ORONO – Tuesday’s vote by the Town Council to sell a 20-acre parcel of land for single-family homes was unanimous.

“I always liked the idea,” said Councilor Sean Wasson. “We have a property shortage in Orono. There’s no downside to this for the town.”

The parcel, owned by the town since taking it on a matured tax lien decades ago, will be sold to Jon Dawson and Steve Libby for $95,000.

The pair will develop the plot on outer Forest Avenue into an eight-lot subdivision, with each lot amounting to at least 2 acres.

The developers will pay for the new road leading from Forest Avenue to the homes, and once constructed it will become a public way.

“There are so few buildable lots in the community,” explained Lianne Harris, council chairman. “We felt we were developing a neighborhood here.”

Each home will be at least 2,000 square feet, according to requirements of the subdivision, and each will be landscaped.

The town had planned to do the development itself, Town Manager Gerry Kempen explained, but the council decided to go in a different direction once concerns arose over EnvisioNet, the Internet service company which has reduced its force in several communities.

With this plan, Kempen said, Orono will make a net profit of more than $63,000 on the sale, with proceeds going into the reserve account for the new public works garage.

Selling the land under the specified conditions to Dawson and Libby, he said, will meet “all goals and objectives the council had set out.”

As for EnvisioNet, Kempen said, “the news is looking better every day for a replacement company that is bigger and stronger.”