The people behind Keep Portland Livable would lead you to believe that midtown is massively out of scale with Portland, but when you stop to look at the numbers, you see otherwise.

It won’t turn Portland into Boston overnight. Its proposed 675 apartments, built over 10 years, will only increase the population by a fraction.

Its buildings will only be 30 feet taller than the nearby Intermed building. It will generate a huge increase in tax revenue, and it will bring further development to Bayside.

The architecture borrows from nearby buildings, and it is fresh and exciting. It will create hundreds of jobs: both directly through construction, building management and retail, and indirectly by helping young professionals afford to live here (a key to economic development in Maine, according to recent articles) by providing much-needed market-rate housing.

Midtown is part of the answer. Anything else will not increase the housing supply nearly enough and will result in costlier apartments, especially due to the expense of building on environmentally sensitive and filled land.

If Keep Portland Livable is allowed to kill this and other major development proposals in the city, then it will have a domino effect on both the housing market and business community. With a lack of young professionals living here to fill the void as baby boomers retire, companies will look elsewhere.

The ironic part is that Federated recently made numerous changes to the plans by addressing areas listed as concerns by Keep Portland Livable. Federated proved they’re listening and willing to compromise.

If you approve of this project, you need to tell the city. Don’t let the voices of a vocal minority running a misleading campaign cloud the process. If you can’t attend the meeting Jan. 14, then send an email to the Planning Board today.

Marc A. Drouin

Westbrook