This city is getting the housing project that a Portland suburb rejected

After Cumberland voters rejected an affordable housing project, Biddeford Mayor Marty Grohman said he would “roll out the red carpet” for something like it.

The developer behind the project took him up on that March quote in the Bangor Daily News. Tyler Norod of Westbrook Development Corp. called to say, “Are you serious?”

“We basically were able to pick the project up, lift it out and put it here,” Grohman said Friday.

After looking at a couple of potential sites, Norod and the city landed on a plot on Barra Road. It is zoned as a business district near where a 46-unit senior housing development is already in the pipeline, Norod said. The project has already been fast tracked by city leaders. Developers hope to have final approval by August.

The episode is one of the starkest recent examples of one community benefiting from another one’s inaction on affordable housing. The Biddeford project will be slightly smaller but otherwise identical to the one rejected by two-thirds of voters in wealthy Cumberland, which is 25 miles north.

“They want investment in their downtown. They want more housing, more affordable housing in particular, and they all come together,” Norod said of Biddeford. “It makes a big difference.”

The Cumberland project would have been $40 million and 107 units across three buildings. It is now planned in Biddeford as a $30 million, 76-unit development in two buildings, Norod said.

The project is still aimed at those making up to 60 percent of the area median income, which is $47,040 for a two person household in York County. Thirty-six of the units will still be 1-bedroom apartments for seniors, Norod said. Like the site in Cumberland, the one in Biddeford is centrally located and close to amenities and transportation.

The Biddeford City Council has already approved a contract zone for the area and special tax increment financing district. The planning board has issued preliminary site plan approval. If the project is approved for MaineHousing’s low-income housing tax credit program, construction would be cleared to begin next summer.

The project will add much-needed affordable housing stock to Biddeford, a young and vibrant city with an increasingly pricey housing market.

Those who make the median household income in Biddeford, about $63,000, can only afford a home up to $294,000, according to Zillow’s affordability calculator . The average home sale price in the city is $422,500. Though there are 56 rental listings in the city right now, the cheapest is going for $1,300 a month.

About 60 percent of existing Biddeford households would qualify for this new housing project, by the Westbrook Development Corp.’s estimation.

“We’re very focused on getting more affordable housing built, perhaps the exact opposite of the sentiments in Cumberland,” Grohman said. “We really want to have this housing for a nurse, a firefighter, teachers; we see it as a huge need in the community, and the community is very supportive of it.”