Mainebiz

V O L . X X V I I I N O. I X M AY 2 , 2 0 2 2 32 R E A L E S TAT E / C O N S T R U C T I O N / E N G I N E E R I N G F O C U S Corinne Watson, principal and CEO of Tiny Homes of Maine, sees the move towards accessory dwell- ing units and other housing options as positive, and a boom for her Houlton-based company. "ere's not one answer to the affordable housing crisis. Tiny Homes is a small one piece of the affordable housing solution," Watson says. "It's still not enough. We need to make more and do it faster. We need to ramp up. We can't provide tiny homes fast enough to solve every need. e pandemic and the housing situation added to what was already very strong interest in tiny homes." ere's so much demand for Tiny Homes of Maine's housing units that the homebuilder will be doubling its production facility size by building a new 12,000-square-foot manufactur- ing center in Houlton. Before the pandemic, Tiny Homes' primary demographic had been single women looking for an affordable option they could manage on their own. Now, there are a lot of couples and young families who can't find a home in Maine, let alone an affordable home. ere's also a lot of older people looking at tiny homes as mother-in- law suites to be near their families but retain some independence. "A lot of people are looking to us for a home and they didn't even want a tiny home necessarily, but there's a lack of homes to purchase and they've run out of ideas," Watson says. SOLUTIONS: We asked Maine leaders for one idea to remedy the housing shortage B Y P E T E R V A N A L L E N To offer solutions for the housing crunch, we turned to Maine leaders and asked, "What's one solution that could make a difference in Maine's housing shortage?" Here's what they had to say: A developer of affordable housing An enormous step toward solving Maine's housing shortage would be for every town in Maine with a population greater than 5,000 to designate a part of town where one or more four-story buildings, with at least 40 apartments each, could be built on a 1.5 acre par- cel of land. A great many Maine towns would find that nowhere in their town is such a development allowed by cur- rent zoning. Yet, that is the way to build hous- ing efficiently, which you must do to have any chance to make it affordable to people of low or moderate incomes. To make housing affordable, you must have economies of scale. Four stories, for example, is much more efficient to build than two stories, because you can spread the fixed cost of the foun- dation, groundwork, and roof over four floors, rather than two. — Nathan Szanton CEO, the Stanzon Cos. Auburn's mayor Zoning reform. By encouraging simplified and less exclusionary zon- ing we can promote the replication of some of our older most successful neighborhoods that were only able to be created with less restrictive zoning. is will provide more supply and balance within the housing market. What's old is new again. — Auburn Mayor Jason J. Levesque » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E To make housing affordable, you must have economies of scale. www.tpdconstruction.com C O N S T R U C T I O N M A N A G E M E N T s D E S I G N / B U I L D s G E N E R A L C O N T R A C T I N G The Meadows at Grapevine Run, Hampton Falls, NH D E S I G N B Y L A S S E L A R C H I T E C T S F O R A V E S TA H O U S I N G Honesty, integrity and mutual respect are the values that guide us. Stephen Dumont, VP CONTACT (207) 490-5900 P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Nathan Szanton, CEO of the Szanton Cos.

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