Rebuffed housing developers turn to a neighboring Portland suburb

After its affordable housing project was rejected by Cumberland voters, a Westbrook developer has put in for a similar project in a neighboring town and is being courted by other communities.

The Westbrook Development Corporation, a sister agency to the Westbrook Housing Authority, planned to construct a $40 million, 107-unit housing development on two ballfields in the town of Cumberland. Last week, a whopping 69 percent of residents rejected the proposal , with some opponents citing the location, overcrowding in schools and income limits being too low.

But the firm is bouncing back. It is putting in for a project on 25 acres of publicly owned land, while Biddeford and Rumford would like to work with Westbrook and build workforce housing projects on sites they have available in town. It shows that some communities might be willing to pick up the slack for those who close their doors to new housing.

“It’s always challenging to propose any sort of housing in affluent communities,” Tyler Norod, the Westbrook Development Corporation’s director of real estate, said in response to the Cumberland vote. “It’s not exactly rocket science why we don’t have enough housing. It’s usually because of each individual town not building their fair share.”

Proposals were due to Falmouth on Thursday for a workforce housing development on a 25-acre plot on Marshall Drive, behind the town’s police department, that has been vacant since the 1990s. The project targets those making between 30 and 120 percent of the area median income, which is between $22,300 and about $114,000 for a two-person household.

Unlike Cumberland, where voters were empowered to decide the fate of a large housing development, approval for this project would come from the town council, said Nathan Poore, Falmouth’s town manager.

The need for more workforce housing in Falmouth is similar to Cumberland’s. Both communities are Portland suburbs that have seen home prices skyrocketing in the last few years, pushing lower-income earners out of town and hindering the growth of local businesses.

The median price of a home sold in Falmouth in 2022 was just over $800,000, according to the RFP on that Marshall Drive project . However, the average household income in Falmouth can adequately afford a home priced at around $420,000, that report found.

“I have had potential hires that have not been able to locate housing and relocate, and they’ve declined the job offer,” Poore said of challenges hiring town workers. “I am hearing from employers in the community that they’re concerned.”

Similar concerns motivated town officials in Rumford to reach out to Norod, too, following the outcome of last week’s vote in Cumberland. From the largest regional employers like the Sunday River ski resort to the Rumford paper mill and small businesses, George O’Keefe, the town’s economic development director, said a lack of workforce housing is hindering growth.

A workforce housing project developed in partnership with Westbrook “seems like it could be a good fit up here,” O’Keefe said.

Cumberland’s loss could also be Biddeford’s gain. Mayor Marty Grohman reached out to Norod last week to ask if the Westbrook developers would consider a similar project there instead.

Norod said the response from other communities has been encouraging, but it has also highlighted some of the problems with building in silos. Maine’s goal of at least 76,000 new homes by 2030 can’t just be left up to individual towns and the state should take a bigger role by requiring larger cities and towns to produce a certain amount of affordable housing, he said.

Unlike in Kingfield, where a local nonprofit said it might return again after voters turned down a project last week, Norod was more hesitant about attempting to build in Cumberland again.

“If the right piece of land came up, we’d always be open,” Norod said. “But I think Cumberland voters were pretty clear that they weren’t interested in having workforce housing in their town.”