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May 5, 2022

Developers seek growth exemption for Scarborough town center

Courtesy / Crossroads Holdings The proposed town center in Scarborough would include a community center, green space and 1,000 housing units within a five-minute walk.
By Jessica Hall

Crossroads Holdings, which is redeveloping the 525-acre site of the former Scarborough Downs racetrack, is in limbo as the company waits to also construct 1,000 residential units of housing near the proposed town center.

The proposed development calls for one- and two-bedroom housing units, including affordable and workforce housing. However, the project still needs an exemption from Scarborough’s Growth Management Ordinance, or GMO, before it can move ahead.

Scarborough's GMO is designed to manage the pace of development within the community and regulate how much of the allowable growth in an area can occur in a single year. Under the current GMO, the Downs would only be able to receive 43 permits a year.

However, in order to properly plan the project and its infrastructure, the developers say they need to build when the business climate calls for new units. The exemption doesn’t change the number of units being built, but merely adjusts the timing of when the building permits can be secured.

“We’re asking to get the permits when we need them,” said Roccy Risbara, managing partner of Crossroads Holdings. “We really do have to have downtown living to keep it viable. We need people there to keep it vibrant. The office market is nonexistent. Residential is the right fit. If we can’t do residential, we can’t do the building.”

The town center would feature green space, community gathering space, retail occupants on the first floor, and housing on the second, third floors and potentially fourth floors. Scarborough’s 2006 comprehensive plan talked about the desire for such a center.

Crossroad Holdings doesn’t intend to build 1,000 units all at once. Risbara said he expects it will take six to 10 years to complete.

“One thousand units sounds scary to some people. But the tax revenue more than pays for the impact and it’s self-sustaining,” Risbara said. “One- and two-bedroom units have very little impact on the town’s services. Apartment and condo-type units actually cost less to serve than the revenue the town gets from them.”

Risbara said Scarborough has added 5,000 housing units every 20 years since 1940. So, he said, the growth at The Downs doesn’t deviate from that existing trend. Plus, The Downs will concentrate that growth rather than having sprawl.

The town supports the type of one- and two-bedroom residential units being proposed, but the number of permits doled out each year doesn’t allow the project to flow properly, Risbara said.

“We need those permits to be available when the market needs the units to be available,” Risbara said. “We have a housing crisis right now. This doesn’t solve the housing crisis in Maine, of course, but it’s a positive step.”

Travis Kennedy, who served as chair of the now-disbanded Downtown Development Committee, said Crossroads Holdings’ plan offers “what the community said it wants, combined with everything the committee hoped for. It captures what we talked about having.”

“I”m fully supportive of a targeted exemption to the GMO. They can’t build a vision like this in small bites. They have to do it together,” Kennedy said. “But there’s some general opposition to growth that exists in pockets of Scarborough.”

A group on Facebook called Concerned Taxpayers of Scarborough, Maine, regularly shares updates about the project and concerns over the town's rate of development.

John Cloutier, chair of the Scarborough Town Council, said he hopes it votes on the measure in early summer, but no date has yet been set.

“This is what the town has been looking for 20 years,” Cloutier said. “I don’t have many concerns about the town’s ability to absorb growth.”

Risbara said he hopes the town will make a decision over the next month or two.

“If they come back and say no, we haven’t unveiled a Plan B,” Risbara said.

In addition to Scarborough’s future town center, The Downs will preserve 200 acres of green space and create 10 miles of recreational trails that connect to a mixed-use residential area of single-family homes, condominiums, workforce and affordable housing options. A 150-acre commercial area, Innovation District, was fully sold out in less than three years, and includes light industrial, biotech and commercial businesses. 

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