Is Wiscasset made for walkin’?

How about its Route 1 neighbor, Belfast?

Both Midcoast communities will get some expert help finding out in March, thank to grants announced January 15.

The two were the only applicants for a pair of walkability audits the Midcoast Public Health District is funding, said Jennifer Gunderman, coordinator for the agency's community transformation grants.

But that doesn’t mean they were shoe-ins for the studies, valued at about $5,000 each. The agency had the option to not give out the grants, and wouldn’t have, if Wiscasset and Belfast hadn’t shown they were ready for them, and would benefit from them, Gunderman said.

“They were two fantastic applications,” she said in a telephone interview. “We were very impressed.”

Each community has already shown a strong commitment to promoting healthy lifestyles, with access to walking paths, recreational facilities and other ways to stay active, Gunderman said.

A walkable downtown, easy to get around and desirable to linger in, helps businesses and also translates to higher land values within a five-minute walk, international walkability expert Dan Burden said in a recent interview. Burden will visit Wiscasset and Belfast in March; dates are still to be set.

The nonprofit, Friends of Midcoast Maine, is working with Burden, of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute, to help the Midcoast Public Health District carry out the audits.

Burden described his walks as workshops that draw on his fresh set of eyes, along with townspeoples' memories and their ideas for what could be. He has done them in nearly 4,000 North American communities, including Boothbay Harbor in 2012.

“I think the town is very excited to have this opportunity,” Wiscasset Town Manager Laurie Smith said. She credited Town Planner Misty Parker’s efforts in seeking the grant.

In December, Wiscasset selectmen gave Parker the go-ahead to apply. Selectmen agreed to tap contingency funds for the $500 cash portion of the town’s required $1,000 match. In-kind services can comprise the rest. In another string, Wiscasset also needs to start, or make plans to start, a committee to encourage healthy and environmentally friendly travel modes like walking and bicycling, according to the form to apply for the grants.

Town officials will be getting started on those plans soon, Smith said.

Brunswick, Harpswell, and towns in Lincoln, Sagadahoc, Knox and Waldo counties were eligible to apply for the grants. Was Gunderman surprised only two communities applied?  “Not completely,” she said. They couldn’t apply if they had had walkability audits in the past two years; in addition, they needed to show, as Wiscasset and Belfast did, that they were ready for one.

Belfast’s city-appointed, pedestrian, biking and hiking committee has put a lot of effort into making the city walker-friendly, according to Belfast City Planner Wayne Marshall. “I think the committee will be very happy,” he said about the grant for the walkability audit.

“It helps to have a fresh perspective on resources and ideas, and to perhaps look a little differently at things we’re doing,” Marshall said.

Related: Wiscasset vies for Walkability study