Northern sprawl (Presque Isle, Houlton, Eagle Lake: transplants, new house, buy)

[TheKezarWoodsman]

Ive asked a small few people this question in a pm, but its good to get a wide opinion. For mainers and transplants who have been here awhile(10 or more years), how bad is the sprawl and growth getting in northern maine (aroostook). With out of staters moving in, is there alot of growth despite some towns losing population?

[FlowerPower00]

Originally Posted by wolfhelm

Ive asked a small few people this question in a pm, but its good to get a wide opinion. For mainers and transplants who have been here awhile(10 or more years), how bad is the sprawl and growth getting in northern maine (aroostook). With out of staters moving in, is there alot of growth despite some towns losing population?

It's a pretty steady flow back and forth---many young people left the area, but there are many folks, mostly retired age, moving to the area. Many are tied to the former air base.

[maineguy8888]

Not much sprawl. The only place it's really obvious is in Presque Isle, which has two mile-long "strips" leading into and out of town. They are fairly new and look god-awful and very out of place in the County.
But that's about it.

[Brodels]

Indeed, sprawl is quite limited. The population of Aroostook County has gradually declined since the 1960s - there are tens of thousands fewer people here now. There is no population growth, and not much growth measured in other ways - perhaps less than desired. Even Presque Isle's "strips" aren't really notable compared to what you will find in most places.

[mainebrokerman]

sprawl in northern maine is a new family dollar store ... or a farmer selling out of the back of his truck

whats the opposite of sprawl???? business closings??


sprawl is the last thing id worry about in northern maine

remember maine is 94 % trees and gaining thousands of acres every year,,,,we have much more trees in maine today than 100 years ago


Aroostook county is larger than the state of rhode island , rhode island has over 1,000,000 population , Aroostook county has around 60,000

[Maineac]

The largest impact I have observed is the maintenance of very high prices on lakefront properties up above, Eagle Lake, Long Lake, Square, etc. Some of them quite stunning for where it is, while other prices are moderate to low. I don't see "sprawl." And not much "new" going in and out of Presque Isle. Quite a bit of commercial vacancy, too. However, gauge property taxes carefully. Price may be low, but some communities are struggling and property taxes is all they have. I was stunned at the tax rates in Houlton when we were moving back to Maine a few years ago. Buy a mansion for $60,000.00, pay through the nose for property taxes.

[lrfox]

As others have said, the population has actually trended downward in Northern Maine. The "sprawl" that has sprouted up on the major roadways leading into/out of some of the larger towns is more a reflection of a general culture shift away from downtown shops and offices to more auto centric businesses along major auto routes than it is a reflection of population growth. The downtown areas in those communities mostly have more vacancies than they have in decades. Walmart is the easy target for people looking to blame someone/something, but it really is a cultural shift that's only starting to swing back the other way and only in larger urban areas and select special small town cases (college towns being one of the biggest examples).

[maineguy8888]

That is what happened in Presque Isle: they built a WalMart (which turned into a Super Walmart) to the north of town, 20 years ago. Almost all new development afterwards went out that way, including the mall. For many years, they were able to contain it to the south side of the Aroostook River, but about five years ago it "jumped" across the river and is now spreading out to a good two miles from downtown.
Almost all of the older buildings and farms to the north of town are now gone.
The strip on the south end of town grew up to try to capture traffic coming up from the south.
I grew up on the east side of town. We explored and roamed all the fields and woods around there....hundreds of acres. Now it is almost all gone, to development (alot of houses on 5 acre lots).
The next thing is a five mile long bypass just east of town..starting construction next year. The downtown is almost dead and this will be the nail in the coffin.

It's weird to think of sprawl in the County, but there you have it. I hate it.

[beltrams]

Originally Posted by maineguy8888

That is what happened in Presque Isle: they built a WalMart (which turned into a Super Walmart) to the north of town, 20 years ago. Almost all new development afterwards went out that way, including the mall. For many years, they were able to contain it to the south side of the Aroostook River, but about five years ago it "jumped" across the river and is now spreading out to a good two miles from downtown.
Almost all of the older buildings and farms to the north of town are now gone.
The strip on the south end of town grew up to try to capture traffic coming up from the south.
I grew up on the east side of town. We explored and roamed all the fields and woods around there....hundreds of acres. Now it is almost all gone, to development (alot of houses on 5 acre lots).
The next thing is a five mile long bypass just east of town..starting construction next year. The downtown is almost dead and this will be the nail in the coffin.

It's weird to think of sprawl in the County, but there you have it. I hate it.

The funny thing is sprawl is happening even without population growth due to changing living patterns.

It's sad to see people building new houses while many other houses sit vacant and crumbling all throughout The County. We have 3 or 4 derelict houses on our country road (about 3 miles long) while people have built 3 or so other houses. It kind of bugs me as I bought an old 1925 house and have been giving it substantial renovations.

[Taxed in Maine]

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

sprawl in northern maine is a new family dollar store ... or a farmer selling out of the back of his truck

whats the opposite of sprawl???? business closings??


sprawl is the last thing id worry about in northern maine

remember maine is 94 % trees and gaining thousands of acres every year,,,,we have much more trees in maine today than 100 years ago


Aroostook county is larger than the state of rhode island , rhode island has over 1,000,000 population , Aroostook county has around 60,000

The County is 1300 sq miles larger than CT, and their population is 3.6 million.