Almost 15 months earlier, an open house meeting brought together residents of the Twin Villages to discuss what could with the municipal parking lot.

On Thursday, Feb. 12, another sizable group met to discuss what might happen.

The Damariscotta Waterfront Project, along with the towns of Newcastle and Damariscotta and the Twin Village Alliance, hosted a community meeting to discuss the fate of the parking lot and to review potential plans for the space.

Damariscotta Town Manager Matt Lutkus and Selectman George Parker answered most of the questions during the meeting, which was held at Great Salt Bay Community School.

The project wouldn't likely begin for another few years, Lutkus said, adding that the exact time frame is dependent on money raised.

“It could be three to five years or it could be upwards of 10 years before it's all said and done,” he said.

The fundraising could begin in earnest either late in 2015 or early 2016, Lutkus said.

In addition to a survey that was handed out to the audience, a list of possibilities, split up into phases, was also distributed.

The first phase listed in the recommendations would include reconstructing the parking and taking flood resiliency measures such as adding a duck-bill system to the storm drainage pipes to try to alleviate flooding.

That possibility, dubbed Alternative A, would be a no-frills reconstruction of the lot and is estimated roughly to cost $1,400,000.

The Alternative B plan would effectively double that price, but would include a sea wall that would raise the lip of the lot three feet, which would place it out of the reach of historic flood waters, and other flood resiliency measures suggested by Milone & MacBroom's grant study.

If that alternative was built, it would place most of the downtown businesses out of the flood zone, Lutkus said.

A large portion of the money would be through grants and donations, and in the case of flood resiliency, there could be additional funds available. Lutkus said that if the downtown area’s flood prevention could be upgraded, it would save money via insurance premiums that businesses have to pay.

Lincoln County Planner Bob Faunce said the downtown area is especially vulnerable if a “storm of the century” flood, when mixed with rising sea levels, should strike.

Following the reconstruction, the second phase could include adding more parking spaces by purchase or agreement with adjacent properties, while the third and fourth phases would involve adding public restrooms and a public walkway from downtown to the waterfront.

The fifth phase would be concerned with the waterfront improvements.

Maine Coast Book Shop's Barnaby Porter gave a brief history lesson on the region's boatbuilding past, and said it was ripe for inspiration when it comes to imagining the parking lot.

He said that despite the region's lack of space (until the 1960s the parking lot didn't exist) big things came from the region.

“In the case of Damariscotta, it wasn't the roomiest (town), but it was what was here,” he said. “But what (the boatbuilders) were able to do was nothing short of amazing. From the late 1700s on, no less than 700 boats were built right here.”

Of those boats, none was mightier than the Ocean Herald, Porter said.

“We were at the center of clipper ship building, and that's a big deal,” he said. “Even today Damariscotta can hold its head up high (from its shipbuilding heritage).”

Two of the proposed five phases would emulate the region's shipbuilding past by adding a faux-deck to the waterfront and flagpoles in place of masts.

The first proposal would add little to the waterfront while reconstructing the parking lot. It would reconfigure the walkway that borders the water and eliminate the wooden fence that is currently in pace.

The second proposal would add feature an improved boardwalk sculpted to resemble a small three-masted clipper and the third proposal would feature a larger clipper-themed boardwalk resembling Ocean Herald.

But before anything extra can be added to the lot, the lot itself needs to be addressed, Damariscotta Superintendent of Roads Steve Reynolds said.

Reynolds said that the parking lot was finally starting to show its age.

“The surface is beginning to break up substantially,” he said. “It really is at a point where it needs to be rebuilt.”

Reynolds said that the parking lot's core, which isn't made up of tree stumps and junked cars as local legend has it, is still stable, but that work will need to begin to prevent incidents like the sinkhole that emerged in 2014.

LeAnna Libby, manager for the Great Salt Bay Sanitary District, said the pipes underneath the parking lot are beginning to show their age.

“What we have been beginning to see is the pipes sagging,” she said.