Neighbors pan proposal for Essex Street housing

BANGOR – A project proposed for the former Naval Reserve Center on Essex Street that aims to provide affordable housing for the area’s work force came under fire from neighbors Wednesday for the second time this month.

The proposal, which calls for the construction of 32 two- and three-bedroom rental units in eight buildings, proved unpopular with nearby residents when a related zone change request went before the city’s planning board July 19.

The site, which is being marketed by the city, belongs to Bangor International Airport, which has sunk about $400,000 into acquiring it, removing asbestos and demolishing buildings, City Manager Edward Barrett said.

Though others have looked at the site, Realty Resources Chartered LLC of Rockport was the only developer to submit a proposal. Realty Resources already operates low-income and assisted-living housing programs at the former Freese’s department store on Main Street. It also developed an affordable housing complex between Boyd and Newbury streets, behind St. John’s Catholic Church on York Street.

After a public hearing on the matter, the planning board unanimously voted to recommend that the council deny the request.

One reason cited for the decision was that the developer “did not present sufficient information on their proposed project,” Community and Economic Development Director Rod McKay noted in a background memo to members of the City Council’s business and economic development committee, which took up the issue Wednesday.

In addition, Acting City Planner David Gould said planning board members thought “the intensity of the development … was not suited to that location.”

To that end, Realty Resources brought several project officials and consultants, including a traffic engineer, to Wednesday’s meeting.

More than a dozen residents opposed to the project turned up for the committee meeting.

Among neighbors’ chief concerns were that the development would add traffic to two already congested intersections, namely at Broadway and Essex Street and Essex Street and Stillwater Avenue, and that it didn’t belong in an area now dominated by single-family homes.

Essex Street resident Bill Pringle said that the project, unlike the developer’s other Bangor properties, which “didn’t affect any neighbors at all,” would “change the whole neighborhood drastically in one fell swoop. I think that putting 32 units right smack dab all at once in a single-family neighborhood is quite a lot to do at one time.”

The rezoning request originally was to have been taken up during the council’s July 25 meeting agenda, but city officials agreed instead to air it before the council committee to obtain additional public comment.

If the project is to move forward, the developer needs to get the nearly 4-acre site rezoned from government and institutional services and urban residential district 1 to contract high-density residential. Because the planning board advised against it, at least six affirmative council votes are needed to pass the measure.

On Wednesday, the committee, chaired by Councilor Dan Tremble, forwarded the rezoning request to the full council, but without the usual recommendation.