Michael Eon clearly remembers the pungent odor of trash that hung in the air as he drove to work in downtown Biddeford and the worry he shared with others that a trash incinerator in the middle of downtown stifled growth in the city.

In 2011, he joined with other local businesspeople to push the city to buy and close the Maine Energy Recovery Co. incinerator, hoping its absence would bring back the bustling downtown of his youth.

Now, nearly a decade after the closure of the trash incinerator, the city is in the midst of the revitalization Eon dreamed about, with more people and businesses moving to the city. And Eon says the time is right to develop a thoughtful and comprehensive plan to build more housing as Biddeford experiences an unprecedented housing crunch.

“Ever since the City Council voted to close the MERC incinerator, the city of Biddeford has done nothing but impress Maine and New England with its vision for revitalization and renewal. There is no other explanation for all the progress since the historic decision the Council courageously took on July 31, 2012,” Eon wrote in a letter to city officials. “The next big challenge is housing.”

Eon and his business partner, David Gould, recently approached the city to collaborate on a master plan for a large undeveloped tract of land. He envisions developing a vibrant neighborhood with a mix of housing types and prices, as well as preserved land along Thatcher Brook and trails that connect different parts of the city.

The plan came closer to reality last week when the Biddeford City Council authorized the city manager to enter a joint development agreement with Eon Entities for the development of a roughly 100-acre parcel that sits between Barra Road, McKenney Drive, South Street and Thatcher Brook. The agreement includes a guarantee the development will include affordable senior housing and a credit enhancement from the city that allows an adjacent large-scale housing project to move forward.

Eon said the unbroken tract may be “ideal for the type of housing initiatives that are sorely needed” and that the City Council has made clear it wants to support. The project will help address the housing issues facing the city and help the council achieve its goals to create more housing options in Biddeford as it faces a surge in demand, he said.

Like other communities in southern Maine, that high demand coupled with a lack of supply is driving prices up and raising concerns about people being priced out of their homes. Market rents in Biddeford have risen steeply since 2012, from $863 per month for a two-bedroom apartment that year to $1,211 a month in 2020, a 40 percent increase in eight years, according to the city. Since 2012, more than 800 multi-unit buildings have been sold and now fetch upwards of $94,000 per unit, up from less than $53,000 per unit three years ago, according to an analysis from the city’s assessing department.

City officials say 40 percent of Biddeford’s renter households pay 35 percent or more of their income for housing. It’s generally accepted that no more than 30 percent of household income should be used for housing. City officials say a lack of “next homes” – larger houses for growing families – has forced people to move out of Biddeford.

The intense demand for both apartments and single-family homes prompted the City Council to spend months looking at housing issues, including affordability, density and incentives for developers. Late last year, the council for the first time ever adopted housing goals to guide policy decisions that city leaders hope will provide more housing across the housing continuum, from low-income apartments to larger single-family homes to senior housing.

The goals are to increase homeownership within the community from 48 percent to 51 percent by 2026; create at least 400 “next home” opportunities by 2026; create at least 200 first-time homeownership opportunities affordable to household between 80 and 120 percent of median income; create or preserve 90 units of affordable housing per year for five years targeted to serve the 40 to 80 percent median income community; and rehabilitate at least 65 rental units per year for the next three years so the units are healthy homes and lead-free.

While it is too soon to say exactly how many housing units could be created on the land owned and controlled by Eon Entities, Eon would like it to include affordable, workforce and market-rate housing, including plots for “next homes.”

“There are no more tracts like this east of the turnpike,” Councilor Marc Lessard said last week before voting for the joint development agreement. “To be able to have the city join in on a master plan with a developer to be able to get the rest of this done is unheard of. Other cities would drool to be able to have the opportunity to do this.”

City Manager James Bennett said joint development agreements like the one with Eon Entities allow a city to make sure complex projects are done, particularly in cases where completing them involves large investments in infrastructure. He used joint development agreements as a development tool when he was city manager in Lewiston and about a half-dozen times in Biddeford in recent years.

Under the terms of the joint development agreement, Eon Entities will draft a mixed-use master plan in collaboration with the city that will create senior housing options, add protections around segments of Thatcher Brook and create easements for a pedestrian connection through the property with the Eastern Trail. The master plan will become the basis for future development of the area and any zoning ordinance changes required to meet housing development goals.

As part of the agreement, the city will commit to establishing a 20-year credit enhancement agreement with Saxon Partners of Massachusetts, coordinate master planning activities with key departments and agencies, and assist Eon Entities in obtaining financing in support of affordable housing development, including the consideration of Tax Increment Financing funds when deemed necessary to complete the project.

The credit enhancement agreement is for a 250-unit apartment building, called The Marek, being built by Saxon on land adjacent to the land controlled by Eon and Gould. The project was approved before the pandemic and the developers say a credit enhancement is now needed to get the project done because the construction costs have increased during the past year.

Eon Entities will carve out 2 acres of land adjacent to the Saxon project to create between 35 and 45 affordable housing units for seniors with 80 percent or less of the area median income. The group will work with a low-income senior housing developer to built the units, with the final number and size of units subject to the findings of the master plan study.

The credit enhancement agreement with Saxon includes the company paying taxes to the city in the amount of $255,00 in the first year and escalating by 2 percent in years two through five of the agreement. For years six to 20, the city will retain 65 percent of taxes paid. Saxon also will contribute $125,000 to the city to help achieve its affordable housing goals, but the agreement does not specify exactly how that money will be used.

During a discussion about the joint development and credit enhancement agreement last week, Council President John McCurry said he was disappointed the see Saxon come back for a credit enhancement after the project was approved without one. McCurry and Councilor Michael Ready voted against the joint development agreement.

Other councilors, including Lessard, spoke in support of the opportunity to work with Eon on a master plan that addresses the housing goals set by the council.

Mayor Alan Casavant said he welcomed the opportunity for the city to participate in master planning for an “excellent project.”

“It’s not just housing. Especially in this post-COVID world, people want to get out to walk and bike. If it can connect all the way through to Rotary Park, the high school, the Eastern Trail and the Riverwalk, I think that’s an opportunity we should try to achieve,” he said.

Bennett said attorneys will now work to finalize the legal language for the joint development agreement before the city starts working with Eon on the master plan process. Eon said he hopes to complete the conceptual master plan over the winter.

Eon, who grew up in Biddeford, said he sees the collaboration as a “win-win for everyone.” When talking about the project, he is most enthusiastic about the recreation and preservation opportunities he sees in the project.

A former educator who started Biddeford’s elementary physical education program in the 1970s, he has long wanted to create trails that would allow people to travel by foot from Alfred Road to the high school or Doran Field and Rotary Park. The “gorgeous woods” on the property have not been seen by many, but the development would open up the area to more people, Eon said.

“I’m pretty enthusiastic about seeing this to completion in the next five years or so,” he said. “I’m thankful the council has decided to embrace this. I think it will be a real good project for the entire community in the end.”

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