The Cumberland Town Council is poised to move ahead with a controversial affordable housing project that compromises the integrity of the town plan for the neighborhood at Tuttle and Drowne roads. This project calls for the construction of 107 units and has provision for approximately 200 parked cars and over 200 residents – more than reside in the entire adjacent Village Green neighborhood of 57 single-family homes.
The council has voted to move ahead with a memorandum of understanding allowing the developer to proceed with developing the specifics of the project. This is being done without a fiscal impact study to clearly and completely determine the costs of the project to the town and its taxpayers.
The project is moving ahead without an environmental impact study or a traffic study to determine the impact from the project on the existing senior housing and the single-family-home neighborhood next door. Added traffic of residents, service and construction vehicles will impact traffic on Tuttle Road near the elementary school as well as pedestrian walkways in Village Green and surrounding neighborhoods. Drowne Road through Village Green will need to be reengineered and widened at significant cost.
And the project calls for the paving of the Little League park to provide parking. Who does this anymore in this country?
While the project is subject to approval of Cumberland voters, the final language of the referendum has not been made public. The question should include an accurate description of the project and its costs to the town.
According to the Cumberland-North Yarmouth Taxpayer Advisory, this project will raise Cumberland taxes and change the character of the Drowne/Tuttle neighborhood.
There are no services or transportation available to the proposed residents at this site.
Many citizens have testified before the Town Council objecting to this project and the high-speed freight train approach of the town to gain all approvals within the next three months. This is a train roaring through our town, but this one needs a whistle.
Nearly all of the Cumberland citizens who have spoken out against the location, design and process for this project have also made clear they do not oppose the concept of providing affordable housing in Cumberland. This project is the wrong project in the wrong location. It will bring more kids into the overcrowded Cumberland schools and will seriously disrupt peaceful and settled neighborhoods in the area that were built according to the town plan. It will also provide substantial negative impact on the town budget for the library, public safety and all public services leading to tax increases.
Fortunately, the people of our town will have an opportunity in a referendum scheduled for as soon as March to bring a stop to this foolishness and find a better location for this project where it will better serve the interests of its intended occupants and not waste taxpayer resources.
David Niklaus is a resident of Cumberland and a retired city administrator in Minneapolis and Boston.
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