Brunswick makes Town Hall Place one-way to add parking, loading zone

Brunswick is rewriting traffic flow on a short but crowded downtown block to make room for parking, loading, and a curb extension tied to the Maine Street Streetscape Project. Town Hall Place, a roughly 200-foot connector between Maine Street and the former Town Hall and Central Fire Station site, will become one-way starting the week of Monday, June 29, adding five parallel parking spaces and a designated loading zone where two-way traffic and a single loading space now dominate the street.

The change is meant to offset a loss of curb space on Maine Street in the Lemont Block, the west side of Maine Street between Town Hall Place and Pleasant Street. Town officials said the redesign found a grading problem on that block that would require a curb bump-out to keep the project ADA-compliant and preserve usable outdoor space for nearby businesses. That bump-out will force the angled parking on Maine Street in that stretch to become parallel parking, cutting the count from nine spaces to five.

In February, the Brunswick Town Council approved up to $600,000 in town funds for the Lemont Block redesign, drawing on the downtown tax increment financing district fund. At the same time, the council approved the Town Hall Place one-way conversion so the area would still have enough curb access once the Maine Street layout changed. The town also approved an ordinance to establish the one-way pattern, move the loading zone, and set parking on the north side of Town Hall Place.

The practical impact lands on a block that holds Lemont Block Collective, Maine Street Bistro, Broadway Delicatessen, Pura Vida Day Spa, and Gulf of Maine Books. Drivers who now use Town Hall Place in both directions will have to adapt to the new circulation pattern, while people loading goods or heading to the former Town Hall and Central Fire Station site will be working with a narrower, more regulated curbside setup. Pedestrians, meanwhile, are being promised a more accessible sidewalk and room for outdoor dining and vendors in front of storefronts.

The traffic change also arrives as the broader project keeps adding cost. By early February, Brunswick said it had spent more than $5.6 million on a streetscape effort originally budgeted at roughly $4.4 million, with storm drainage issues and the need for more flaggers to protect pedestrians among the biggest unplanned expenses. The town says the west-side block from Town Hall Place to Pleasant Street is expected to be under construction in September and October, after the one-way switch takes effect and after most of the larger downtown reconstruction is already in place.

Brunswick has framed the redesign as part of a larger effort to rebuild downtown streets and sidewalks, improve accessibility, and reorganize traffic without widening roads. On Town Hall Place, the question now is whether the added parking and loading zone will make the block easier to use, or simply move the pressure to the next curb cut over.