Bangor residents are continuing to debate the creation of a contentious 60-unit housing development that the city is reconsidering after incorrectly approving it last year.
The Bangor Planning Board held a public comment on the proposed development that would build 30 two-story duplexes with a total of 60 housing units, but the neighbors who surround the potential development remain fierce in their opposition of the housing.
The project would sit on about 12 acres, between East Broadway, Essex Street, Lancaster Avenue and Interstate 95. Each of the townhouses would have three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
Eighteen people spoke Tuesday during the public hearing on the proposed development. Of those, eight opposed the project while 10 supported it.
While the project would bring new housing to a city that has repeatedly listed increasing its housing stock as a priority, the idea has faced months of opposition from neighbors who fear it would increase traffic, dilute water pressure and erase habitats for wildlife, among other concerns. Several nearby residents reignited those concerns on Tuesday and offered new ones, such as the lack of parking available for the 60 new families who may move into the neighborhood.
Melissa Bolduc, who lives on Lancaster Avenue, spoke about how the neighborhood has battled with poor stormwater drainage, flooding and lackluster water pressure for years. While she isn’t against new housing in her area, she wants to ensure those homes are good quality and built with the neighborhood’s existing struggles in mind.
“There are only 16 homes that surround that field, so 60 new homes is a 300 percent increase on our infrastructure in that one area,” Bolduc said. “Our stormwater and sewer systems are 100 years old, so when you put a 300 percent increase on them without any plan of how to maintain what we have, that’s a concern. I’m happy to have new neighbors, I just want neighbors that don’t have to experience the kinds of stress we’ve had to go through.”
Bolduc and other residents pointed to how the area, which already has uneven terrain, has been built up during construction while trees have been cleared, making residents fearful of how the area may erode over time and rain will continue to run off the elevated development and into their backyards and basements.
Paula Logan, an Essex Street resident, said she feels “like I live at the base of a mountain” due to the way the soil at the construction site has been built up. This, she said, makes her worry about how tall the townhouses would be once completed and how that elevation would increase water runoff.
“My backyard was more wet this year than it has ever been, and once the snow melts, where is the water going?” Logan said. “I don’t want to live in a river and I’m worried about flooding in my basement.”
Kelley Hashey, who lives near the project, said she’s “vehemently against” the development because it’s too large, unsafe, and “an environmental devastation.”
“I have no interest at all in the rich getting richer or the overpopulation of Bangor or of Maine,” Hershey said. “The environment is more important to me than the overpopulation of Bangor. The price we have paid for what has been done is way too high and I have no interest in being a victim of greed or intrusion of others.”
Micaela Ellis, a local teacher, was one of a handful of younger professionals who asked the Planning Board to approve the project because it’d offer new housing for people like them who are looking to settle in Bangor and raise a family.
Ellis said she has spent $35,650 on rent since moving to Bangor, which was more than her salary during her first year teaching. While she has been looking for a home, Ellis said available properties are “either affordable or fit to live in, but never both.”
“If you want young people to come to Bangor and stay in Bangor, there have to be safe, affordable options for housing,” Ellis said. “Don’t wait for people to stumble upon our beautiful city, invite them in and offer them a home.”
Kortnie Mullins, president elect of the Greater Bangor Association of Realtors, spoke in favor of the development because it would inject necessary housing into the city’s real estate market and help lower housing costs.
As of Tuesday, there were only 53 homes for sale in Bangor, but none were built after 2000 and priced between $200,000 and $300,000 — the estimated sale cost of the duplexes, Mullins said.
In the more than 60 years that she has lived two streets away from the development, Susan McKay said she has watched new homes be built in the fields where she played as a child. As concerning as the changes were for some, she said she was always excited to welcome new families to Bangor.
McKay noted the “debilitating” housing shortage, both locally and statewide, and offered her support for the project because “we need more spaces for good people to live in Bangor.”
Emily Ellis, a real estate broker with Team Properties in Bangor, applied for site plan approval for the housing development, known as the Maine Woods project, in June 2022. The Bangor Planning Board approved the project in September 2022, but neighbors asked for a judicial review of the decision in October 2022.
Tuesday’s public hearing came one week after the Planning Board decided that the application for the development is complete. The approval was the board’s first step in reconsidering the project in full after the Penobscot County Superior Court bounced the decision back to the Planning Board with a series of instructions for how to review the proposal.
Superior Court Justice Patrick Larson said the developer didn’t do anything wrong in the application process, but the court voided the city’s previous approval because it found the city misclassified the size of the project and did not explicitly outline its reasons for approving the permit.
The move forced Ellis to resubmit the development as a new project for the city to consider, though construction had already begun.
The board voted to extend the public comment on the project to the Planning Board’s next meeting. A decision on whether to approve the project will come in a future board meeting.
