Before any changes can be made to one of Damariscotta's biggest upcoming projects, there will be a blast from the past.

The Damariscotta Board of Selectmen agreed Wednesday, July 15, to have a fall meeting with the Twin Villages Alliance.

The reason? The long-dormant pay-for-parking plan that business owners spoke against in 2013.

The Damariscotta Board of Selectmen has again brought up the possibility of the pay-for-parking program in May as a possible means to offset the cost of rehabilitating the lot, town manager Matt Lutkus said in an email.

Damariscotta has considered pay-for-parking in the past as a way to help fund the rehabilitation of the municipal parking lot.

In May 2013, the town received an ASK grant and used the funds to commission Dr. Tracy Michaud-Stutzman and a student at the University of Southern Maine to begin a study of the lot.

In her report, Michaud-Stutzman talked to business owners and other people involved with the lot and found that adding a pay-for-parking element would be a feasible way to increase funds.

In discussions since Michaud-Stutzman's study was released, several suggestions including using parking kiosks like the ones available throughout Portland have been discussed, and should a pay-for-parking scheme be used, there would likely be a resident pass.

One of the downsides in Michaud-Stutzman's report was that having a paid parking lot would likely increase the amount of traffic on Main Street as drivers would likely drive back-and-forth while looking for a free, open two-hour parking spot. But having a cost attached to the parking lot would also likely cause a higher turnover rate, Michaud-Stutzman said in a 2013 interview.

Shortly after the results were released, a public open house was held at the Great Salt Bay Community School in November 2013. In that meeting, several residents and non-residents voiced their opposition to any pay-for-parking plan for Damariscotta's municipal lot.

Several opponents to plan including downtown business owners who claimed tourists and other visitors would shun Damariscotta if they could go elsewhere and park for free.

It was during that meeting that the waterfront improvement committee was formed to come up with plans for the large lot. The pay-for-parking plan was shelved for more than a year as the committee began looking at alternative ways to pay for the lot.

The parking lot itself is likely to change dramatically in the near future. A special waterfront committee has been established for the project, and several open houses have drawn in crowds to talk about what needs to be done to fix the lot, and what can be done to improve it.

One of the suggestions involves building a boardwalk that emulates Damariscotta's shipbuilding past, with a portion of the board walk resembling the multiple masts of the Ocean Herald. Other plans include adding a public restroom like Boothbay Harbor currently has in Whale Park, adding a pedestrian walk-way through Taco Alley and additional parking spaces.

The lot will eventually have to be reconstructed, as several of the pipes have started deteriorating and sections of the lot have collapsed into sink holes within the last year. The lot also currently represents a potential flooding risk, so a large part of any future plan is to rebuild the lot in a way that would reduce the impact of flooding.

The plans are still in the preliminary phases, and no designs have been approved yet. The cost of just repairing the infrastructure and improving the lot against rising sea levels is expected to cost at least $1 million, with higher estimates for more amenities running up to $2.5 million. At previous meetings members of the waterfront committee suggested starting a fundraising campaign to pay for the improvements, similar to what was done with Skidompha Library.