Testimony of GrowSmart Maine in neither for nor against LD 1272, An Act To Address The Housing Crisis By Reducing Barriers To Building More Accessory Dwelling Units
April 29, 2025
Senator Curry, Representative Gere, and Honorable Members of the Joint Standing Committee on Housing and Economic Development,
My name is Nancy Smith, I live in Ellsworth, and I am the CEO of GrowSmart Maine. We are a statewide non-partisan non-profit organization helping communities navigate change in alignment with smart growth. We advocate for comprehensive policies and funding for smart growth practices and outcomes.
We support much of what is in this bill as actionable changes that will remove barriers to housing. We continue to oppose easing restrictions on subdivisions outside of designated growth areas. Thus our “neither for nor against” this bill. I have included additional information to frame our argument.
Creating accessible housing that eliminates farmland needed for accessible food is not a wise or sustainable strategy. This is not about aesthetics. It is about the financial damage done to municipalities and households, while undermining the food security and frankly national security benefits of being able to grow our own food here in Maine and across the country.
Attached please find two resources from American Farmland Trust. First, a Fact Sheet entitled, “Why Save Farmland,” that outlines the benefits of targeting growth where it makes sense in the long term:
– Protecting the food and farming systems
– Fiscal and economic stability
– Environmental Quality
– Heritage and Community Character
Secondly, a handout illustrating the impacts of how we choose to locate development here in Maine, with three counties most at risk: Somerset, Aroostook, and Cumberland. By choosing to build strategically, we can save 44,100 acres of farmland compared to sprawling growth. That means saving the equivalent of 300 farms, 1,200 jobs, and $27 million in farm outputs.
Don’t be fooled by the argument that small subdivisions will have little impact on Maine’s communities, families, and economy. Low density sprawl is how the most damage is happening across the country. Consider it a gateway drug to loss of farmland, leading to other forms of growth like warehouses and more dense residential development. We aren’t arguing that there should be no subdivisions outside of growth areas, but that these projects should fall under the subdivision process.
To the specifics of the bill:
Sections 1 and 10: we support a prohibition on requiring fire sprinkler systems, as the committee we recall our support of Policy Action 2025 legislation, LD 659. The cost/benefit analysis simply does not justify this expense.
Sections 2 through 9: We continue to advocate for removal of barriers to development within designated growth areas and where there is sufficient water and sewer infrastructure, while keeping in place restrictions on subdivisions outside of those areas. This is the very foundation of smart growth and at the core of why municipalities go through the process of creating and implementing comprehensive plans.
Section 4: As with section 2, ensuring this is for areas with sufficient water and swerve, and that the existing phrase “or other comparable sewer system” is not interpreted to allow additional housing outside of sufficient sewer infrastructure. We are unsure of the intent in Section 4A, for the phrase, “except as allowed by the municipality,” and advocate to ensure it does not lead to the same outcome.
Section 11, 12: We support this language to increase flexibility in ownership and residency with ADUs.
Section 13: We oppose the easing regulation on subdivision in rural areas, because it does not provide a net benefit to the community or to Mainers
Section 14: We do support the easing of regulation related to subdividing a structure into multiple dwelling units. This sort of adaptive reuse should be encouraged, though again, with more activity encouraged within designated growth areas than in rural areas. Having this sort of project fall under municipal site plan review, while exempting it from subdivision rule, makes good sense.
Please know that we support development when it is sited where it makes sense for the long term. We are launching a 3-part webinar series entitled “The House is Not Enough”, with the first, “Alternative Housing Models,” next Wednesday, 4:30-6:00. We’re happy to share a comped registration with any legislator who would like to attend.