The Biddeford City Council wants the developer of a proposed 192-unit manufactured and modular housing park to consider other options. This concept plan of the proposed development was presented to the Biddeford Planning Board in September. Courtesy Image

BIDDEFORD — Mayor Alan Casavant and several members of the Biddeford City Council have voiced concern about a proposal for manufactured and modular housing on a 312-acre parcel on South Street; city staff will meet with the developers to see if there are other options.

“I think if we were to poll people in the city, the vast majority — 90 percent — would rather see a neighborhood of stick-built homes versus a mobile home park on South Street,” said Councilor Marc Lessard, who had asked the matter to be included on the Dec. 21 City Council agenda. Lessard noted Biddeford needs elder housing, first-time housing, and affordable homes, and said the South Street property could answer those needs. “I’d love to see a different option than this one,” said Lessard.

“I urge the council to move in this general direction” of inquiring about possible options, said Casavant. “As it is now, I personally don’t like it … in my view, they own the land, and it will be developed in one form or another … I don’t think the proposal on the table right now is what we need.”

South Street Village LLC had originally proposed a 566-unit mixed use development for the property, and the company had pursued a zoning change and a contract zone, but that did not come to fruition. In September, the Planning Board heard a proposal from the company for Hidden Hills Manufactured Housing Park for a 192-unit development on about 160 acres of the parcel, located in the mobile home park overlay zone. The parcel is in the general area of the new Maine Water facility.

The Hidden Hills proposal calls for about half of the homes to be modular construction and half of them manufactured homes, a company representative told the Planning Board in a Sept. 29 presentation. Modular homes arrive in pieces and are placed on slabs or on full foundations by a crane, with final interior work done once on the site. Manufactured homes come attached to a chassis, which may or may not be removed, and some may be embedded in a foundation. The cost of the homes is expected to range between $100,000 to $300,000.

“I think it’s a good idea for somebody to approach the developers and say “hey, is there anything else you would be interested in doing,” said Councilor Amy Clearwater. “I don’t love the look of us saying ‘what can we do to make things work for you,’ it’s not generally the way we play it,” she added, but noted the city has a housing shortage.

The prior proposal had been more attractive than the current one, Clearwater said.

There were “hiccups along the way” with the prior proposal, Mayor Casavant said, “so they went back to what the current zoning allows, and some of us find that is not appropriate.”

City Manager James Bennett said given the council’s concerns, staff would meet with the developers and ask what they would like to do with the property, if they had their choice. If an option was voiced, staff would present it to the council and if acceptable, determine how it could be delivered. He said a zone change would likely be required.

“Then it would end up as a request to the Planning Board to consider an option for a zone change,” Bennett explained. The Planning Board would host a public hearing and make a recommendation to the council, which could then act. He said to be viable, the matter would have to be back in the hands of the council by April or May.