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Navy’s Brunswick Landing Survey

The Navy’s Brunswick Landing environmental coordinator, David Barney, recently shared that they are requesting public input on how “we can keep you best informed about the Navy’s restoration program [at Brunswick Landing].”

This restoration is critical to the long-term success of efforts to transform Brunswick Landing into a vital, healthy part of wider Brunswick.

We hope citizens will respond to this survey and let the Navy know what would be helpful to you to be able to stay informed about the various clean up and restoration efforts happening at the Landing.

The survey, with a deadline of 11/30/21, is available at this link: https://tinyurl.com/BrunswickCIP

Help us plan the Climate Change Series!

BTLT and CREA are planning a six-week virtual speaker series with the goal of inspiring individual and collective action. And we want your input! Please take a minute and fill out this quick survey!

Help decide how 144 acres of undeveloped land in Brunswick will look in the future!

You can help decide how 144 acres of undeveloped land in Brunswick will look in the future! Condos? Affordable housing? Recreation? You decide what is best! 

We strongly encourage you to take part in the community decision about how Brunswick should use a large tract of undeveloped land across Rt 123 from the Brunswick Town Commons, stretching from Bowdoin campus in the north and nearly all the way to Middle Bay/Merriconeag Road in the south. The land was ceded to the US Navy decades ago, but has now been returned for community use and Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority (MRRA) is in the process of planning for what to do with it.  

In the initial redevelopment plan, created based on community input over a decade ago, the land was reserved for recreational and educational uses, and was to be given to Bowdoin College, but they have decided that they do not want the entire parcel. The land has instead been turned over to MRRA. 

The 144-acres contains valuable wetland, stream, and vernal pool habitat as well as the opportunity to enlarge recreational opportunities in Brunswick. A large portion of the land was historically part of the Town Commons. The northern section includes a paved trail (the Perimeter Trail) and the original redevelopment plan showed that trail continuing through this parcel to Town land to the south, then connecting to Kate Furbish West, and circling around the south end of the airstrip to join with the rest of the proposed Perimeter Trail on the east side of the Landing. 

MRRA is now seeking public input on how best to use this land. You can take a virtual tour of the property online, then fill out the survey. Each section has a place for you to include your own reactions to their proposals. Some issues to think about:  

  • There are community partners that would be willing to support the Town in managing the land to assure public recreational access at minimal expense to taxpayers. 
  • Development does not always mean revenue for a municipality – roads, schools, and other infrastructure often cost more than the tax revenue brought in through from residential development. 
  • Many recent studies have shown that increased recreational resources like trails support the local economy. 
  • It is important to think about how best to balance community use/needs and development. Is this a place for development or other community needs or both? 

Please take some time to consider what you would like to see this section of land look like in the future, and then share your opinion with MRRA. 

BTLT Reports Preliminary Survey Results

This summer, we asked the community to give input on BTLT’s work. Angela Twitchell, BTLT’s Executive Director, reports that the response was very strong and overwhelmingly positive. “Members and nonmembers alike expressed a real interest in our work and had many valuable suggestions on how to broaden and deepen our impact,” Twitchell said.

The survey, intended to gauge community members’ knowledge of BTLT’s work and to learn how it can serve its members and community better, will take BTLT several months to analyze and begin to incorporate into its future plans. Survey Working Group leader Peter Simmons observes, however, that “conserving land is clearly our members’ highest priority, Crystal Spring Farm is our most popular property, and the Farmers’ Market at Crystal Spring Farm is our most popular program. Beyond that, we have much to learn from the survey about how to communicate better with our members and the public, how to get them out onto BTLT’s less well known public access properties, and how we might serve other community needs identified in the survey, like addressing climate change, increasing access for underserved members of our community, and providing more services for families and youth.”

BTLT plans to present a detailed report on the survey at the annual meeting on November 17 and to continue conversations with community organizations to determine how BTLT might partner with them to connect more area residents and underserved groups with BTLT’s conserved properties.