A city committee and a group of nonprofits are at odds over how to convert the former Adams School.

By JOSIE HUANG Staff Writer July 9, 2007 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=119... Now if people only could agree on what to do with it. A group of about 20 nonprofits known as the Community Building Collaborative is advocating that the city convert the school at 44 Moody St. into a community center where different organizations could share overhead costs. The group proposes educational programs, performance space, a cafe and cooperative housing.

A committee appointed by the city to make recommendations on the site’s future is more focused on building housing on the site, according to members. The units could be bought by people often priced out of the market, such as young, working singles and the elderly. As the Adams Reuse School Committee works toward finalizing its recommendations this month, tensions are mounting with the Community Building Collaborative.

Ed Democracy, a community organizer and collaborative member, said he is worried the committee’s report will not reflect the community’s wishes. “I think on a certain level, they don’t get it,” Democracy said.

Committee member Cynthia Fitzgerald countered that some members of the collaborative have not acted with respect during the meeting process. “These people come in, and they haven’t lived here, and they’re going to reinvent the wheel,” said Fitzgerald, a 64-year-old community volunteer who has lived on Munjoy Hill for 30 years.

Members of both groups say it is not only the future of the former school that is at stake; the neighborhood’s character is, too. Munjoy Hill, with its proximity to the waterfront and downtown, has gentrified rapidly over the last decade, attracting more professionals and forcing out some working families as property values rise.

When the School Department closed the Adams School last year as part of its school consolidation plan and sent students to the new East End School, some area residents saw the chance to bring back more affordable housing.

Kenneth Bailey, a sales representative of an industrial chemicals company and a member of the committee, said he would like Munjoy Hill to return to its roots as a community where bus drivers, municipal workers and railroad workers could afford to live. Bailey said he would support including space for community activities at the Adams School site, but that it would have to come second to housing. “People are talking about a community center and community activities, but who would these activities be for?” Bailey said. “The whole community is being transformed. Most of those people can afford the minimum payments for a YMCA or a health club.”

In contrast, collaborative member Odelle Bowman said a community center would enrich the neighborhood. Bowman is director of A Company of Girls, an after-school arts program that moved onto the Adams School’s first floor on June 15 on a month-to-month lease. The organization aims to create a safe, fun place for girls and plans to begin a pilot program for boys in the fall. She envisioned the Adams school site being shared by multiple nonprofits, a project she said would create less traffic than adding housing. “There is a concern in the community about how much traffic it could handle. And where are you going to put the parking?” Bowman said.

Despite a difference of opinion, Bowman and other members of the collaborative, which include People’s Free Space and Peace Action Maine, praise the city committee for taking community input and holding gatherings such as Community Design Day in late April, during which residents were invited to brainstorm designs for the school site. The committee is scheduled to meet again Thursday. Councilor Kevin Donoghue said he hopes it will complete its recommendations, though Fitzgerald said another meeting might be necessary.

Donoghue, who represents Munjoy Hill, said he is pushing for the recommendations sooner rather than later so city staffers have enough time to prepare a report to be sent by September to the City Council’s housing committee, on which he and Councilors James Cloutier and Jill Duson sit.

The city would decide on a plan and put out a request for proposals. Democracy said the collaborative plans to submit a proposal to develop the site, and it hopes to raise $3 million to $5 million for the project.

Donoghue said the recommendations also will be presented to the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization at its August meeting. Donoghue, who has attended the committee’s meetings, said he sensed that members were leaning heavily toward more housing, an aspect he supported. “There are people who prefer not to rent but are committed to be here,” he said. “Those are the holes in the housing market that need to be filled more aggressively.”

Staff Writer Josie Huang can be contacted at 791-6364 or at: jhuang@pressherald.com