BANGOR, Maine — City leaders in Bangor are pushing for a change to a city ordinance that would allow the construction of taller buildings and housing projects in hopes to address the shortage of affordable housing in the area.
The Bangor planning board approved a recommendation last Tuesday to increase building height limits to 60 feet in zones along State Street, Stillwater Avenue, and Broadway, moving away from smaller projects and making room for five- to six-story buildings.
"Our current height limits were established in probably the early 90s," Collette said.
Bangor's current land development code limits building heights to 35 to 45 feet, which is approximately the size of a three- to four-story building.
In Maine, it's fairly common for communities to place limits on the height of apartment buildings, sometimes banning buildings taller than three or four stories.
Bangor is growing, and city planning officer Anja Collette said there is a need to keep pace with development in the area. Housing has been a top priority for city councilors, the city manager, and its planning boards.
Collette said building upwards would make room for larger-scale projects.
"Because if they can build a little bit higher, they can fit more units in, and it can be more cost effective for them," Collette said.
The proposed change is one that TAC Architectural Group owner and project manager architect Dan Miller said he believes will benefit developers.
"When we get restricted to some of the building heights in the area, it limits us to our floor-to-floor, making construction costs kind of increase," Miller said.
From a housing project's start to end, Miller said developers are tracking how much money they spend on construction and how much they can potentially make back in profit.
With taller buildings come more units, and with more units comes the possibility for lower rent prices.
"It's one more thing, one more barrier we're trying to reduce to enable more housing that's available to people," Collette said.
City councilors will vote on whether to adopt the changes to the city ordinance at a city council meeting on Monday. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m.