Love thy neighbor, or else
Designs for living
Last month, as reported in the Portland Press Herald, Peter Bass, the developer responsible for converting the former Sacred Heart School on Sherman Street to artists? housing, received a warm reception from the city council?s housing committee for another of his projects, this one planned for a small lot on the corner of Portland?s Danforth and High Streets. But what wasn?t reported is that this building, if approved by the city council, would be the realization of what Bass calls an ?experiment? in urban housing.
?I threw away everything,? says Bass, owner of the Portland?based development company Random Orbit Inc. ?I threw away all the zoning and the parking requirements, and I said, here?s a progressive development that will hopefully solve some of Portland?s housing problems and [the housing committee] bought it.?
Bass hopes to build a 27-unit building (by architect David Floyd) where getting to know your neighbor is a necessity. The complex will include a communal guest room, lounge, roof deck, and laundry, and two shared cars. That?s right ? you could share ?your? car with at least 13 other strangers. So watch that paint job.
Condominiums in the building would range in size from 480 square feet (roughly equivalent to a large, two-room studio) to 777 square feet. Units will be priced from $125,000 to $185,000. Up to 13 additional parking spaces (for cars not communal) will be sold separately.
The units are intended for people who are hip to walking and who otherwise can?t afford to buy into the Cumberland County housing market, where the median home price, according to June 2006 numbers from the Maine Association of Realtors, is $249,900.
The city council?s housing committee unanimously endorsed Bass?s proposal over two other plans for the site on July 12. According to Aaron Shapiro, Director of Portland?s Housing and Neighborhood Services Division, the city council will likely review Bass?s proposal in late August or early September.
?The structure of the undertaking was something that had been discussed in planning circles and was a model that people were suggesting would be usable in Portland,? explains City Councilor Jim Cloutier, who sits on the housing committee. ?I think we?re finally interested in finding out whether that?s true. Because if it is true, then it?s not a subsidized undertaking, and you could then have a number of units approved along the same line.?
Bass?s progressive housing plan was realized in part through his conversations with Elizabeth Trice, an area activist who studies affordable-housing issues for Greater Portland singles. Bass?s proposal, if passed, will require the city to rezone the area to get around its parking rules, which for the lot in question require 41 parking spaces, rather than the 15 Bass has allowed.
?I think it will attract young professionals,? Bass says of his dense development, ?[with their] first decent job, people who want to get a foot-hold in ownership, but, you know, are used to living in communal housing and don?t need a lot of space but certainly want to live alone, finally, and be right in the middle of the city and be able to walk to everything.?
Bass is proposing to buy the land at Danforth and High streets, on which currently sits a parking lot for the University of Southern Maine, for $150,000.
As for guaranteeing that the future residents of this maybe-development can share their communal cars and guest room without attacking one another, Bass is a distant founding father.
?That?s not my business. As I said to the housing committee, this is a big experiment. They asked if I had experience in doing things like this, and I said I don?t think anybody does.?