Saco takes steps toward creation of Housing Action Plan

What types of housing should be encouraged, or discouraged, along the U.S. Route One corridor? How best to build new housing for this and future generations? These and other questions were posed as the City of Saco hosted an April 22 “listening session,” an early step toward formulating a Housing Action Plan for Maine’s tenth largest community.

City staff coordinated the session, including Planning Director Emily Cole-Prescott, Economic Development Director Tracy Desjardins, Police Chief Jack Clement and several others. Approximately 25 residents were in attendance, held in a room at the public works facility on Phillips Spring Road.

Attendees were invited to share thoughts and suggestions about the U.S. Route One corridor from I-195 north to the Scarborough town line. Future sessions (May 7 and June 4, both at Saco city hall at 6 p.m.) will focus on downtown and the entire city, respectively.

Attendees at the session were advised that the built environment and an infill analysis, an affordability analysis and a look at planning and policy context are phases now under way. These will lead to recommendations, and finally an action plan.

In order to broaden perspective as the plan is formulated, the city is collaborating with Vanasse Hangen and Brustlin staff, including Christine Grimando, a former City of Portland planning director. Christian Roadman, a senior planner with the Greater Portland Council of Governments, is also assisting. Roadman is leading a separate effort to create a master plan for the Rte. One corridor.

“It’s an indicator of the state of housing and the economy that the state’s waded into certain housing policy changes,” Grimando stated early in the meeting.

In Saco, a proposal to create a housing project on a 52-acre parcel between Lincoln and Bradley streets near downtown was received with controversy by neighbors and was ultimately denied by the city’s planning board in October 2023.

The shortage of housing has affected all ages, price levels and choices of types of units.

“My daughter is thirty-three years old, went to college, came back to Saco and looked at condo units priced at $189,000 in 2000,” said Mayor Jodi MacPhail. “Now those units are twice as much.” MacPhail also voiced her goal of improving communication with landowners along Rte. One, so that the city may have the chance to influence types of new uses as development is proposed.

Staff and consultants provided background information to those in attendance:

“Saco has grown over the last decade, but that growth has been uneven across age groups,” according to documents provided by the city. From 2014 to 2023, those between 25-34 years of age, and those 65 and older experienced noticeably higher levels of growth in Saco than other age brackets. Those younger than 19 and those 20-24 years of age actually declined by -4% and -6 %, respectively.

Over the same time period, Saco has experienced more growth at 11% than the state and the county. Compare that to Biddeford at 5%, and Scarborough at 19%.

• Those who work in Saco but commute to work from outside the city total 7,665, while 9,430 live in Saco but commute elsewhere to work. Only 1,160 both live and work in Saco.

• Grimando noted that Saco, as is true elsewhere in Maine, has an older housing stock. 22% of the city’s housing was built in the years up to and including 1939. The years from 1980-1989 saw 17% of housing units built in Saco. 32% of existing housing units were built between 1990 and 2019.

• 62.3% of Saco housing is single family, and 34.1% multi-family. By comparison, Biddeford is 43.9% single family and 54.8% multi-family, while statewide, 71.5% of Maine is single family housing and 19.9% multi-family.

• In 2000, Saco was home to 7,424 housing units of all types. By 2020 that number had climbed to 9,486, a 27.7% increase over two decades.

What is the city experiencing in terms of housing construction currently? Assessing department staffer Sean McCarthy had an answer.

“We’re seeing tons of single-family development,” McCarthy told the group, “Between 1,800 and 2,200 square feet. We’re seeing tons of condos.”

He spotlighted the Clover Leaf apartment project on Merrill Drive off Rte. One, just north of the Aquaboggan water park. Approved by the planning board in mid-2022, the project consists of ten 12-unit apartment buildings. One hundred-eight units are studio or one-bedroom, the remainder are two-bedroom.

“Given how fast they filled up,” said McCarthy, “the demand for condos (and apartments) is overwhelming.”

Information provided at the meeting cited a number of local, regional and state reports and studies that will have a bearing on Saco’s housing plan, including the 2022 Comprehensive Plan, the 2024 Climate Adaptation and Action Plan, the 2023 Maine Housing Production Needs study, and a Housing Affordability Report for York County dated 2024, produced by the Southern Maine Planning and Development Commission.

Some contextual guidelines provided to attendees suggested some of the policies that may be included when the Housing Action Plan is completed, tentatively set for this fall, including updating zoning to support multi-family housing, focusing growth in areas with public utilities and access to amenities, improving walkability to reduce parking demand, and promoting infill and mixed-use development.

Bob Hamblen can be reached at rhh0918@gmail.com.