Regional and state leaders gathered on March 26 to discuss solutions for addressing Greater Portland’s housing shortage. Tom Bell of Greater Portland Council of Governments taped the event and PMC will air it in parts throughout May and into June.
Panelists and speakers include Westbrook administrator Jerre Bryant, Portland Mayor Mark Dion, GPCOG Executive Director Kristina Egan, Biddeford Mayor Marty Grohman, Portland Regional Chamber President & CEO Quincy Hentzel, Bridgton Community Development Director Tori Hill, Windham Councilor Jarrod Maxfield, Natural Resources Council of Maine CEO Rebeccah Sanders, President and CEO of the United Way of Southern Maine Liz Cotter Schlax and Yarmouth Planning & Development Director Erin Zwirko.
Also speaking: Jeff Levine, a former director of planning and urban development for the City of Portland, and Greg Payne, Senior Advisor, Housing Policy, Governor’s Office of Policy, Innovation and the Future. The segments of the event will air once a week at 7:30 PM on Mondays (check out portlandmedia.org for other air times). The segments in order are as follows:
VIDEO 1
Gov. Janet Mills and Kristina Egan, Executive Director of the Greater Portland Council of Governments, discuss steps to address the housing shortage in Maine as they deliver opening remarks at the 2024 GPCOG Housing Summit.
VIDEO 2
President of the Greater Portland Council of Government Jarrod Maxfield, Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce President Quincy Hentzel, United Way of Southern Maine President Liz Cotter Schlax, and CEO of the Natural Resources Council of Maine Rebeccah Sanders discuss the economic, environmental and social equity issues related to the need for more housing.
VIDEO 3
Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce President Quincy Hentzel, United Way of Southern Maine President Liz Cotter Schlax, and CEO of the Natural Resources Council of Maine Rebeccah Sanders discuss the economic, environmental and social equity issues related to the need for more housing.
VIDEO 4
Jeff Levine talks about the history of U.S. housing policy, the use of zoning to enforce racial segregation, and the impact of suburban zoning in Greater Portland on liming the supply of multi-family housing and increasing housing costs. This is followed by another panel with Greg Payne, Senior Advisor, Housing Policy, Governor’s Office of Policy, Innovation and the Future, discusses the 2023 State of Maine Housing Production Needs Study.
VIDEO 5
Avesta Housing President & CEO Rebecca Hatfield leads a panel discussion about successful strategies to build more housing, with Westbrook City Administrator Jerre Bryant, Portland Mayor Mark Dion, Biddeford Mayor Marty Grohman, Bridgton Community Development Director Tori Hill and Yarmouth Planning and Development Director Erin Zwirko. This is followed by two more panels. The second is about how Kennebunkport created a nonprofit housing trust that housed six families in less than a year, with more affordable homes on the way. Larissa Crocket, Executive Director of the Kennebunkport Heritage Housing Trust, and Kennebunkport Town Manager Laurie Smith discuss the challenges of the housing initiative and what made it successful. In the third, Erin Zwirko, Planning and Development Director in Yarmouth, Maine, talks about how the town used form-based code to build housing that fits in the historic community. A form-based code is a land development regulation that fosters predictable built results and a high-quality public realm by using physical form (rather than separation of uses) as the organizing principle for the code. Learn more at GreatMaineNeighborhoods.org