BANGOR, Maine — Bangor's planning board unanimously approved a project that would convert a mobile home park into a tiny home community.
Two real-estate developers will turn the Martel Mobile Home Park on Hammond Street into a park of 34 tiny home properties.
At the end of July, Louie Morrison and his business partner Luke McCannell purchased the Martel Mobile Home Park on Hammond Street with hopes to turn it into new housing opportunities.
City councilors approved a new ordinance in October, allowing tiny home developments to be built in the city. With the planning board's approval, Morrison said he's aiming to start construction around April 1.
"The project is to get people into affordable homes. That's all it's about," Morrison told NEWS CENTER Maine in October. "One hundred percent brand new, safe, efficient, 'green living,' if you will, homes that are affordable and that will last forever."
At the time the pair bought the property, only a quarter of the lots were being used, and a number of others were empty or had abandoned mobile homes, according to Morrison.
While preparing for the city's approval, a contractor began hauling the unused mobile homes off the property.
Several families are still living in the park in mobile homes, but Morrison said he has no intentions of kicking them out. Instead, he said he hopes to move them into a new tiny home once construction is completed.
Morrison said he has been in contact with multiple assistance programs and other organizations, like veterans housing programs, looking to house people in need.
"The reachouts have been incredible. It's almost overwhelming how many people would love to live in one of these homes," Morrison said.