York Village Revitalization Project Overview
Background
The York Village Study Committee (VSC) was formed by the Town's Board of Selectmen in May 2011. Charged with developing ways to revitalize York Village, the VSC began a process of visioning by asking people what they like and don't like about living, working, or visiting the Village. In August 2014, YVSC asked the Board of Selectman for authorization of a scope of services contract with The Downtown Revitalization Collaborative (TDRC) of Portland, Maine. TDRC's expertise in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Civil and Traffic Engineering, Urban Design, Community Planning and Economics persuaded us that York would be well served to work with them.
The proposed work program includes four pre-construction phases in what we call the Strategic Approach to the Village Master Plan:
Elements of a Village Master Plan
- Foundation Phase. Completed by the VSC between 2011 and early 2014. It included committee research, a visioning stage, and the development of the RFQ process, which resulted in our recommendation to the Board of Selectmen to hire TDRC.
- Master Plan Phase. Completed April 21, 2015. This phase began during the discussions with TDRC during July and August 2014, which clarified the overall scope of work for the York Village Revitalization Project. This critical phase was funded through an MDOT grant. This phase included extensive conceptual and technical and engineering work. Multiple public events were held to get community inputs into the plan. The York Village Master Plan, as well as contracts, reports, and presentations related to this phase are located in the Master Plan Library.
- Schematic Design and Design Development Phase. Ongoing—Began July 2015. This phase of work takes Village revitalization from the conceptual design to the detailed design level. In May 2015, the Board of Selectmen agreed to 1) accept the master plan document and forward it to the Planning Board with a suggestion that it be incorporated into the Town's comprehensive plan [this was approved by voters on November 3, 2015]; and 2) authorized the YVSC to work with the Master Plan consultants to develop a proposed scope of work and budget for the engineering and technical work needed in both the Schematic Design Phase and the Advanced Design work to refine the work of the Master Plan and result in a more accurate estimate of construction costs for actual completion of the project.
- Advanced Design and Bidding Phase. This work will develop the final technical aspects of the project that will make the plan ready for implementation. It will also include a bidding process for contractors as needed.
