89 Elm Street | Port Properties Bayside Phase 1B | Portland

[Cosakita18]

It seems that a Site Plan application has been filed for Phase 1B. (The block between Elm, Lancaster and Oxford Streets) No information or renderings yet.

PL-002403-2023 (portlandmaine.gov)

It's a bit odd that they would file a site plan application before their overall Master Plan has even had its first workshop.

 

[cneal]

My hunch is that they're facing a deadline to apply for this year's competitive tax credit financing from Maine Housing. Applications that have their site plan approvals in hand get extra points in the scoring process.

 

[nomc]

During this week's workshop there was lots of discussion, concern and gaming out how consolidating all affordable units into one building could play out in the future. I'm wondering if they're trying to build this first to test out if it's possible to put the IZ units for the entire MDP in one building - the answer to this will inform design of all buildings in the MDP.

 

[nomc]

I think I remember them saying that IZ units can be "off site" within limitations - within 1500ft - and the whole development is within 1500ft. But there are other limitations - unclear from the meeting what those are. Another main concern dealt with what happens if one of the building is sold in the future - or the an undeveloped lot is sold - how are the IZ units calculated.