NEW VILLAGES NEEDED

Thousands of Mainers work within sight or smell of salt water, but when it’s time to go home, they have to drive miles away from that water. The shortage of affordable housing, particularly along the coast and in southern Maine, could become a geographical class divide if planners do not act to counter this trend.

The real estate market is currently as chilly as the winter air, but soon, demand for coastal property will return, and it will drive up the cost of housing to new plateaus. Retirees settling in Maine see houses selling for $250,0000 to $400,000 as bargains compared to the prices in southern New England. But those houses are hopelessly out of reach for teachers, police officers, nurses, municipal workers, hairstylists, fishermen, construction workers and small-business owners who work in coastal towns.

Municipalities can counter the trend by encouraging the development of lower-cost housing subdivisions, perhaps paying for sewer and water connections and road construction to insulate developers from the profits they lose by not selling high-end houses. But there are other, bolder models for creating affordable housing.

The town of Eastham, in the highly inflated real estate region of Cape Cod, Mass., offers one. The town purchased 11 acres of land and plans to develop a mix of municipal, retail and business structures and senior housing, along with moderate-cost houses and rental units on second floors over the businesses. A designer has created a plan that centers on two village greens, essentially establishing a traditional New England village within the town. The town hopes to find an anchor tenant that draws year-round traffic; it may be a commercial enterprise, but officials are also trying to coax the busy post office and library to move to the new area.

Building a new village is an idea that has been explored in Maine as well. Richard Remsen of Rockport and Richard Aroneau of Camden for years have worked to bring investors to join them in developing a 120-acre parcel of land their families own in West Rockport. Some of the principles the men plan to follow include limiting the size of the “village” to the distance a person can walk in 10 to 15 minutes. Another is encouraging a variety of lot sizes, which in turn will encourage a variety of houses, from the grand to the modest, among the planned 180 units. Houses would be built to a common lot line, ensuring an orderly look from the street, while also encouraging the existence of neighborly front porches And one-third of the village would be public green space. Sidewalks would line each street, and when the shortest distance from one point to another is through the woods, a trail will be built.

With high gasoline prices, and the high tax burden of sprawling housing, such ideas could represent the future of development in New England, a region of the county that has always understood the value of its villages.