WESTBROOK, Maine — An owner of one of Maine's most recognizable farms has pushed back against the Maine Turnpike Authority's plan to build a new highway connector, meeting with others in opposition just hours before a community input meeting.
The proposed connecter would run through a portion of land near the western border of Smiling Hill Farm, a family-owned and operated business that has been in Warren Knight's family for 304 years.
In February, the Maine Turnpike Authority announced after years of planning that it designed a connector highway from Interstate 95 in South Portland to an area just south of Gorham Village on Route 114, aimed at drastically reducing traffic congestion.
"Asphalt is a farm’s last crop," Knight, a 12th-generation farmer, said to a gathering of supporters at a press conference Monday afternoon.
The MTA planned the first of multiple community input meetings for Monday evening to hear ideas, questions, and concerns from residents.
Erin Courtney, spokesperson for the MTA, said impacted towns including Scarborough, Westbrook, Gorham, and South Portland, have been asking for relief for a long time, and this 4.5-mile stretch is the most efficient answer, with little impact on wildlife and residents.
"These roads are already congested," she said. "We’re not seeing traffic growth on some of these roads because they are so full, they know other cars can't get through in an hour, so they’re finding cutoff routes."
Courtney added that farmland like Smiling Hill's is vital to Maine, but the current plan caused the least environmental, residential, and financial damage possible, requiring the fewest amount of home buys in the middle of a housing crisis.
"We had to try to make a road, squeeze it in, and not do harm," Courtney said. "And you have to weigh those things out."
Courtney said the Smiling Hill land carved out in the proposal was small, in a corner of the property, and consisted largely of wetland.
Knight argued every acre was necessary for his cows and the farm in general.
"You need a farm; you need to have land," he said. "And any loss of land challenges the economic viability of the agricultural enterprise."
The MTA plans to apply for permits in the coming summer, with construction still many months after that.
Monday’s community meeting was the first of multiple planned by the Turnpike authority. They had not yet set a date for the next one.