99 School Street, Gorham, Maine 04038 207-839-6516 (Voice/TT) fax. 207-839-8275

January 17, 2001

Board of Selectmen
Town of Limington
P.O. Box 240
Limington, ME 04049

RE: CHANGE IN ZONING

Dear Board of Selectmen:

York-Cumberland Housing would like very much to bring an elderly housing development to Limington. We applied for funding from HUD last spring and are pleased to announce that we received an award of funding for 24 apartments in the amount of $1,665,300 (please see attached Notification of Selection letter from HUD). This development would serve households age 62 and older making up to $17,150 (one person household) or up to $19,600 (two person household). These residents would pay 30% of their income for rent and utilities.

We would like to begin the design process this spring. In order to do this I believe we need your assistance.

Our experience in developing and managing over 600 apartments for elderly residents is that the needs of the elderly, who will be aging in place over the years, are best served by apartments in a single building. This way they can get their daily mail, socialize in the community room and do their laundry without having to go outside in the winter months. It is our understanding that the Limington Growth Ordinance limits the number of permits to a project to 5 at any one time. Therefore, this single building concept would be problematic. Mr. Abbott's original interpretation was that no single building larger than 5 units could be constructed as it would conflict with this restriction. Also our 24-unit project could use up most of a single year's allotment of permits, possibly creating a hardship for this project or for other people seeking, permits.

For practical purposes the growth ordinance is aimed at single family homes or apartments that create demands for town services and particularly school costs. Our project would use some town services but certainly not to the extent other projects might. One approach to help us move forward while still protecting the Town from unwanted growth would be to exempt projects designed for residents over the age of 55 from the growth ordinance. Other towns, such as Gorham, in creating density bonuses for such housing, have restricted the application even more by limiting the bonus to projects which develop subsidized elderly apartments. This is a simple method of an ordinance revision that would help this project and possibly others in town.

We have sent a copy of this letter to Freeman Abbott for his review; however, we are requesting the Selectmen sponsor an ordinance change that could occur in March so we can move forward.

Please feel free to give me a call with any questions you might have or if you need additional information. We look forward to hearing from you regarding any additional actions we can take to request this ordinance revision. Thank you very much for your assistance with this project. We look forward to having two successful projects in Limington.

Sincerely,

Genie Nakell
Development Officer

Enc.

Cc:	Wendy Walker, Chairperson, Planning Board
	Freeman Abbott, Code Enforcement Officer

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York Cumberland Housing Development Corporation
Making the difference in affordable living

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