Innovative 28-unit housing development moves forward in Greenville

GREENVILLE — The partnership between the Northern Forest Center and the town of Greenville to advance  a 28-unit housing development has crossed two important thresholds – setting the stage for implementation of a long-planned project to address local housing challenges.

The planning board approved 5-0 the Center’s application for a 28-unit subdivision at its regular meeting on May 6. The vote was the culmination of a multi-step process that included a public hearing on April 15. The Center’s final application included engineering  documents, surveys, draft homeowners association rules and other materials.  

A few days prior to this approval, the town broke ground on a related municipal project to expand public infrastructure to the proposed development site on Spruce Street.  

The $1.2 million infrastructure project is being funded in part by a $991,000 grant the town  secured two years ago from the Northern Border Regional Commission. The Center helped the town secure the NBRC grant and is providing the matching funds needed to complete the project. 

Infrastructure expansion includes extension of public water and sewer service and  development of a new public road onto the proposed development site on Spruce Street. The town is contracting with Maine-based Sargent Corporation to complete the project by  the end of the summer. 

“The partnership between the Center and the town of Greenville has been essential to  advancing this project to address the pressing housing needs in the Moosehead region,” Mike Wilson, senior program director for the Center, said. “Municipal leaders recognize the  challenge the lack of middle-income housing poses for local residents and employers, and have stepped forward with creativity and leadership to help solve that problem.”  

“The town of Greenville is proud to partner with the Northern Forest Center to advance this  housing project on Spruce Street,” Town Manager Mike Roy said. “By helping to  deliver attainable, high-quality units and unlocking long-term affordability, we’re just not building houses, we are strengthening workforce opportunities for Greenville and the entire Moosehead Lake region.”

The approximate $12.5 million planned housing development will feature a mix of single family homes and duplexes, ranging from one to three bedrooms, in a clustered neighborhood designed to encourage community connections among residents.  

The mass timber homes will feature open concept floor plans and range from roughly 1,000  to 1,600 square feet. The Center’s goal is to provide quality housing that is affordable for  middle-income, year-round residents to purchase or rent.

“These homes will only be available for long-term rental by people living and working in the community,” Wilson said. 

Plans are for the first homes to be available for purchase or rent by fall 2026 and the full, multi-phase development to be complete in spring 2028.  

“For three decades, the Northern Forest Center has strengthened communities and  changed lives: creating housing and jobs, attracting resources and securing forests for  public benefit,” Wilson said. 

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

The Center is an innovation and investment partner working across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. Rooted in community, forest stewardship and economic development, the Center is the only nonprofit delivering integrated, cross-state solutions in the region to help rural people and places thrive.