The design for the eight-unit building that makes up half of the affordable housing development on Cleaves Street. Contributed / Yarmouth Planning Board

The Yarmouth Planning Board has unanimously approved an 18-unit affordable housing project on Cleaves Street near the center of town next to Yarmouth Town Hall.

It is the first affordable housing project in Yarmouth to be approved in 10 years.

The project, OK’d on Jan. 22, consists of two apartment-style buildings with eight or 10 single-bedroom units. The Yarmouth Planning Board anticipates that the housing will appeal to the local workforce, young couples looking to move to the area and seniors downsizing. The modular buildings will “pull their architectural influence from local building precedent,” according to the site plan and subdivision application.

“The new homes would allow the sons or daughters of multigenerational Yarmouth families to move back to town to be near their parents and grandparents – something they can’t afford to do today,” wrote the developers, a team that includes Yarmouth Housing Collaborative and Yarmouth residents. “For local businesses struggling to recruit and retain employees, this kind of apartment living is a step towards providing housing options for local workers.”

The developers, collectively 36 Cleaves Street, describe the new housing project as “36 Cleaves St.,” although the Planning Board has not yet assigned it a street address in the town’s 911 system. Until a street number is assigned after a building permit is processed, the town will refer to the development as “0 Cleaves St.”

An aerial photo of the location of the affordable housing development, indicated in the red box. Contributed / Yarmouth Planning Board

Affordable housing developments in Yarmouth have been few and far between. The most recent project was Bartlett Woods, which was approved in 2015 and completed in 2018. The collaboration between Avesta Housing and Yarmouth Senior Housing produced 28-unit senior housing community for residents 55 and older.

A lack of affordability and supply of housing in Yarmouth motivated the Yarmouth Town Council to establish the Yarmouth Affordable Housing Committee in December 2020. The body was to review key issues impacting the quantity, availability and affordability of housing in Yarmouth, focusing on housing that would be affordable for households whose earnings fall between 50% and 80% of area median income. In October 2024, the Town Council amended the Affordable Housing Committee’s charter to focus less on housing restricted to households earning 50-80% of area medium income, now working to create housing stock for a wider range of households.

The Yarmouth Affordable Housing Committee delivered an assessment of the housing stock and affordability in Yarmouth to the Town Council in 2022. Based on the committee’s recommendation, in May 2024 the Town Council adopted a goal of producing 431 affordable housing units over the next 10 years.

For the Cleaves Street project, the developers estimate that total cost of the project including land purchase and development will be $6 million. They are applying for funding from MaineHousing’s Rural Affordable Housing Rental Program, which requires that funded projects are leased to households earning no more than 80% of the area median income and are leased at not more than 80% area medium income rents.

In 2024 in the Greater Portland area, the medium family income was $127,500, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. For the same year, the Maine State Housing Authority set the 80% median income for the area between $68,500 for a household of one and $97,800 for a household of four.

The proposed site plan that was approved on Jan. 22. Contributed / Yarmouth Planning Board

Many Yarmouth residents have voiced support for the project. A majority of the public comments received by the Yarmouth Planning Board by Jan. 22 wrote of how the development will increase economic diversity, strengthen community and increase opportunities for their children and grandchildren to affordably live in town.

“I support affordable housing in Yarmouth. It is very important to me that people of various incomes can continue to live in Yarmouth and stay close to those they love,” Gordon Caldwell wrote in a submitted public comment.

“We are stronger as a community if we are diverse in all ways, including economically,” wrote in Mary Lou Michael. “I urge the Planning Board to support the 36 Cleaves St. project.”

Other Yarmouth residents expressed concerns about the project not fitting into the aesthetics of the neighborhood and increasing population density in the area.

“This proposal certainly has an undue adverse effect on the Cleaves Street area and will bring about potential nuisances. None of which seem to be acknowledged by the developer,” wrote Charlene Ferguson, who was in favor of affordable housing but suggested the development be located elsewhere along Route 1.

Pending the project receiving the funding from the Rural Rental Program and approval from the Maine State Housing Authority, the town and developer will be able to complete the sale. Following the approval of all necessary building permits, construction of the project could begin this fall at the earliest, said Yarmouth Director of Planning and Development Erin Zwirko.