Design Options

I think the character of the community will unavoidably change with greater density housing. I think introducing greater density housing in the Town Center and undeveloped areas would limit the immediate impact on most current citizens, but over time the character of the Cape Elizabeth community will change as I expect there would be "pressure" to modify zoning laws in currently well developed zones. (The State of Maine, via last year's LD2003 will already allow some impact on the character of the community. Whether it's the whole town community or a neighborhood community.)

I thought Nathan Stanton’s design was lovely.

Respectfully, the current "character of the community" is empty lots, empty storefronts, giant single-family homes, inhabited by people who can afford a median home sale price of $700,000. A prudent observer might call us rich, white, old and exclusive.

A better question might be: what steps would ensure development that will change the character of the community?

@Tom Murley maybe interesting is not the highest priority & who has the market cornered on good taste. Ensuring quality construction for safe, healthy, and efficient living seems a priority to me.

@Donna Lamberth developers seek to

Maximize profit. Look at the designs for the Town Square that was rejected and maxwell woods. Uninteresting. Part of this is our planning office

Let the developer decide. It’s in their best interest to create attractive housing. The more we micromanage, the less interested builders are in our town.

@Jen Just want to point out that we are talking about Affordable Housing which is different from Low Income Housing.

I also wanted to address "density". Most of the neighborhoods in Cape Elizabeth could not be built today because the dwellings were built on smaller (more dense) lots. Around 1995, zoning ordinances started requiring larger lot sizes ( such as 20,000 Sq. Ft. or 1/2 acre) for single family residences. Most established neighborhoods, such as Oakhurst could not be built today because many of the lot sizes there are 1/4 acre or about 10,000 sq. Ft. So, building on 1/4 acre lots yields a higher density than building on 1/2 acre lots. When people talk about the need for higher density, it pretty much means being permitted to build dwellings on smaller lots, which was the practice in Cape Elizabeth historically. It is estimated that 75% of all dwellings in Cape Elizabeth do not conform to todays zoning requirements.

@Jen a few things on this. First, low height given lack of available space in Cape means low density and not much housing. The Copenhagen housing heighth-wise is not much more than the original town center plan. A lot of this is aesthetics. I find the low rise maxwell woods and starboard village highly unattractive and depressing. If that is what we think of as the town’s “character” i think we can do better. I strongly encourage you to look at the large new building at Piper Shores Meadows and how something like that could be at the GullCrest landfill site. If we say low rise, low density i think we are saying we don't want much affordable housing. We need to be thinking out of the box