design can result in an aesthetlcally pleasing industrial park which would be an asset to the City of Bangor."
Includes several maps and photographs.
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Bangor's Industrial Parks: City of Bangor, Maine, Planning Board and Industrial Development Department, 1956
City of Bangor, Maine, Planning Board and Industrial Development Department
"When the war ended in 1945, a wholesale grocer and a hardware jobber who were located In the downtown congested area of Bangor began looking for new sites for their warehouses. After surveying the entire area, they decided that the most desirable location was a tract of land about 2.5 miles from downtown Bangor, located on the main line of the railroad and on U.S. Route 2. The area consisted of a 260 acre farm. Since the interests of the two wholesalers coincided, they formed the Bangor Real Estate Development Company to purchase and develop the land.
After the land was purchased, the real estate company, with the help of engineers and architects, laid out parcels of land in the part of the district that it would first develop. It drained part of the area, graded it, and lnstalled roads, sewers, electrlclty, drainage facilities, and water. These Improvements were financed partially by the development company and partially by the city, under arrangements the city offers to anyone. The real estate company also had test borings made throughout the area to provide data on the type of Iand and the Ioads it will bear. The Maine Central Railroad built a lead track to the edge of the district and the real estate company financed over a mile of spur tracks to the rear of sites to prevent interference with street traffic, truck loading docks, and parking areas."
Includes several maps and photographs.
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