Here are some housing nightmares.
A single mother of three leaves panicked posts on social media: Her landlord is selling her rental and she can’t find another. A longtime fisherman says bluntly, “My daughter wants to fish, but she’ll never be able to live here.” A business owner bemoans the loss of a much-needed prospective employee because she couldn’t provide housing. A 90-year-old rattles around in a house his family has owned for generations. Although it’s too big and difficult to maintain, he doesn’t want to leave his community and there’s nothing else available.
Unfortunately, these are real stories about real people.
Members of the Affordable Housing Working Group and the Housing Committee have worked hard over the past three years to find solutions for a problem first identified in the development of the 2005 comprehensive plan. Recommendations to alleviate the issue, such as cluster housing and more flexible zoning, were not followed, and we find ourselves in worse condition today. Some of our current zoning ordinances don’t make sense and need to be changed. For example, a group of four one-bedroom townhouses should not be treated as a subdivision requiring 320,000 square feet of land.
Although the 2025 comprehensive plan suggests possible solutions, any ordinance changes or use of town land would still require a vote at Town Meeting. Huge apartments similar to those in Brunswick or a massive group of houses on a small piece of land are not being proposed. To say otherwise is only fearmongering. The adequacy of groundwater always has to be determined first. Go to the Housing Committee page on the town website for questions and answers about attainable housing.
Our community needs your help. Passing the comprehensive plan won’t completely solve the housing problem, but it’ll give us a chance to start.
Courtenay Snellings, Orr’s Island
Member, Harpswell Housing Committee
