Wiscasset hopes to develop 110 units of housing on town-owned land that was formerly part of the Maine Yankee nuclear facility.
The town has just gotten a boost to that project: in late October, Lincoln County officials awarded it $240,000 in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act to hire a consultant to assess the feasibility of the plans and help with public engagement.
While nearly every Maine community struggles with housing shortages right now, the midcoast has been hit especially hard. Lincoln County alone needs 1,048 new residential units to become available within the next decade, according to a 2023 housing needs assessment from the Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission.
Wiscasset officials submitted a letter of interest to Lincoln County commissioners on Aug. 16 to use those funds for a consultant to help with redeveloping the 300 acres on Old Ferry Road, according to town documents.
The documents outline the plan for the consultant, which would include spending $165,000 on a regulatory analysis that would include a site survey, an environmental survey, a sewer and water availability survey, a traffic impact analysis and a market analysis. The remaining $75,000 would go toward concept planning and public outreach.
The town must use the funds by the end of 2026, or return the remaining dollars to the U.S. Treasury, according to the documents.
The Select Board will consider accepting the funds at its Tuesday meeting.
The plan is to create a housing development that includes single-family homes, multi-unit housing and other types of housing, at least some of which would be targeted to lower-income or working class residents, according to the Wiscasset Newspaper. The new neighborhood could be based on a 2004 guidebook from the former state planning office called “The Great American Neighborhood,” which combines mixed-use development with affordable housing and access to transit.
“This project will not only help solve the housing affordability gap in the county but also endeavor to be climate resilient by being energy efficient, using clean energy, and using green infrastructure. The development will attempt to incorporate several parcels for future development [of] businesses in the clean energy and technology sectors,” said Economic Development Director Aaron Chrostowsky in a July letter, according to the Wiscasset Newspaper.
However, while that is the vision, Select Board Chair Sarah Whitfield said in early October that the town must first do research to understand the property’s condition, according to the Wiscasset Newspaper.
Wiscasset’s town office is closed on Fridays, so Simmons and Chrostowsky could not be reached for comment. Whitfield did not respond to a request for comment.
