The Yard South project will be marketed as a solution to the housing crisis, yet no one facing housing uncertainty will be able to live there. Seaside condos with views of Portland will be purchased by the wealthy or as investment properties and short-term rentals. Rather than provide housing for those who need it, the project will further the perception of South Portland as desirable to the second home and investment real estate market, adding to gentrification and the unattainability of life here. It is similarly unlikely that local businesses could afford the rent of the commercial spaces.

It will also be marketed as bringing money to the town, but we will end up bearing the costs of redeveloping traffic routes and the inevitable need to assist when flooding occurs – as the town predicts in its flood maps – and when environmental hazards are unearthed.

Broadway is becoming prohibitively busy even without this project, but could become a greater source of stress for those who use it for daily life and work rather than recreation. Broadway is our evacuation route for hurricanes and disasters, and the way that ambulances get to many South Portlanders. The project is profoundly out of scale for what this region can support, and beyond traffic will curtail simple access to stores, restaurants and natural spaces.

We could consider these sacrifices if they provided housing to those who need it, but not to provide massive wealth for two individuals and seaside condos to the wealthy.

Lindsay Murray
South Portland