Residents strenuously objected at a Tuesday night time assembly to a developer’s plans to construct a subdivision with 30 duplexes in Bangor.
The town has thought-about plenty of methods to extend its housing provide lately, like curbing zoning restrictions to permit for extra improvement and permitting boarding properties. The proposal for the so-called Maine Woods Subdivision would add new models to the town’s housing inventory.
Emily Ellis, the previous Maine basketball star and actual property dealer, utilized in June to construct new residential models and a personal highway for a 60-unit subdivision by the intersection of Lancaster Avenue and Essex Road, in accordance with the allow software.
The mission is a continuation of an earlier proposal from 2006 that was by no means constructed and for which the permits had lapsed.
Ellis instructed the Bangor Planning Board that her aim was to “be neighbor,” and assist enhance the quantity of inexpensive housing in Bangor. If accredited, the mission could be constructed by fall 2023. The doorway could be from Lancaster Avenue, in accordance with mission plans.
“Bangor is now not our little secret,” she instructed board members. “We’re the youngest small metropolis in Maine. The most important hurdle [is] an absence of inexpensive housing. By no means has it been harder to seek out individuals livable, inexpensive and secure housing, each leases and single-family properties.”
However dozens of residents within the surrounding space pushed again, echoing considerations that residents raised when the board first introduced forth an finally profitable proposal to permit extra boarding properties in Bangor.
Residents stated Tuesday that the proposed website was filled with ledge and would require intensive blasting, that Lancaster Avenue was too slim to deal with an inflow of site visitors from new residents and that the event would reduce off residents’ entry to wildlife and inexperienced house for his or her kids to play.
Metropolis engineer John Theriault stated he had carried out a site visitors examine that confirmed the mission would add 31 automobiles at morning and night peak hours.
In different phrases, it will solely add a three-second delay for drivers turning from Essex Road onto Lancaster Avenue and vice versa, he stated.
“I’ve had the pleasure of getting my nation in my yard,” stated Don Kimball, a resident who stated he used the proposed website to hit golf balls and stroll his canine.
He additionally stated the neighborhood’s proximity to the Essex Road standpipe diluted residents’ water strain, and that including one other 60 models would irritate the issue.
“I can’t run a hose exterior and my associate can’t bathe on the identical time,” he stated.
One other resident, Keith LaPlante, identified that East Broadway, which Lancaster Avenue runs into, was solely 14 toes huge and wouldn’t have the ability to deal with extra automobiles from new improvement residents.
“If one truck is parked on that road, you possibly can’t get via,” he stated.
The board voted unanimously to proceed the general public remark interval at its subsequent assembly on Aug. 16.
