Greenville Planning Board approves 28-unit housing development
GREENVILLE — A 28-unit housing development being constructed by the Northern Forest Center to help address local housing challenges has been formally approved by the Greenville Planning Board.
“We gave our final approval to the Spruce Street project unanimously,” Planning Board Chair John Contreni told the select board during a May 6 meeting. The planning board gave its 5-0 OK earlier in the evening.
“It’s taken about two years,” he said. “They are very meticulous, the Northern Forest Center, with what they do and they submitted a 138-page document with multiple supplements to it. I look forward to a very professional project.”
CONSTRUCTION BEGINS — Work has started for water and sewer lines to serve a forthcoming 28-unit housing development off Spruce Street in Greenville. The development is being carried out by the Northern Forest Center to help address local housing challenges.
The $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 final application includes engineering documents, surveys, draft homeowners association rules and other materials.
“If you haven’t driven up Spruce Street I suggest you do as that is in full gear right now with that new street going in” Town Manager Mike Roy said.
Earlier this month, the town broke ground on a related infrastructure project for the development site.
Sargent Corporation has several pieces of earth-moving equipment on site and has begun work.
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 Northern Forest Center helped the town secure the commission 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.
Contreni and his wife Margarita traveled to the Auburn warehouse to see the mass timber components of the forthcoming homes be assembled.
“It’s just the meticulous, the planning, the engineering that they’re doing,” Contreni said.
He got to walk into one single family home under construction.
“It’s spectacular. I was very impressed with it.” Contreni said.
“The architect that we met is top notch,” Margarita Contreni said.
The mass timber homes will feature open concept floor plans and range from 1,000 to 1,600 square feet. The goal is to provide quality housing that is affordable for middle-income, year-round residents to purchase or rent.
Plans are for the first homes to be available for purchase or rent by the fall and the full, multi-phase development to be complete in spring 2028.
The Northern Forest 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.