Send your comments regarding the development to planningboard@portlandmaine.gov; send questions to zpowell@portlandmaine.gov, and let Bayside’s District Councilor Anna Trevorrow know your thoughts – atrevorrow@portlandmaine.gov

Fast Facts:

• Implementation is proposed to occur in five phases

• Area of development: 13 parcels, 7 blocks, 7 new buildings

• Housing units: 201 affordable and 603 market rate (total 804)*

• New ground floor retail space: 28,500 sf; existing commercial space: 175,000 sf

• Number of units per building: 59 – 201

• Parking space requirements: 39 – 94 per building.

• Number of stories: 5 – 10 (three are 10 stories)

• Heights: 55′ to 105′

• Six of the seven buildings would span the entire length of the block

More Details

• Phase 1A (updated since the below site plan was published) calls for the construction of 201 units of affordable housing (on Elm Street between Oxford and Lancaster). New housing developments must rent 25% of the units as affordable housing. Port Property is proposing to build all 201 affordable units in one large block-long building.

NOTE – On the below map the colors indicating housing type are backward – yellow means affordable housing and orange means market rate (one 201 unit affordable building, 6 market rate) *UPDATE 3/6/2023* Planning and Port Property are aware of the error but it has not yet been corrected.

• A woonerf/”linear park” is proposed on a public street (Lancaster Street from Elm to Preble), akin to the area of Lancaster between the restaurants at 82 Hanover Street and Port Property’s new apartment building under construction at 52 Hanover.

• No public green space is proposed beyond a small patch on the woonerf. NOTE: None of the areas marked in green on the map are public green spaces or parks, except for a portion of the Bayside Trail. Much of that area is privately owned and comprised of dirt lots intended to eventually be developed. The area northeast of Chestnut Street is owned by the City and is the likely future site of a parking garage.

*UPDATE 3/6/2023* While there is a requirement for “open space” there’s no stipulation that it be “green.”

• It’s unclear what would happen to the existing historic structures on lots where buildings are proposed. In the below architectural rendering they do not appear to be integrated into the concept design (the Two Fat Cats building on Lancaster; the north-west side of Oxford Street from Elm to Preble, etc). *UPDATE 3/6/2023* Subsequent documents confirm that the Two Fat Cats building and all of the buildings on the north side of Oxford from Elm to Preble are slated to be demolished.

• No development is currently proposed in the area zoned R6 (from Chestnut to the midpoint between Cedar and Elm and from Lancaster to Oxford), which includes the Bayside Community Garden (run by the BNA), Oxford Street Shelter building, and eight private single family and multi-unit homes.* However:

– The Oxford Street Shelter building at 203 Oxford Street could potentially be demolished to create a construction staging area. This building dates to 1900 and was originally a two-family home.

– Port Property has said they intend to eventually build where the community garden now sits. Bayside is the only neighborhood without a permanent community garden supported by the City. There is no other open, accessible green space for blocks.

*UPDATE 3/6/2023* Subsequent documents confirm plans to develop parcels through the R6 zone surrounding existing single family and small multi-family homes.