State lawmakers have approved a sweeping set of zoning changes that advocates say should remove common barriers to building more housing in Maine.
The new measure reduces lot sizes in certain areas, known as designated growth areas, that are served by municipal infrastructure. It also allows more units to be built on a lot.
Laura Mitchell, executive director of the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition, said the law promotes development on smaller lots and in areas with existing water, sewer and other infrastructure, which should help lower construction costs.
"We really think it will open the door for new types of housing, whether it's a triplex or a quadplex that just aren't getting built these days, like they were maybe 75 years ago as workforce housing in Maine," she said.
In addition, the new limits the municipal review process for projects with four units or fewer.
The zoning changes should reduce some barriers for developers who want to build larger projects, said Jeff Levine, a municipal planning expert who teaches at MIT and a former planning director for the city of Portland.
"But these will help people who own a single or two-family home and may want to add a unit for their parent or their kid and just make it easier to do that, especially in these growth areas where that kind of stuff should be easy to do," he said.
The law also allows affordable housing to be built one story higher than what's typically allowed, which Levine said should encourage developers to add more units to a project.
