Property owners will see a 17 cent increase in their mil rate this year. Selectmen set the $16.90 rate a week ago. Dan King Photo

ARUNDEL – The board of selectmen recently set the mil, or tax rate, at $16.90 per $1,000 of assessed value, up from $16.73 last year. The vote was unanimous.

Based on the new rate, someone with a home valued at $300,000 will pay $51 more in property tax than in 2020.

Arundel has a $4 million municipal budget and a $5.67 million share of the RSU 21 budget that comes from taxes.

The town is 23.9 square miles. According to the geographical information systems company Esri, it had a 2020 population of about 4,446, up from 4,022 in 2010.

Arundel is a community that grew by $22 million in assessed value last year and $20 million the year before that, Town Manager Keith Trefethen told the selectmen’s board on Aug. 23. He said the driving force behind the growth in assessed value was about 100 new units at the Arundel Cottage Preserve being placed on the tax rolls.

But the seasonal cottage colony, open eight months of the year, is not the only sign of growth in Arundel.

In a telephone interview on Monday, Trefethen said last year, Arundel maxed out the number of available residential building permits – 40 in all.

“That’s pretty unusual, and the first time in several years,” he said. The residential permits are separate from those at the cottage colony. “It seems like Arundel is becoming very desirable.”