After initially floating the idea of constructing 142 units, a Carmel-based developer has submitted preliminary plans to Ellsworth planning officials to build 116 townhouses on a wooded lot off Eastward Lane.
The 121-acre lot where the townhouses would be built is behind Ellsworth Tennis Center and D’Amanda’s candelpin bowling alley. It has right-of-way access to Eastward Lane, which loops off Route 1 where the highway heads east from High Street toward the Hancock town line.
This proposal is the latest in a series of high-density housing projects proposed for the Hancock County city and the largest so far. The city has already approved a total of 89 units across three projects.
Shelly Lizotte, a civil engineer with Bangor architecture firm Artifex, told the Ellsworth Planning Board on Wednesday that the firm proposing the project, W.L. Properties, decided to reduce the number of proposed units in order to leave more land along Card Brook undeveloped. Card Brook flows along the back edge of the property, underneath High Street, and then drains into the Union River.
“We kind of condensed it more toward the front to have less of an impact,” Lizotte said.
Developer Scott Pelletier plans to build the townhouses in groups ranging from two units to six units per building. Each townhouse would be two stories, have two bedrooms, and be available for rent instead of ownership, he said. He plans to connect the entire development to the city’s water and wastewater systems.
The plans were accepted Wednesday by the Planning Board as preliminary, but the firm will have to work out more details before it schedules another hearing with the board to request final approval. Pelletier said that if the city approves the project, he would like to begin construction in 2024.
Each townhouse in the development will have to have its own address, including number and street name, in order to meet 911 emergency response requirements, city officials said.
“What the city needs a lot of is affordable housing, and this is a step in the right direction,” John DeLeo, chair of the Planning Board, told Pelletier and Lizotte. “But there’s still a lot of information that needs to be provided [to the city].”
Other projects to build high-density housing in Ellsworth already are underway.
In April, the city issued a building permit for a three-story, 72-unit apartment building on a 2.5-acre lot on High Street between Myrick Street and Beechland Road, directly across the road from the Hilltop Mobil convenience store. Another housing development under construction is a 12-unit apartment building one block south from Main Street between Pine and Spruce streets. Also in April, the city issued building permits for five separate homes that would have a total of 26 bedrooms between them on Village Way, almost six miles west of downtown on Route 1.
Over the past year, the city has issued additional building permits for several single-family homes and duplexes for individual lots throughout Ellsworth.
