Early in her tenure as town manager, Dawn DiBlasi stopped at a Skowhegan street corner to speak with a woman standing there with a sign that said she was homeless.
“She said, ‘It just got so I couldn’t afford my rent anymore, and I don’t have anywhere to go,” DiBlasi said.
There wasn’t much DiBlasi said she could do besides talking to the woman about getting on the years-long waiting list for a housing voucher. Skowhegan is a working-class town, but there are just four rental units there on Zillow. All are listed for more than $1,000 per month, and home prices have more than doubled since 2019, according to real estate data listing.
More affordable housing options might soon be in hand in a nostalgic location. Last month, the planning board gave preliminary approval to a 30- to 40-unit mobile home park at the site of the former Skowhegan Drive-In Theater, bringing the 11-acre lot back into use after years of declining profits and paltry attendance forced the theater to close for good last fall.
The screen is gone due to asbestos, although the structure that held it remains. The concession stand is up as well, serving as a reminder of the theater that opened in 1953 with a Morning Sentinel advertisement touting a state-of-the-art projection system and a playground for kids.
The redevelopment of the drive-in has brought up mixed emotions in the community, said 38-year-old Skowhegan resident Adam Burdick. Some of it is rooted in stigmas about mobile homes long noted by policymakers. Many also see the need for affordable housing in the region.
“The whole idea of a mobile home park is pretty much [seen by residents as] a double edged sword,” he said.
Many in town were simply upset when the drive-in closed, Burdick said. Some hoped the space might continue as a theater or become a mini mall or a flea market, he said. Now, the predominant feeling among Burdick’s circles is that the park will be welcome if it’s run well.
Randy Butler, a senior engineer at Dirigo Engineering, presented the project at the July planning board meeting. Butler represents the developer behind the new mobile home park, A&L Properties, Inc., but both he and his client declined to comment further on the proposed project.
Despite the nostalgia factor, Don Brown, who owned the drive-in since 2012, said his attempts to get town officials to help preserve the theater fell on deaf ears. Brown sold the drive-in’s sign and some of the machinery to collectors and hobbyists.
Although he is disappointed about the theater’s closing, the park signifies that the town is eager to move forward at the site. He was glad to hear it would become housing.
“I think it generally reflects the changing taste and the significance of some institutions in a community that’s in transition,” Brown said. “Skowhegan is looking to the future with some of the developments that are coming in and not necessarily its past.”
Skowhegan is currently seeing historic investment in its downtown and industry. New Balance announced plans this week to close its Norridgewock plant and consolidate operations in Skowhegan, bringing 250 more jobs, according to DiBlasi.
Other large projects include the ambitious Skowhegan RiverPark, which looks to convert part of the Kennebec River into a whitewater area for recreation, as well as the redevelopment of the town’s Spinning Mill, which was a textile mill built in 1922. It will become a hotel, brewery and apartment complex made up of some workforce and luxury units.
These ambitious plans mean Skowhegan needs to make more room for workers. The mobile home park is one part of the town’s plans to do so, but Dave Pelton, the real estate development director for Kennebec Valley Community Action Program, said there are barriers to building more housing in the area including a lack of good sites and local pushback.
While he said virtually all people applying for local housing projects — like two recently completed in Skowhegan and neighboring Madison — are locals, Pelton said there are fears that new units will go to people from out of town. Once those anxieties are assuaged, town officials tend to get on board, he said.
The reality is that housing at all income levels is in short supply in Skowhegan and Maine’s other smaller, more rural towns as much as it is in population centers, Pelton added.
“The need is everywhere: Skowhegan, Hartland, Bangor, Brewer,” he said. “You can’t ignore any of those places. We have to keep building.”
