Avesta Housing is proposing to build an additional 24 housing units for the elderly and disabled at its senior housing campus on School Street in Gorham.

It would become Avesta’s fifth elderly housing development in the town.

“Gorham is a great community that wants to take care of seniors,” Dana Totman, president of the Portland-based nonprofit, said on Tuesday.

Drew Wing, a developer for Avesta, said on Tuesday the proposed project will cost $5.1 million. Gorham Planner Tom Poirier on Tuesday expected the proposed project to be on the town’s Planning Board agenda in February.

Avesta’s proposal at 99 School St. would be built in front of Avesta’s existing Ridgewood building at 101 School St., a 20-unit housing facility for the elderly. The site in Gorham Village is across School Street from the University of Southern Maine campus and the Gorham Academy building, a federally recognized landmark.

The proposed housing will be affordable rentals for those aged 62 and older or disabled. Rent would be 30 percent of a resident’s income, with a federal rural development program picking up the rest.

The proposal will be served by public water and sewer.

Last week, the Gorham Town Council paved the way for the project when it voted 7-0 to grant Avesta a contract zone for the site. No one from the public spoke in the Town Council hearing about the contract zone.

Poirier said this week that the contract zone was required because of the density proposed.

Under terms of the agreement, the project will broaden the town’s tax base.

“We will have to pay taxes on it,” Wing said.

Wing described the proposal as a three-story building, but because of the hillside slope of the lot it would appear as a two-story structure from the street. Wing said the footprint of the building would cover 8,000 square feet with a total of 23,026 square feet on the three floors.

Poirier said the energy-efficient building would have mostly one- or two-bedroom units. The building, Wing said, will be heavily insulated and will feature triple-pane windows. Wing said more than 50 percent of the power in the building will be generated from solar panels.

He said the building would be rated as platinum, the top green building certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

“We have a neat design,” Wing said.

The building is being proposed on the footprint of the former Charlotte Millett Elementary School. Poirier said it would resemble the brick Millett School, but the new structure would have a wooden exterior veneer.

The school was constructed in 1924 as a junior high school, also known as the training school, and included some elementary grades. Later, it was called the Campus School before being renamed Millett. The school was razed in 1983, according to the Gorham Historical Society records. Demolition made way for Ridgewood.

The historical society’s records also show that a female seminary was once located on the site, but was destroyed by fire in 1894.

“We’re taking this historic site and creating housing with an eye on the future,” Wing said.

In addition to Ridgewood, Totman said, Avesta housing facilities in Gorham are Inn at Village Square, 123 School St., for assisted living, with 37 units; Village Square, 121 School St., 48 apartments; and 30 Birch Lane, 30 White Birch Lane, 21 units.

Founded in 1972, Avesta, with 68 developments in Maine and New Hampshire, has 2,000 homes, Totman said.

Avesta Housing plans a three-story building, costing $5.1 million, with 24 elderly affordable apartments in Gorham here on School Street in front of Avesta’s Ridgewood facility. Staff photo by Robert Lowell

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