After a neighboring town defeated a major workforce housing project, the would-be developer is turning its attention to a piece of land at Maine’s largest ski resort.
Sugarloaf in the Franklin County town of Carrabassett Valley has long cited a need to develop more on-site housing for its full-time and seasonal employees. Two years ago, it bought a historic hotel in downtown Kingfield that it redeveloped into housing for workers who have been squeezed by the low supply of homes and rentals in the rural area.
The ski resort has partnered with Western Maine Mountain Housing to build more on-site. This partnership represents a quick pivot for the new nonprofit, which is fresh off a defeat in Kingfield, where 67 percent of voters shot down a proposed 45-unit workforce housing development in town during last week’s election.
“With the advent of these Airbnbs, everybody that had a camp that would rent to a seasonal employee is now on the internet, you know, leasing their places out,” said Franklin County Commissioner Bob Carlton, a Republican from nearby Freeman Township who represents the region. “The demand is real, and it’s not being met by available housing.”
The nonprofit group’s executive director, Mark Green, said he was very disappointed by the result, but things are still “full speed ahead” on housing in the area. The Carrabassett Valley region is short up to 650 homes, according to a 2022 report commissioned by the town.
A federal government funding bill signed last week by President Joe Biden included a $1.5 million grant for Green’s group to construct workforce housing in the region, according to the office of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, the lead Republican appropriator in her chamber.
Projects in three sites — including the one on Sugarloaf and another in Eustis — that were on the group’s back burner are now being pursued. The details of the project are not yet final, but Sugarloaf spokesperson Charli Sayward said the resort looks forward to “exploring options” with the nonprofit.
While it’s likely that the Sugarloaf development will be a multi-family housing development, Green said the defeat in Kingfield is leading the group to refine its approach and turn toward single-family developments instead.
“People are more accepting of that, and so we’ll establish a reputation and then move into multifamily, which is also needed,” Green said.
As a brand-new organization, formed in response to that 2022 report, Green said that he feels his group needs to establish its competency and earn residents’ trust before building large development projects like the one proposed in Kingfield. Carlton agreed that mistrust around the group was what ultimately sank the project last week.
“I think if this was to happen again, and if it was a private sector investment, I think people would be much more in favor,” Carlton said.
Both Carlton and Green said that misinformation around a housing project for immigrants in Brunswick contributed to the mistrust in Kingfield last week.
There is hope among developers and officials including Carlton that a project like what Western Maine Mountain Housing had proposed can be built in Kingfield. Projects at Sugarloaf and in other neighboring towns could allow the group to establish itself.
All parties agree that there’s a desperate need for more workforce housing in the area. That 2022 report, put together for the town of Carrabassett, found that only 17 percent of homes sold in 2021 were affordable to the median household.
“We’re getting ready to build something,” Green said. “Just maybe not in Kingfield.”
