Building bounces back

Scarborough is fielding proposals for condo units and housing lots, spurring speculation of a construction rebound.

SCARBOROUGH — The jury may be out on whether the economy is rebounding or ready for a double-dip, but residential building in Scarborough, at least, appears poised for a comeback in 2012.

The Scarborough Planning Board recently approved a new phase of development in the Eastern Village subdivision off Commerce Drive, to include seven new townhouses with 37 condominium units. Proposals also have been fielded for a new 31-lot subdivision off Tenney Lane and an 81-unit senior housing complex on Black Point Road, on a lot abutting Route 1. In addition, the town is planning a 10- to 15-lot “affordable housing” project off Broadturn Road in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity, set to be unveiled at the Jan. 5 meeting of the Scarborough Housing Alliance.

"I think that there's more confidence out there than there was a year ago," said Kerry Anderson, owner of KDA Development, which is developing lots at Eastern Village. "I don’t think the economy has improved a whole lot. I think people have just come to realize that this is the new normal, and are moving forward rather than wait around for some kind of national recovery.”

If all three projects come off before the end of the fiscal year, June 30, they alone will return Scarborough to a level of development unseen in town since the start of the recession.

“It does appear that we have been having more meetings lately between staff and developers, so, hopefully that’s an encouraging sign,” agreed Jay Chace, assistant planner. “Hopefully, we’ll see banks loosen up and start lending money again.”

There’s no question that development dried up in Scarborough in recent years. From 2000 to 2008, the Planning Board approved, on average, 100 new residential building lots per year, including the 154-lot Eastern Village plan in February 2008. That number plummeted to just 13 new lots in FY 2009. Development continued at an anemic pace, with 10 new lots in FY 2010, six in the fiscal year that ended June 30, and seven to the halfway point in the current fiscal year.

In addition to lot creation, actual building dropped off. Code Enforcement Officer Dave Grysk issued 144 residential building permits annually during the first eight years of the decade, from a high of 267 in FY 2000 to a low of 63 in FY 2007. There was a bump to 75 permits in FY 2008, and then things cratered, down to 36 in FY 2009. After small upticks to 49 and 45 permits issues in FY 2010 and 2011, respectively, Grysk had cause to write just 24 permits through the end of November.

EASTERN VILLAGE

Although KDA Development won approval of 154 lots at Eastern Village, the final Planning Board nod did not come until two months after the official start of the recession, in December 2007. Since then, just eight single-family houses have gone up in the Eastern Village plot. Another three homes are under construction and, according to Kerry Anderson’s wife and co-owner, Rhonda Anderson, three additional lots have been sold.

“Things kind of slowed way down there with everything else, but we’re hopeful that things are turning around,” she said Tuesday.

The new phase turns from single-family homes to three-story townhouses, each in a Greek-revival style, with either four or five units, to include detached one- or two-car garages. Two of the seven approved buildings, to include nine units, are up for construction first, at the end of Inspiration Drive, said Rhonda Anderson. Each homeowner will own their portion of the townhouse, which will traverse four or five approved lots. However, unlike traditional condo deals, buyers also will own the land, with most lots measuring 20-feet wide by 100-feet deep.

“There’s no project in town like this one, unless someone copies it,” said Joseph Laverriere, of the South Portland engineering firm DeLuca-Hoffman Associates, who presented the plan.

Laverriere said architectural details of the next five townhouses will be “very similar” to the first two to go up, although he will need to return to the Planning Board for a final OK on those buildings.

However, while they move ahead with new buildings, the Andersons have been unable to sell the ones set aside as part of an affordable housing quota. Under the 2008 Planning Board approval, which allowed Eastern Village more lots than normally allowed according to standard zoning, the Andersons had to agree to set aside 10 lots for more moderately priced homes.

Kerry Anderson said the first foundation for one of these 1,200-square-foot buildings went in 16 months ago. It now sits with weeds growing up around it, having failed to attract a buyer, even after local credits knock the price down some $70,000 from Anderson’s starting point of $290,000.

“The developer had to eat the rest,” he said. “Still, we’ve been ready, willing and able to provide affordable housing to somebody. We just don’t know where they’re at. They don’t seem to be around.

“What it [the affordable housing agreement] has actually done is hurt us, because we have a foundation in Phase I of our project that looks like it’s abandoned to people as they drive down into Phase II.”

‘AFFORDABLE HOUSING’

Meanwhile, the town is pushing forward with its own affordable housing project. The town obtained acres off Broadturn Road, next to the interstate, six years ago from the Maine Turnpike Authority, to be divided between low-income homes and open space.

“We’ve been working on a feasibility study,” said Town Manager Tom Hall. “We don’t have a profit motive. We just want to break even.”

According to Hall, the plan calls for the town to provide half of the developable land to Habitat for Humanity, which will put up between six and eight homes according to its model. The remainder will be built to “market price” to help offset the losses from the affordable homes, taking advantage of the same “density” plan used for affordable housing in the Eastern Village development.

Hall said some neighbors of the Housing Alliance project already have begun lining up in protest, under the assumption that “affordable housing” means low-income housing, with all the associated drug and crime issues presumed to accompany such developments.

“Of course, when we say affordable homes, we’re talking workforce housing,” said Hall. “The problem is that, the policemen, the firemen, the teachers who work here, they can’t afford to live here. It costs the same to build a home here as anywhere else, but the lot alone, that drives the value beyond what someone making $60,000 can afford.”

On the other hand, a second proposed development off Tenney Road promises “big 50-foot-by-40-foot homes,” according to Bill Thompson, an engineer with Gorham-based BH2M.

In a preliminary sketch plan presented to the Planning Board, Thompson said the 116.8-acre parcel off Tenney Road will be subdivided into 31, 80,000-square-foot house lots, leaving 87 acres in open space, under conservation development rules.

Although Planning Board members seemed generally supportive of the idea, most preferred turning a planned access road for utility vehicles, leading from the development onto Highland Avenue, into a full-scale road.

“I think there’s enough issues on Tenney [Road] with traffic and the ball field down there,” said John Chamberlain. “To have this sized development without a second public access is just asking for trouble. I don’t think I could vote for this without that second access.”

The problem for the developer is that access road passes over wetlands. Making it a public road would necessarily lead to mitigation issues that could limit the number of buildable lots.

Planning Board Chairman Paul Allen called the proposal “a real win for the community,” especially given the walking trails proposed for the development’s open space area. Chace said on Friday that the engineering firm is working on refinements to its plan, with an expectation for a return visit to the board as early as February.

Also, on an upcoming docket will be the Wegman Companies Elderly Housing Project, to include 81 units on the eastern side of Black Point Road. The Rochester, N.Y., company recently bought 8.53 acres of a larger lot that abuts Route 1. The entrance to the project is slated for an area roughly 300 feet from the Oak Hill intersection.

The project includes 81 units and 65 parking spaces. Although not on the agenda for the Planning Board’s Dec. 9 meeting, Wegman did submit a site plan review application on Dec. 16, following an initial appearance in October by the company’s vice president, Joe McEntee.

Wegman operates 14 assisted-living facilities in other states, primarily in New York. The Scarborough project would be its first in Maine, said McEntee, who added that the home would employ 35 full-time and 15 part-time workers.

A CLOSER LOOK

Fiscal Year    2000    2001    2002    2003    2004    2005    2006    2007    2008    2009    2010    2011    2012

Planning Board Approvals

Single-family lots        167      48        63        118      21        90        24        102      164      13        10        6          7*

Building Permits Issued

Single-family homes    276      141      149      159      110      89        92        63        75        36        49        45        24**

* Through Dec. 5

** Through Nov. 30