NORTH DEERING REPORT: Portland's Awful Land Use Policies - 20+ years later still on the drawing boards...

[George Rheault]

For a very long time, it has been known that effective mass transit and the bike/ped optionality that goes with it depends on a certain critical mass of land-use density to make it effective.

Unfortunately, Portland continues to double-down (triple-down?) on planet-killing light density projects and even these are NIMBY'd down to much less than they might have been.

A good case in point is the recently announced plans to build a new complex of duplexes in North Deering (see below for source and details).  The business reporter apparently is completely unaware that this represents the culmination of the build-out of North Deering since the 1970s in virtually all single-family subdivisions which, among other things, involved Falmouth giving part of its land to Portland.  The reporter is also unaware that the ONLY reason this duplex project is happening at all is that the former owners petitioned the Planning Board to change the zoning to R-3 back in early 2018 (which the Planning Board approved).

The duplex plan was almost fully conceptualized in the 2018 rezoning, but of course, due to poor media coverage, this will be pitched as some revolutionary new intrusion by an out-of-state developer keen on sucking capitalist blood from Portland's quiet suburbs (most of which date younger than Bill Clinton's first term as President) when in fact the whole plan was largely negotiated in the late 1990s with the "Presumpscot Preserve" being created to ensure that this area would be reserved exclusively for affluent single-family homes (of course that was a very different price point in the early aughts than today).

Bottom line:  We cannot have the nice things our little committee wants without the critical mass of people necessary to make it viable (both long-term and short-term).  Building modestly higher density housing than what currently exists in the neighborhood is the BARE MINIMUM to accomplish that critical mass.  Hopefully the members of PBPAC see the connections here and fight for this project.  The only reason why this project should get re-worked by our planning authorities would be to allow EVEN MORE DENSITY here, which of course the NIMBYs and conservation trusts will fight tooth and nail.       

$25M condo development proposed for Portland, off the peninsula | Mainebiz.biz [you can view this for free if you haven't been to this site recently]

Updated: June 29, 2022

$25M condo development proposed for Portland, off the peninsula

COURTESY / HALEY WARD, GENX CAPITAL PARTNERS LLCA $25 million condominium development, seen here in a concept plan, is proposed on Hope Avenue in PortlandCommBy Laurie Schreiber

A real estate investor based in Portland and Miami has a proposal in the works for a $25 million condominium development in Portland.

GenX Capital Partners closed earlier this month on the purchase of 0 Hope Ave., in the North Deering neighborhood, for $1.2 million. The firm is proposing to build 60 units, either as duplexes or triplexes.

“We’re wrapping the site plan and getting an idea of what the infrastructure costs will be,” Mark McClure, managing partner of GenX, told Mainebiz.

The property, bordering the Presumpscot River and West Falmouth, consists of about 14 acres. The $25 million cost estimates includes the land purchase plus infrastructure and construction expenses.

McClure expects the proposal to soon undergo the city approval process. The project hasn't yet appeared on the docket for review by the Portland Planning Board.

The goal is to have approvals in place by next February and to break ground in the spring, he added. Condo price points would likely be between $550,000 and the low $700,000s. 

The location was selected partly because it's not far from downtown Portland and is close to shopping areas and the Maine Turnpike, McClure said. If approved, he noted, the project would be built to suit the surrounding woodlands.

GenX is one of the largest private lending and equity originators and investors in New England.