Developer Kendrick Ballantyne of KV Enterprises tells Gorham planners Monday that the houses in the proposed Robie Street subdivision won’t be cookie-cutter style. Developer Vincent Maietta is pictured in the foreground and Owens McCullough of Sebago Technics is at the podium with Ballantyne. Robert Lowell / American Journal
Neighbors will get another crack next month to air concerns about a proposed contract zone for a big housing complex in Gorham Village.
The Gorham Planning Board Monday extended a public hearing on the developers’ request that the town allow them to increase the construction pace for their proposed 391-home project. The mix of single-family and multi-unit residences would be built in phases on 133 acres off Robie Street.
The project, introduced to the town in 2022, is proposed for a designated growth area where the Comprehensive Plan allows high-density housing. The build-out pace under the town’s growth management ordinance allows for a maximum of 10 permits per development per year, according to Town Planner Carol Eyerman.
KV Enterprises developers Kendrick Ballantyne and Vincent Maietta want to build 15 single-family homes in a year and one multi-family building in a 24-month period. The multi-family buildings are allowed to have mixed uses with commercial spaces on the first and second floors. At least one multi-family phase would be for ages 55 and older.
Language in the proposed agreement recognizes “a reasonable pace of development” is needed for the financial investment of land and infrastructure.
Planners Monday discussed various details in the proposed contract agreement and the board’s attorney, Natalie Burns, said proposed changes in the agreement language require continuing the public hearing.
“I think we’re making progress,” Owens McCullough of Sebago Technics, representing the developers, said after Monday’s meeting.
Maietta said KV Enterprises is paying $3.5 million to the town for building permits and another $2.5 million in impact fees for the project.
Aside from the contract zone, a Planning Board review is underway for Phase 1 of the project with 43 single-family houses.
Ballantyne said KV Enterprises won’t take a cookie-cutter approach in the houses’ design.
“We want to build a diversification of houses,” he said.
Access to the project would be by Bramblewood Lane, Robie Street and possibly White Birch Lane, if KV Enterprises gets permission to go over town-owned land behind Village Elementary School.
Bramblewood Lane resident and Town Councilor Virginia Wilder Cross described the proposed development as a “massive, new mini-town.” She appealed to the board not to accept the contract zone as proposed.
Charles Kelly of New Portland Road said that if White Birch Lane is an outlet, more traffic would be dumped onto busy New Portland Road. “This plan adversely affects the neighborhood,” he said.
Peggy Marchand of South Street said storm water is a neighborhood problem and she touted the value of trees. “Traffic is a mess in the village,” she added.
Each phase of the project will undergo Planning Board review. A contract zone, McCullough said, sets the framework for going forward.
The Town Council will consider the Planning Board’s recommendation for a contract zone, conduct its own public hearing and will be the arbiter.
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