A proposed affordable housing development for seniors in Kennebunk cleared an important hurdle on March 5.
A ballot question asking voters to approve a contract zone for the project, Referendum Question A, appeared alongside the presidential primary ballot, the results of which aligned with the vast majority of contests held on Super Tuesday.
Referendum Question A, a contract zone for an affordable senior housing project on Alewive Park Road, was approved by voters on March 5. Dan King photo
Just as they did nationally and statewide, former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden won the primary races in Arundel, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport – but former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley trailed Trump by fewer than 20 percentage points in the Kennebunks.
The affordable housing development ballot question, which earned 2,226 votes in favor and 412 votes against, is a joint project by Kennebunk Savings Bank and Avesta Housing, the largest nonprofit housing provider in northern New England. A contract zone agreement allows an exemption to existing zoning code.
Kennebunk Savings Bank owns 41-acres of land on Alewive Park Road that is the location of its operation center, but much of the land has sat empty since it purchased the parcel in 2014. The bank wants to use the plot to construct 70 units of housing that would specifically cater to people 55 and older who make up to 60 percent of area median income.
In 2023, the bank submitted a proposal to the Planning Board seeking a contract zone agreement that would split the parcel, which is in the Industrial Zoning District, into three parts. One section would continue to house its operations center, the second would be for the two developments (35 units each), and the third would remain open space which connects to the Eastern Trail.
Now that voters have agreed to the contract zone, the developer must present a more detailed plan for consideration by the Planning Board. If that process is successfully completed, Avesta Housing will operate the development, making it the fourth property operated by Avesta in Kennebunk.
“The approval is one significant step forward of many needed to secure housing stability for older adults in our communities. The overwhelming support on Election Day demonstrates that the people of Kennebunk are here to look out for each other – neighbor helping neighbor. And we’re proud to be one of those neighbors (who just happens to be a bank),” Kennebunk Savings Bank CEO Bradford C. Paige wrote in a statement following the vote.
Kennebunk also had a second referendum question, which asked voters to approve new standards for design and construction of all streets in town, which passed, 2,277-346.
Elsewhere on the ballot in Kennebunk, voters selected their preference in the state’s presidential primary. Maine was one of 15 states that held a contest on Super Tuesday. Voters in the U.S. territory American Samoa also went to the polls.
The election was governed by Maine’s new semi-open primary system, where unenrolled voters can cast a ballot in either party’s primary, but voters already enrolled in one party can only vote in that party’s primary.
Biden did not face a credible challenger on the ballot on March 5, and won easily in Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel. Minnesota House Rep. Dean Phillips received fewer than 100 votes in all three towns combined, but dropped out of the race the following day and endorsed Biden.
Biden won everywhere with Democratic race on March 5, except for American Samoa – but a nontrivial number of people voted “uncommitted” or “no preference” to express frustration over Biden’s response to the war in Gaza. In North Carolina and Massachusetts, roughly 12% and 9% of voters, respectively, cast “no preference” votes. In Minnesota, nearly 19% of voters cast “uncommitted” ballots.
Over the past five months, the Biden Administration has approved more than 100 separate military sales to Israel despite domestic and international condemnation of Israel’s military campaign, which has killed over 30,000 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights, an activist group, urged Mainers to write “ceasefire” on their ballots – though per Maine election law, these write-in ballots would not have been officially tallied.
On the Republican side of the ballot, Nikki Haley won 42% of the vote in Kennebunk and 40% of the vote in Kennebunkport, a larger vote share than the roughly 25% of vote share she earned statewide.
Trump secured 54% of the vote in in Kennebunk and 57% in Kennebunkport.
In Arundel, Haley earned 90 votes and Trump earned 314, meaning 21% for Haley, a breakdown that was more aligned with statewide results.
Haley dropped out of the race on March 6 after only winning the Republican primary in Vermont, but she declined to endorse Trump.
The other Republicans on the ballot, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Pastor Ryan Binkley – who had all dropped out prior to the March 5 contest – collectively earned fewer than 40 votes in the three municipalities.
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