Recently, two articles in the Press Herald are foremost on my mind. The first: “As hotel development looms, city aims for year round tourism” (Aug. 7, 2024). Seven-hundred-and-fifty hotel rooms are currently accepted for development and 400 more are “in the works” for future development, a total of 1,150 rooms. Portland already has an abundance of recently built hotels. Increased traffic and challenges to our services and environment are currently affecting our way of life. Are more hotels necessary? In the future, perhaps planning boards and city councils will focus on affordable housing instead of large-scale and high-priced hotel and condo developments. Maybe Portland zoning laws need to be revised to reduce excessive growth such as more hotels.

The other article was “Wells voters pause on big-scale housing development” (Aug. 8, 2024). Wells’ residents voted to enact a 180-day moratorium on large-scale development. It is reassuring that residents are able to influence their town’s rate of growth. Hopefully, that influence will result in a focus on affordable housing. Kudos to the residents of Wells.

Nina McKee
Scarborough