Spruce Street housing project nearing final approval

GREENVILLE — The Northern Forest Center subdivision application for a 28-unit housing development off Spruce Street to help provide more affordable options in town is nearing final approval from the Greenville Planning Board.

Northern Forest Center officials presented to the planning board during an April 1 meeting. A final public hearing is scheduled for the next board meeting at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 15.

“At that point we will be able to make a final decision as a board,” Chair John Contreni said.

The planned subdivision is “a very exciting addition to our landscape here in Greenville,” he said.

Approval involves an 8-part process with the Northern Forest Center now on step No. 6, a submission of a final plan for the subdivision. The seventh and eighth steps are the public hearing and the planning board’s final decision.

The project plan totals close to 140 pages, Contreni said, and it is “probably the most thorough one we’ve even seen.”

A few components are still being worked on, such as storm water permits the Northern Forest Center is applying for.

“So I would not say the application’s complete but everything’s in motion,” Code Enforcement Officer Tim Post said.

Going through a slideshow, Northern Forest Center Senior Program Director Mike Wilson said Sustainable Forest Futures is a subsidiary organization of the Northern Forest Center and for legal purposes will be the subdivision owner.

The center is a regional nonprofit working on rural economic and community development programs across northern New England and New York. “We’ve been committed to work in Greenville for some time and we are excited to be moving forward with this as one of the multiple housing projects that we have across the region,” Wilson said.

“Fundamentally as we entered into this project our mission goals are to address the lack of mid-tier, attainably priced housing that’s available to year-round residents here in Greenville,” he said. “We want to provide quality,appealing housing for young people, families — walkable to downtown.”

Northern Forest Center officials have heard repeatedly from local residents and employers that the Greenville housing market is out of reach for young people, teachers, tradespeople, hospitality workers and others.

Development of homes will be done in phases and will come in different options across the 5-acre property.

“Ultimately over time we hope that this kind of investment and project will help catalyze additional investment in the community whether it’s business investment, other people investing in housing and that type of thing,” Wilson said.

A town infrastructure project to extend water and sewer into the property is scheduled to break ground next month. A municipal road will go in.

“That project is all good to go, that’s being funded by the town with $1 million in funding from the Northern Border Regional Commission and $265,000 matching funds provided by Northern Forest Center,” Wilson said, with the Sargent Corporation carrying out the work and Haley Ward, Inc. providing civil engineering for the project. “So that piece of work is lined up and ready to go, so that’s step one on our end.”

Several years ago a multigenerational zoning overlay was approved to the property and adjacent land. “Really fundamentally to allow for a greater level of density in this type of housing project,” Wilson said.

The subdivision would have a neighborhood feel to encourage community connections among residents, he said. Awareness was paid to sight lines so “one person’s picture window isn’t looking into the other person’s picture window.”

The Northern Forest Center has been working with the TMBR — a mass timber design company — and Maine contractor Big Country Built on construction with an innovative mass timber housing platform for “a really nice, very sturdy super efficient, nice feeling small homes,” Wilson said.

TMBR takes small sections of wood that are then pressed, glued and laminated together to create strong structural pieces. The process would be efficient to “create something that is replicable to help address housing issues in other communities as well,” Wilson said.

The subdivisions will consist of one, two and three bedroom homes and duplexes. The houses will feature open concept floor plans and range from about 1,000 to 1,600 square feet. None will be available as short-term rentals.

Some houses will be sold on the market immediately after completion this fall and others will be long-term rentals owned and managed by the Sustainable Forest Futures for a period of time.

“Our intention if everything stays on track, and this is all starting to move very fast right now, is private site work will follow right on the heels of the public infrastructure work that’s taking place,” Wilson said.

“From an efficiency standpoint our target is to have the first three homes complete and available this fall,” he said. “That’s aggressive but the approach that we are bringing to this is intentionally designed to facilitate a quick construction process.”

The project is scheduled to complete by the spring of 2028 at the latest, with the potential to have construction done sometime in 2027. The 28 units would have a homeowners association to manage basic maintenance and common areas. A snowmobile trail running through the property will stay open to the public.

“We’re feeling really good about the site plan and where we’re at with the construction side of things,” Wilson said.

The Northern Forest Center has developed new housing in historic buildings in Bethel, Lancaster, New Hampshire and St. Johnsbury, Vermont and is midway through creating nine new apartments in Tupper Lake, New York in a new building that also uses some mass timber components.

The housing initiative builds on the organization’s other past and current work in the Moosehead Lake region, which includes funding for an Extended Learning Opportunity coordinator in the high school, producing the new Moosehead Outdoor Recreation Investment Strategy, providing grants to help downtown businesses improve storefronts, helping to redevelop the lake-front boardwalk and Crafts Landing Park and providing business innovation grants to tourism-related enterprises.