Gawron Turgeon Dillon Architects created five housing designs that are “ready-to-permit” and available to builders at no cost.
Get Instant Access to This Article
Subscribe to Mainebiz and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.
- Critical Maine business news updated daily.
- Immediate access to all subscriber-only content on our website.
- Bi-weekly print or digital editions of our award-winning publication.
- Special bonus issues like the Mainebiz Book of Lists.
- Exclusive ticket prize draws for our in-person events.
Click here to purchase a paywall bypass link for this article
The city of Bangor has available for home builders free “ready-to-permit” plans for five different housing designs — three multi-unit buildings and two accessory dwelling units, known as ADUs.
The city’s director of community and economic development, Anne Krieg, told Mainebiz the plans have been available for a few months as part of an effort to encourage more housing to get built faster, and to save builders architectural costs.
Krieg said the city is working to get the word out.
“We’ve had a few developers download them but they haven’t been used to date. We are seeing more renovations and adding single units than new construction multi-units,” Krieg said.
“City staff is looking into building on a city-owned property as a prototype though,” she noted, “so stay tuned.”
The plans were developed by Scarborough-based Gawron Turgeon Dillon Architects. Project architect Devin Cough told Mainebiz, “The intent was to provide buildable housing plans for small infill lots that could take advantage of the recent legislation to increase residential density while fitting within existing neighborhoods.
“The designs were intentionally created with a minimal footprint to maximize flexibility and allow placement on the greatest number of lot sizes possible,” Cough said.
The design process began with a tour of existing neighborhoods and recent housing developments in Bangor to better understand local development patterns and lessons learned from recent projects.
The design team worked with city staff and stakeholders through a series of public meetings, presentations to the Historic Preservation Commission and the Planning and Development Committee. Community engagement helped shape and refine the concepts.
“The overall goal was to create efficient, replicable building types that property owners, developers and municipalities could use as models for increasing housing availability through incremental residential development,” he said.
The $182,400 project was funded with a portion of the more than $20 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds the city was awarded.
“A few years ago, when the state was considering legislation to do these plans, we decided not to wait for the state and just did them ourselves using ARPA funds,” Krieg said.
The plans meet all current codes and are ready for a building permit. “The project only needs subdivision approval with the planning board if it triggers it by statute,” Krieg explained.
Cough noted a sixth plan was also recently submitted, which the city is reviewing before releasing.
The plans can be viewed on the city’s website, by searching “pre-approved housing plans.”
