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Planning Board accepts CMP's Factory Island substation application as complete, schedules site walk and public hearing
Summary
Central Maine Power's application to upgrade the Factory Island substation at 109 Main Street was found complete. CMP and consultants outlined transformer, circuit and site work; the board scheduled a site walk for July 15 and a public hearing for Aug. 12 to consider landscaping and downtown-gateway coordination.
The Saco Planning Board on July 1 found complete an application by Central Maine Power to upgrade the Factory Island substation at 109 Main Street and scheduled a site walk for July 15 at 8 a.m. and a public hearing for Aug. 12 to review findings and conditions.
Stantec project manager Kara Moody summarized the work as replacement of two transformers with two 22 MVA units, additions of 34 kV and 12 kV circuit breakers, replacement of a 12 kV bus tie switch with a circuit breaker, and installation of a new SCADA system and battery bank. The project footprint will modestly increase; Moody told the board the substation area would expand from roughly 10,765 square feet to about 10,893 square feet.
CMP and the consultant team said they plan a compacted gravel berm at the fence line designed to contain oil in the unlikely event of a transformer leak while allowing water to pass through and be cleaned. The team said state agency checks (Maine Historic Preservation Commission and Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife) returned no adverse resource determinations; the Saco River Corridor Commission review was noted as complete.
Board members raised site-specific questions about impervious area, lighting for emergency maintenance, right-of-way for a future downtown-gateway sidewalk and landscaping coordination. Planning member Jeff Brochu asked whether the project significantly increases impervious surface and whether lighting would be LED and downcast versus general high-pressure sodium fixtures; CMP representatives confirmed the plans include photometric sheets and that work lighting for emergency response would be used only during maintenance or catastrophic events.
The board voted 4–0 to find the application complete, set a site walk for 8 a.m. July 15 with corner flags and on-site parking identified, and scheduled an Aug. 12 public hearing to consider landscape designs and final permit conditions.
