Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 8, 2022

As the Maine Legislature held an eight-hour public hearing today on an affordable housing bill that would amend zoning rules statewide for cities and towns, the Mayor of Auburn, the states fifth-largest city, showed us how his city is already implementing the kinds of changes proposed.Legislators on the Housing and Labor Committee entertained several hours of testimony over the bill sponsored by Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, a Democrat from Biddeford, LD 2003, which would require municipalities to let property owners build up to four units on lots zoned for single-family homes, among other reforms.Zoning laws are by definition exclusionary in nature, Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque, a Republican serving his third term, said in an interview at a construction site. Thats really the fundamental change that has to happen. Were overregulated, were under-housed, and really, weve eliminated the rights of property owners to actually live on the land that they own.Levesque and the city council revised zoning laws that limited property owners to single-family homes or prevented them from adding accessory dwelling units on their land."Nobody's going to force you to do anything in your backyard, then again you have no right to force someone, your neighbor, to not do something in their backyard," Levesque said. "There's a lot of people who have big backyard right now that would like to downsize and live with their kids in an accessory dwelling unit in their backyard. Why should we stop that?"Another zoning change in Auburn has relaxed parking space requirements to enable more density in new housing developments.This change helped a former nursing home be converted to 10 apartments, and a synagogue to be approved for conversion also to 10 residences."It means you have more of a walkable downtown, Levesque said. "It means you can actually utilize on-street and municipal off-street parking in order to not just have just acres and acres of asphalt everywhere." After decades of stagnant population, Levesque said, Auburn's population is growing again. But will the new market-rate housing be more affordable?Levesque said, "It's affordable to different people at different income levels are different stages of life."The mayor said the zoning changes have already resulted in 1,800 new housing units being built, approved, or planned during the past two years.

As the Maine Legislature held an eight-hour public hearing today on an affordable housing bill that would amend zoning rules statewide for cities and towns, the Mayor of Auburn, the states fifth-largest city, showed us how his city is already implementing the kinds of changes proposed.

Legislators on the Housing and Labor Committee entertained several hours of testimony over the bill sponsored by Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, a Democrat from Biddeford, LD 2003, which would require municipalities to let property owners build up to four units on lots zoned for single-family homes, among other reforms.

Zoning laws are by definition exclusionary in nature, Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque, a Republican serving his third term, said in an interview at a construction site. Thats really the fundamental change that has to happen. Were overregulated, were under-housed, and really, weve eliminated the rights of property owners to actually live on the land that they own.

Levesque and the city council revised zoning laws that limited property owners to single-family homes or prevented them from adding accessory dwelling units on their land.

"Nobody's going to force you to do anything in your backyard, then again you have no right to force someone, your neighbor, to not do something in their backyard," Levesque said. "There's a lot of people who have big backyard right now that would like to downsize and live with their kids in an accessory dwelling unit in their backyard. Why should we stop that?"

Another zoning change in Auburn has relaxed parking space requirements to enable more density in new housing developments.

This change helped a former nursing home be converted to 10 apartments, and a synagogue to be approved for conversion also to 10 residences.

"It means you have more of a walkable downtown, Levesque said. "It means you can actually utilize on-street and municipal off-street parking in order to not just have just acres and acres of asphalt everywhere."

After decades of stagnant population, Levesque said, Auburn's population is growing again.

But will the new market-rate housing be more affordable?

Levesque said, "It's affordable to different people at different income levels are different stages of life."

The mayor said the zoning changes have already resulted in 1,800 new housing units being built, approved, or planned during the past two years.

More:

Auburn sees itself as setting an example of how to amend zoning to spur more housing - WMTW Portland

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