BIDDEFORD — Last Wednesday the Planning Board voted unanimously to approve the final site plan for a project that will add 71 units of affordable senior housing to the Pepperell Mill Campus.

The units will be built in Building 11 of the mill, which sits about 200 feet north of the corner of York and Laconia streets and about 150 feet from the banks of the Saco River.

Before the vote, board chair Susan Deschambault raised some concerns over snow removal on the site, which is nestled tightly between several other mill buildings.

“I’m familiar with some of the other buildings there and the tenants, and when there’s a snowstorm coming, you can’t even plow without having all the cars moved to another area,” said Deschambault, before asking if that will be the case with this property.

“Yes,” responded Kevin Bunker, of Portland-based Developers Collaborative, the company spearheading the project. “When there’s a snow event, those cars will need to be moved to allow for plowing.”

Additionally, Jennie Franceschi, the city’s planning engineer, said there will be no snow storage on the property “because of the tightness of the site.” There may be temporary storage during a storm, she said, “but we want to ensure that access ways are kept open” for emergency vehicles.

Board member William Southwick also asked Bunker if a metal structure currently on the roof of Building 11 would be removed. Southwick had asked the same question at a June 3 meeting, at which the board approved the preliminary site plan for the project.

“I talked to the architect a little bit about that,” said Bunker. “He said he didn’t think it would be a problem. That said, we haven’t done detailed architectural design work or really sent anybody out to dig into that issue, but I’m fairly confident that it won’t be a problem.”

At the June 3 meeting Bunker said the target demographic for the rental units will be people who are 55 or older and earn about half of the area’s median income. Rents will be $500-800 per month to serve people who make $25,000-37,000 a year, he said.

Daniel Stevenson, the city’s economic and community development director, said last month that the affordable senior housing project replaces the previously approved Laconia House project, which would have added 43 units of general-use affordable housing to Building 19 of the Pepperell Mill.

In an email on June 25, Scott Joslin, the mill’s chief operating officer and general manager, explained that the project will “utilize state and federal historic tax credits as well as the Maine State Housing Authority’s work force housing tax credit program.”

Joslin estimated construction will begin next summer.

— Staff Writer Angelo J. Verzoni can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or averzoni@journaltribune.com.