Portland city leaders are considering a proposal to build a 12-lot subdivision with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Portland on a nearly 5-acre parcel at 622 Auburn St.

During a boom in luxury housing around the city, Portland has considered a wide range of proposals to make affordable rental units available. Now it’s offering city-owned land as a direct boost to the affordable market. After receiving bids from Habitat for Humanity, Maine Cooperative Development Partners and Great Falls Construction, Portland’s Housing and Economic Development Committee on Tuesday will consider a recommendation from staff to accept Habitat for Humanity’s proposal.

City officials also requested proposals for a 13-acre parcel owned by Portland just over the border in Falmouth, but bidders said the parcel likely can’t be developed because of wetlands. The Falmouth plot in question is just north of the border with Portland, south of the Falmouth spur of Interstate 95, and framed on the east and west by Auburn Street and Blackstrap Road.

The Auburn Street property where the subdivision would be built is just south of the Falmouth plot.

Under Habitat for Humanity’s plan, each lot of the 12-lot subdivision would contain a family home between 1,000 and 1,500 square feet with two to four bedrooms. Portland would sign over its land for $1 to the developer, which would bear the cost of construction. The homes would be affordable for people earning 80 percent of the area’s median income or less.

The median income for Portland in 2021 is $89,950 for a household of three, according to a document provided by city staff. Eighty percent of that for the same household is $71,950.

Habitat for Humanity didn’t provide a precise timetable for construction, but estimated it would be finished in the next five years, city officials said. If the city accepted the nonprofit’s proposal, Habitat “would place a conservation easement on the site that would allow public access to the extent appropriate,” city officials said.

The city of Portland previously considered the Auburn street parcel for a new homeless shelter, but ultimately went in another direction.

Aside from the Habitat for Humanity proposal that staff recommend, Maine Cooperative Development Partners submitted a plan intended to build on another project being designed at 165 Lambert Street, across from the Auburn Street property on Washington Avenue Extension. The MCDP plan would include up to 48 units of one, two and three bedroom affordable housing, pegged to between 80 and 100 percent of AMI.

Maine Cooperative Development Partners’ idea would cost over $15 million to develop, city staff said. That’s considerably more than the $750,000 that Habitat for Humanity anticipates for its plan, and so MCDP is hoping to get help financing the project with a cooperative housing loan from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, along with tax increment financing from the city.

Great Falls Construction’s proposal would sell or lease homes to families earning a mix of incomes, and would include on-site training for skilled labor workers. Portland staff said they were “intrigued” by the idea of job training, but ultimately rejected it because it lacked specifics about the number, type or affordability of units to be built.

Along with their recommendation to pursue Habitat for Humanity’s plan, city staff said committee members should consider selling a small portion of the Falmouth property to a nearby business interested in developing it.

More information about the Tuesday meeting, including an agenda and directions to stream video online, is available at www.portlandmaine.gov/129/Agendas-Minutes.

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