Mainebiz

W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 25 J U LY 2 4 , 2 0 1 7 F O C U S R E A L E S TAT E / C O N S T R U C T I O N / D E S I G N Still, notes Bunker, the trend is more muted in Maine. "Smart growth comes into play when you have con- versations about density and, in Maine, you don't have as many conversations about density" because much of Maine is rural, Bunker says. Nevertheless, he says, the "downtown" lifestyle is on an upswing in Maine. Smart growth doesn't ring everyone's bell. Writing for the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., oreau Institute senior economist Randal O'Toole, citing smart growth policies and related land-use regulations in Portland, Ore., says they appear to be resulting in worse quality of life due to "increases in traffi c conges- tion, air pollution, consumer costs, taxes, and just about every other impediment to urban livability." By contrast, O'Toole writes, low densities "provide many benefi ts that people value, including lower land costs, private yards with gardens and play areas, less con- gested roads, proximity to recreation areas, and access to a wide variety of low-cost consumer goods and services. What is more, as people moved to the suburbs, employ- ers followed them; commute times have remained rela- tively constant despite the growth of suburban areas." The 'yes' factor Advocates of smart growth say built-in principles like community engagement and context help build consensus for how a community wants to develop. e inherent "yes" in consensus-building is explicit in the YIMBY movement — "yes, in my backyard" — which embodies principles similar to the smart growth movement but focuses on aff ordable housing. At the Maine Real Estate and Development Asso- ciation's May conference, which focused on YIMBY, Jesse Kanson-Benanav, chairman of A Better Cam- bridge, a nonprofi t working to boost the Massachusetts city's aff ordable housing, said YIMBYism supports higher-density residential and mixed-use and mixed- income developments around existing infrastructure. Whether talking YIMBY or smart growth, the prin- ciples are about providing a framework to meet demand in a responsible manner that provides the right "fi t" for individual communities, developers and planners agree. "Diff erent communities see smart growth in dif- ferent ways," says Bunker. "For instance, in Portland, you've got a denser urban environment, so if you have a piece of land downtown, it means getting a fair amount of use on that land. But smart growth in Yarmouth might mean clustering single-family homes together to preserve open space. So you can't just take one solu- tion and apply it uniformly across the state. You have to understand the context and form the smart-growth principles to the environment in which you're working." As a key tenet, community engagement helped resolve a battle over a condominium project at 155 Sheridan St. in Portland. Patrick Venne, principal of Redwood Development Consulting in Portland, con- sulted on the project. "We presented a conceptual plan to the city that showed what could be built and asked for feedback," Venne says of the original six-story proposal, which would have obstructed part of the harbor view from Fort Sumner Park, a traditional viewing spot. " e city said, 'Yes, it's legal, but given the sensitivity of the site, we recommend you talk with the neighbor- hood before you formally propose the building.' So C O N T I N U E D O N F O L L OW I N G PA G E »

• Cover