AUGUSTA, Maine (WABI) – A report was released Tuesday by the Maine Policy Institute that discusses fixes to what they call Maine’s self-imposed housing crisis.
In a gathering at the State House, the group shared the report that drawn focus to towns with aggressive land use zoning, saying these towns generally have higher home prices and are building less homes since the pandemic.
They added policies like rent control and short-term rental restrictions are hurting the housing market instead of helping it. They say if Maine, at the state and local levels, took more of a pro-contractor approach, it would lead to more housing being built.
“The fact is that Maine has currently a very aggressive, very antagonistic approach to land development and the creation of housing, and this makes it so we are simply not asking ourselves as a state and at the local level throughout the state, ‘Why would someone who is developing housing want to build it in Maine,’ because frankly, currently, I wouldn’t,” commented Maine Policy Analyst Harris Van Pate.
A link to more details on the Maine Policy Institute report can be found here.
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