By Suzanne Hodgson

Staff Writer

On some days the empty lot can be seen; on a rainy day, floodwater covers the ground. Once two houses stood here on Kennebunk’s Intervale Road, but now the site is being considered for a park and kayak and canoe launch.

Saturday morning more than 50 people turned out to walk the site and discuss possibilities for the area, said Town Planner Judy Bernstein.

“It was very nice to hear the residents attend and actually provide a good deal of support for this,” Bernstein said.  

Along with the town, the Mousam and Kennebunk Rivers Alliance, the Maine Rivers organization and the Wells Reserve helped lay out detailed plans for the park.

“This park is really intended to be a small neighborhood park, not a fancy, high-activity type park. We can’t do much in terms of making changes or adding anything to the site,” Bernstein said.  “I think we just wanted to get an idea from the folks where trails might work. I think it’s pretty obvious when you walk the site where trails will work and won’t work. It was still kind of wet from prior weeks’ heavy rain, it was a good time to see where the drier spots were.”

After floods in 2006 and 2007, houses that once occupied the lot were leveled with funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. As part of the agreement between the town and FEMA, the two abutting house lots had to be made into a town park. 

Intervale Road is known for having flood problems, according to neighbors on the road.

“I’m kind of upset, they put us in a flood zone, it annoys me to no end,” said Clayton Record, an Intervale Road resident.

“My crawl space is filled up right to the gills,” said Lori Lessard after recent rainstorms.  Lessard has lived in her house on Intervale Road for seven years and said she doesn’t mind the idea of a park, but doesn’t want the area to turn into a place where teenagers hang out.

The site is on 3.1 acres abutting the Mousam River with a grassy area and some gravel for a parking lot.  

“Maybe it’s all they could think of doing (there),” Record said. “I’m not against a recreation area – something for children with outdoor cooking.”

Bernstein said there are still many questions without answers, including how to clean up some broken tree limbs and garbage in and along the river and what kind of ramp can be built at the site.

FEMA placed rules on what the town could do with the property, including restricting structures on the site.

Bernstein said some ideas that came out of the site walk included using trees and tree stumps in a seating area and instead of building a kiosk or information area, putting information on a large rock. 

The FEMA grant acknowledged a path would be built on the site, and is allowed, as long as the path does not interrupt flow of water. 

“There will be days were you won’t be able to go down there, but it does dry out and there will be days when it will be walkable,” Bernstein said.

Bernstein said most of the work at the site will be volunteer. Maine Rivers and National Park Service also is applying to the state for additional money to help with the project, although the final cost of the park is not known.

Because the site likely goes through wetlands, a plan will have to be approved by the planning board before construction can take place. She said the public will have more opportunities to discuss the project before a final plan is presented to the planning board. 

Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.