CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Maine — Sugarloaf leadership has plans to build new, affordable housing for some of its workers.
The resort is concerned about current and future employees being able to live near the remote mountain. Last spring, it bought a nearby hotel to house up to 60 staff members. Now, it's asking the town of Carrabassett Valley to allow new construction to ease the housing stock shortage.
“We're working with the town of Carrabassett Valley and community partners on some bigger, longer term solutions in terms of developing some actual housing stock that is maybe more suitable for a family to come up here,” Ethan Austin, Sugarloaf's director of marketing, told NEWS CENTER Maine.
Any project will likely require approval by voters in Carrabassett Valley, if not the state legislature. In last year's fiscal review, the town's select board wrote that restrictive zoning laws would likely need to be adjusted if voters wanted to allow Sugarloaf to build this high-density housing.