GORHAM – Move over Scarborough. Gorham is the new boomtown for new home construction.

Gorham issued 51 permits for new home construction for the first quarter of the year, supplanting Scarborough as the top community for new houses.

By comparison, Scarborough issued 38 permits in the first three month, followed by Windham with 23 permits and Falmouth with nine, according to Construction Data New England.

In the first three months of 2001, Scarborough issued 101 building permits for new homes and Gorham issued 17.

The growth in Gorham is driven by the availability of land. But it also is being propelled by building caps and construction fees that other communities have placed on new construction.

In February, Scarborough joined other towns, including Cumberland, Falmouth, North Yarmouth, Eliot and York, by imposing a building cap.

The cap links the town’s growth for four years to the average during the 1990s, or 135 permits a year. For the four-year span the town can issue 540 permits.

Those kinds of things turned Risbara Brothers Construction Co. to Gorham after building homes in Portland and Scarborough for 35 years. The company recently began work on a 17-unit subdivision in Gorham with homes that will sell for $290,000 to $350,000.

“Gorham has always been a desirable town, but it became attractive to us because [land] was there and it was available,” said Rocco Risbara, president of Risbara Brothers.

Town planner Deborah Fossum said home building in Gorham has expanded since other towns have instituted building caps and impact fees.

“We are kind of the leading edge of suburban growth – westward,” she said.