As a 20-year resident of Cape Elizabeth, I thank Bill Nemitz for Friday’s column on the affordable housing plans for Cape Elizabeth, scuppered by those who wanted no part of affordable housing in the center of town.

The ostensible reason was the perceived (by the naysayers) unsuitability of the site, for aesthetic reasons and because the building would have violated previous town ordinances. Those reasons seem to me fabricated in order to prevent affordable housing development on a site eminently suited for this development. The objectors proclaimed their desire to see affordable housing in town but have offered no alternatives at all. The spurious nature of their claim is demonstrated by the effort to have a referendum as quickly as possible to reverse the Town Council’s very reasonable zoning modifications.
As a community, we need the diversity that this development would have begun to provide. It was by no means perfect and certainly far short of what we need to become a more inclusive, diverse community, but it was at least a start.

Who, now, will want to come forward with a project, knowing the kind of opposition that will be faced? NIMBY seems to have won the day, though I believe, or at least hope, the referendum vote at the usual time of voting will demonstrate that Cape residents do support the changes made by the Town Council.

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