A decade after the biggest land conservation project in the island’s history, the town of Frenchboro has once again moved to secure housing for current and future islanders. Over the next five years, over 14 acres of land will be transferred from the Maine Coast Heritage Trust to the town of Frenchboro for both housing and town use.
The benefits for the town are clear. “On an island, land is a finite, limited commodity,” said Robert Stuart, chair of Frenchboro’s Selectboard. “Two-thirds of the island is either owned by a nonprofit or is encumbered by a conservation easement. Houses here never seem to go out of families. Having new places for people to live to critical to the survival and growth of the town.”
In 1998, Frenchboro’s largest landowner put over half the island, 970 acres of undeveloped land adjacent to the Frenchboro Future Development Corporation’s (FFDC) affordable housing development, up for sale.
“If that had been put on open market,” says FFDC Chair David Lunt, “We were sorely afraid that with 12 miles of shoreline, a developer would buy it and it would certainly have gone to summer people.”
With fears of out-of-scale development motivating them, residents and concerned nonprofit groups moved into action. Aided by the Island Institute and the Maine Seacoast Mission, the Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT) was able to procure the land and place it into permanent protection.
Despite the relief that this land would be safe from outside development, some residents were concerned over the purchase. Not only did the conservation of the land permanently remove the land from tax rolls (although MCHT has been making payments in lieu of taxes), it also would severely curtail any future housing development on the island. In cooperation with the town, MCHT agreed to deed over appropriate land in proximity to the village for future housing needs, but the agreement has remained dormant for a decade.
Interested in moving the discussion forward, FFDC assigned a subcommittee to move the project forward. Now, after over a year of discussion, MCHT is prepared to begin transferring the acreage to the town. The property will be transferred as three separate parcels over two transactions.
The first transfer, according to MCHT Regional Steward Terry Towne, is expected to be finalized at MCHT’s November board meeting. This three-part parcel consists of a small piece of land by the state-owned ferry terminal, one acre next to the current town hall and community center that is intended be used for an island wellness center, and a seven-acre parcel adjacent to the northeast edge of the existing FFDC development is planned for housing.
Targeted for development because it has already been soil-tested for dwellings and can be accessed via existing roads, it is expected that three-to-four house lots will be created on this land.
The second transfer, timed to occur in five years in order to avoid state subdivision requirements, is not connected to existing developed land and will require road construction. Another three house lots could be created on this parcel.
There is no near-term plan to develop the most of the land. Plans for the wellness center, which will consist of a clinical medical space, a fitness center, and a flexible meeting space for wellness and preventive care, are expected to unfold over the next few years, according to Stuart.
The execution of the project, however, is dependent on the raising of private funds. The development and sale of house lots is even further in the distance, with no firm timeline in place. The intention is to develop the land slowly, averaging no more than one lot development per year over the next decade. “The first [affordable housing] development was urgent because we needed to build up the school population,” says Lunt. “This time, the need is not urgent. We just want to bank some land for people coming up.”
“This is not immediate perceived need,” agrees Jim Hatch, vice chair of the FFDC and an affordable housing specialist who managed the original FFDC development in the 1980s. “It’s more land-banking for a future generation. We just decided it was time to move the project forward rather than let it hang out there for another decade.”
The plan developed by the FFDC and approved by the town recommends using the first housing parcel as discounted land to attract needed professionals to the island, including those with medical skills and the potential to start businesses separate from the lobster industry. “We need another form of income,” says Lunt. “We need to ease up on lobster a bit and broaden the work base.”
The second parcel transfer five years later is intended to serve as a land bank for young families with existing Frenchboro ties. Unlike the FFDC’s previous efforts at affordable housing, FFDC does not plan to develop the lots in any way aside from providing basic infrastructure.
Although the project was coordinated by the FFDC and MCHT, the town will be the owner of the land. Towne explains that despite a good working relationship with FFDC, “Our goal was to work with the entire community, not just the one organization.”
The entire project, including FFDC’s plan for the properties, was approved at a special Town Meeting held this summer. Voters accepted the land for the wellness center and affirmed the intended use, accepted the first transfer of land for house lots, and determined that the town, not the FFDC, would hold the property. As land is needed, it will be transferred from the town to FFDC.
Cherie Galyean is a freelance writer who lives in Bar Harbor.