Workforce housing proposal in Northeast Harbor advances to final review
Courtesy / Mount Desert 365
This artist's rendering shows the proposed housing development as viewed from Manchester Road with the existing Heel family home on the right.
An application to add six units of workforce housing in the village of Northeast Harbor, on Mount Desert Island, has reached the final of four stages of review by the town Planning Board.
“We hope to get approval from the Planning Board in September and begin the groundwork either this fall or next spring,” Mount Desert 365 Executive Director Kathleen Miller told Mainebiz.
Mount Desert 365 is a community-based organization dedicated to promoting long-term economic vitality in the town of Mount Desert, which includes Northeast Harbor.
But neighbors along the quiet residential road where the project is proposed have expressed concern.
“Does the density for that development make sense for that piece of property?” one local resident said at a Planning Board hearing in June.
Median-income housing
Mount Desert 365 is leading the application for the proposed Heel Way subdivision — a residential project consisting of six energy-efficient, clustered homes for people who live and work in the village year-round.
The site is presently developed with one single-family home. The proposed project would add two two-family dwellings and one new single-family home, to create six individual residences in four structures.
An existing five-bay garage structure would be renovated and used for additional storage space by future residents.
Mount Desert 365’s goal is to address a long-held need for an increased year-round population by creating options for individuals and families to live affordably, starting in Northeast Harbor.
“By returning the village population closer to levels seen in earlier decades, sustained economic diversity and growth will be possible, as well as a sustainable elementary school population,” the organization says on its website.
Heel Way would be developed to provide homeownership opportunities that would remain affordable to median-income year-round residents in perpetuity. There would be eligibility criteria for prospective homeowners with income caps tied to state median income levels, and requirements that any future sale of the properties be made only to other such eligible households.
The project area has a current street address of 5 Manchester Road, on a 0.9-acre parcel, including a 0.1-acre area designated as a right-of-way.
Manchester Road runs parallel to the harbor, just outside the village’s downtown core.
The site has frontage on Manchester Road and Neighborhood Road. Landscaping and other site improvements would help buffer the development from neighboring properties and enhance common spaces for future residents. The project would be served by public sewer and public water with plans to install all power and communication lines underground.
MD 365 has been working with Ellsworth construction services company E.L. Shea Inc. on the project, the same general contractor the nonprofit worked with for the construction of a building that houses MD 365’s administrative offices and tenants at 6 Old Firehouse Lane in Northeast Harbor.
Modular construction
The Heel Way homes would be modular construction designed to reflect the character of the community, said Miller.
The cost of the project hasn’t been firmed up yet.
“We are working on fine-tuning plans and all the cost details,” Miller said. “Much of this depends on when we are able to break ground.”
Financing will be from several streams, including homeowner payments, fundraising donations and bank financing.
Designated growth area
The Manchester Road location was chosen based on big-picture considerations.
“We were looking for properties in the village of Northeast Harbor for a number of reasons,” said Miller. “First, it is the primary village designated as a growth area in the town’s comprehensive plan. It states that residential development is best suited in those areas that are currently serviced by public sewer and water supplies and that recommended areas for growth lie primarily in the village areas.”
She continued, “Second, building in areas with water and sewer service helps keep the development and maintenance costs down. Third, this is the commercial and municipal center of our town, but it’s also at the end of the road.”
Currently, she said, people living in Mont Desert’s other villages — Somesville, Pretty Marsh, Hall Quarry and Otter Creek — are more likely to travel to neighboring Southwest Harbor or Bar Harbor for things like shopping, dining and entertainment.
In Northeast Harbor, current or future businesses “will benefit greatly from having a larger year-round population close by,” she said. “These residents can act as both customers and employees, and we have all seen the problem with employee shortages everywhere recently in all kinds of businesses.”
The Manchester Road lot under review had been on the market for about a year before it was purchased from the Heel family in 2017 for the purpose of developing year-round housing, Miller said.
“The location is ideal, with proximity to the elementary school, the library, the Neighborhood House and all of Main Street businesses within walking distance,” she said.
The original home on the site will remain and become part of this subdivision.
Miller noted that, after hearing from neighbors and the public at public hearings on the project, MD 365 and its consultants made some modifications to the original plans. Goals include retaining the neighborhood’s scale and character and mitigating additional traffic at the site.
Affordable covenants
Each home would be owned individually, and the land would be owned and cared for in common. The responsibility of ownership would be shared, as would taxes, insurance and maintenance expenses, Miller said.
The homes would come with covenants to keep the properties affordable to middle-income families in perpetuity. An owner would be required to use a home as a primary residence, lived in year-round, and it would not be available for rent.
To establish income criteria, MD 365 is following the guidelines of a local leader on affordable housing — Island Housing Trust. Income caps would tied to U.S. Housing and Urban Development indicators of median family income for the state and range from 140% to 160% depending on family size.
Housing costs skyrocket
“The Mount Desert Economic Development Committee identified housing as a primary factor in maintaining or improving the vitality of our town’s economy — both year-round housing and seasonal workforce housing,” said Miller.
Skyrocketing housing costs is pronounced in the town of Mount Desert, she continued.
“A 2022 analysis provided by Maine Housing reported the median sale price of a home here was $810,000 — more than twice the price of homes in the county or state,” she said. “That would require a median annual income of $236,000, while the actual median income is well below that at $93,000. What that median income family could afford is a home at $319,000.”
She added, “We also hear of people and families who leave the area altogether due to the housing issue.”
A lot of people
But at recent Planning Board hearings on the application, local residents expressed concerns that included compatibility of the project with the surrounding area, given the proposal for six units on less than an acre, compared with neighborhood’s general inventory of single-family homes.
There was concern about tree-cutting on the largely wooded lot, and about the likelihood that the development would result in a dozen or more cars, resulting in more traffic and called by one speaker a potential danger for children who bike all summer long between local boating and swimming venues.
One speaker questioned the lot’s capacity for typical residential stuff that would be generated from six units — garbage cans, grills, lawn furniture, bikes, boats, mowers.
“That’s putting a lot of people and a lot of stuff on a very, very small piece of property,” he said. “It’s going to be great to see some year-round people there and it will be great to see some lights on in the winter. But the proposal as it exists just doesn’t seem to fit.”
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