BANGOR, Maine — As anyone who's had to move recently knows, housing options in Maine are slim.
Emily Ellis, real estate broker and owner of the construction company Team Properties LLC, is trying to ease that problem by bringing a 30-duplex, 60-unit subdivision to Bangor near the Essex Street and Lancaster Avenue intersection.
Ellis said she thinks this would be a great addition to help with the housing issue.
"There's such a huge demand right now and we just don't have the ability to secure housing for everybody," Ellis said.
However, many neighbors have expressed concerns to the city about what a 60-unit development could do to their existing neighborhood.
"Growth is something that is necessary, and we are more than happy to have neighbors," Melissa Buldoc said. However, she expressed concern regarding the number of units the proposal includes.
Buldoc added, speeding in the neighborhood is already an issue and adding more cars will only amplify the problem.
Other neighbors weighed in to express their concerns as well. Some are worried the new subdivision would cause even more problems for water runoff which is already flooding basements.
"Me and my husband just invested $15,000 to get our basement fixed because there was so much water," Michele Laird said. "Granted we have a sump pump to get it out, but I don't know if it's going to hold up [with] all that pressure."
The development will sit on a 12 acre property, using three acres for the development.
Ellis said she has listened to neighbors' concerns, but she said she feels a lot of the concerns need to be addressed with the city.
"A lot of the concerns that were brought up don't have anything to do with this project, per say," Ellis said.
For example, many neighbors have asked the city to add infrastructure like sidewalks, crosswalks, and speed bumps, regardless if this proposal passes or not.
"The speeds on our road are excessive as is. When you add extra traffic... on top of what we already have, it obviously exacerbates the problem," Travis Doody, nearby resident, said.
Nearby resident Kelley Hashey said she wants the city to address the housing problem, but there are many other places in Bangor that would be a better option than to build an infill subdivision in the middle of an established, older neighborhood.
"There's many places to do housing — many. But in a stable neighborhood like this?" Hashey said.
Meanwhile, Ellis said she recognizes change is hard, but ultimately she owns the land.
"Several people have suggested that we build somewhere else in Bangor, but this is the lot that I bought in Bangor. I don't own another 12 acres somewhere else in Bangor," Ellis said.
The planning board met on Tuesday night to discuss the future of this development. The meeting lasting nearly four hours, and was the third time the planning board had met to discuss this proposal. The board listened to public comment, limiting each person's time to three minutes.
"There's a lot of unanswered questions still from myself and the rest of us," Doody said. "I don't think they'd [the planning board] be able to give me enough time to give me all the answers to my questions."
The board plans to revisit this topic at its next meeting on September 20. In the meantime, Ellis said she and her team will need to review some the criteria the board discussed last night.
Ellis said she is hoping to get approval for the project at the next meeting.