GREENVILLE, Maine — Facing a shortage of low-cost housing for workers, the town of Greenville is poised to change the zoning of a residential area to accommodate a densely populated housing development.
"Greenville has become a destination," Town Manager Mike Roy said Tuesday. "With that brought a lot of sales of homes in the region which… is a negative effect on workforce housing."
Since the early days of the pandemic, the Moosehead Lake region has seen a surge in real estate purchases and tourism. One local real estate broker estimates the average cost of the homes he sells exceeds $350,000—a price that’s prohibitively expensive to those in Greenville for work, instead of vacation or retirement.
"I've had some people that wanted to work for us and I think they would've liked to come work for us. But they couldn't find a place," Craig Watt, the vice president of Indian Hill Trading Post, an outfitter and supermarket, said.
To address this issue, the town, under Roy’s guidance, is proposing a zoning overlay of a section of forest off of Spruce Street. If passed, the area would be allowed to accommodate housing that is close together and nearer to the roadway than currently allowed for residential areas in Greenville. This is a proactive step, in hopes that an affordable housing development proposed by the non-profit Northern Forest Center comes to fruition in Greenville.
If that doesn’t happen, the city still has nearly $1 million in grant money to build the infrastructure of a 26-unit development—no matter the benefactor.
Greenville residents will have the ultimate say on the zoning proposal during a special vote on Dec. 6.