Waterville Planning Board to consider 2 plans that would provide 43 apartments

WATERVILLE — The Planning Board is expected to consider two plans Tuesday that would bring 43 new apartments to Waterville — six in the downtown area and 37 on King Street in the city’s South End.

The Kennebec Valley Community Action Program is proposing to demolish two buildings at 52 King St. and 24 Gold St. to build a three-story, 49,500-square-foot building on 3.18 acres to provide 37 affordable apartments.

Community and common space would be developed on the first floor. Additional land at 52 Summer St. and 26 Gold St. would be added to the site to help create space for the building, according to plans.

Tom Nale Jr. and his sister, Tracy, are proposing to build six downtown apartments on the second story of 103-109 Main St., which is also known as the Arnold Block and includes buildings housing Loyal Biscuit Co. and the former Jorgensen’s Cafe & Deli.

“The idea would be that midtier housing, which there seems to be a great demand for,” Tom Nale Jr. said Monday.

Both projects are to undergo informal preapplication review Tuesday by the board. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at The Elm at 21 College Ave.

City Planner Ann Beverage said Planning Board members will have opportunity to comment on the plans, which would have to come back to the board for review and approval. No vote is expected Tuesday. The developers must submit letters from various people reviewing the projects and notify abutters of their plans, Beverage said.

The KVCAP project would be located across King Street from the KVCAP parking lot, on land that many years ago was the site of the South End Arena, a skating rink, according to Beverage. The rectangular-shaped building KVCAP plans to build would have access from King and Gold streets, she said.

The preliminary site plan provided to the city by A.E. Hodsdon Consulting Engineers, based in Waterville, shows the project would encompass 52 and 54 King St. and 24 and 26 Gold St., and the building would be made of concrete, wood, steel and glass. The estimated number of vehicle trips to and from the site per day is 35, it said.

Parking for the building would be located off King and Gold streets, according to the plan.

David Pelton, KVCAP’s director of real estate development, said Planning Board approval is the first step in the process for developing the apartment building.

After that approval, KVCAP needs to apply for funding from various sources, such as MaineHousing, and then close on those funding sources, which takes until about March or April 2024, according to Pelton. KVCAP also needs to buy the four properties, and it has written agreements in place to do that, he said.

Asked about the estimated cost for the project, Pelton said his best guess at this point, with costs for materials and labor changing all the time, is based on a KVCAP project in progress now in Hartland that has 30 units. It is about half completed and the project cost is about $8.5 million.

“This is still very much in the preliminary stages,” Pelton said of the King Street project. “We just need to start the process with the Planning Board because in order to apply for grants or funding opportunities to build it, we need that approval.”

Meanwhile, Tom Nale Jr. said the proposed downtown apartments on Main Street would have one or two bedrooms, depending on what works in the second-floor spaces, and are expected to extend from 103 to 109 Main.

He said a timeline for beginning and completing the project has yet to be established.

In other matters Tuesday, the Planning Board is scheduled to discuss revisions to the zoning ordinance that would help ensure the city’s rules comply with LD 2003, or state rules intended to increase housing opportunities.

The board is also expected to discuss revisions to that ordinance regarding solar farm regulations.