SCARBOROUGH – There’s no question that development dried up in Scarborough during the national recession.

From 2000 to 2008, the Planning Board approved, on average, 100 new residential building lots per year. Then, lot creation fell off a cliff, to just 13 in 2009 and as few as six in 2010, while actual home construction fell to just 24 last year, down from a high of 276 in 2000.

The jury may be out on whether the economy is rebounding or ready for a double-dip, but residential building in Scarborough, at least, appears poised for a comeback in 2014.

On Dec. 9, the Planning Board will review an initial sketch plan for a 101-lot development called the Leighton Farm Subdivision, located off Elmwood Avenue. Most of the 80.6-acre development site is owned by Ann Simpson, James Leighton and Dale Leighton, while about 10 acres is owned by Maine Radio and Telephone. House lots are expected to range between 0.23 and 0.65 acres, while about half of the development site will be retained as open space.

Also on tap for the Dec. 9 meeting is an initial look at a 47-unit multi-family complex to be built as part of the pre-approved Eastern Village subdivision, to be built at the end of Federal Way, adjacent to the Eastern Trail.

Proposals also have been fielded within the past year for a new 31-lot subdivision off Tenney Lane while an 81-unit senior housing complex is under construction at the corner of Black Point Road and Route 1. In addition, the town is still working toward a 10- to 15-lot “affordable housing” project off Broadturn Road in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity.

If all these projects come off before the end of the fiscal year, June 30, they will return Scarborough to a level of development unseen in town since the start of the recession.

“It does appear that we have been having more meetings lately between staff and developers, so, hopefully that’s an encouraging sign,” agreed Jay Chace, assistant planner. “Hopefully, we’ll see banks loosen up and start lending money again.”

Still, the Eastern Village project does represent something of an evolutionary change brought on by the recession. KDA Development won approval of 154 house lots for Eastern Village from the Planning Board in December 2007. However just 11 single-family houses went up through 2012.

Last year, KDA won the Planning Board’s nod for a new phase of development in the subdivision off Commerce Drive, to include seven new townhouses with 37 condominium units.

That phase of development turned from single-family homes to three-story townhouses, each in a Greek Revival style, with either four or five units, to include detached one- or two-car garages. Homeowners own their portion of the townhouse, which traversed four or five of the previously approved lots. However, unlike traditional condo deals, buyers also will own the land, with most lots measuring 20-feet wide by 100-feet deep.

The new multi-family building takes the project one step further along the evolutionary line, given that KDA was unable to sell its affordable housing quota. Under the Planning Board approval, which allowed Eastern Village more lots than normally allowed according to standard zoning, KDA had to agree to set aside 10 lots for more moderately priced homes.

Kerry Anderson, owner of KDA Development, which is developing the lots at Eastern Village, said the first foundation for one of these 1,200-square-foot affordable buildings went in the ground in 2011 and simply sat with weeds growing up around, having failed to attract a buyer, even after local credits knock the price down some $70,000 from his starting point of $290,000.

“I think that there’s more confidence out there than there was a year ago,” Anderson said, at the time of the townhouse approval. “I don’t think the economy has improved a whole lot. I think people have just come to realize that this is the new normal, and are moving forward rather than wait around for some kind of national recovery.”