Maine Public Broadcasting - Since 2014, the city has approved construction of more than 1,500 new homes, but the vast majority are too small to house families, which Portland needs in order to grow, city leaders say.
Over the past two decades, the cost of city services has risen while the number of taxpayers has remained relatively flat. The best way to span the resulting revenue gap is to add more people, according to city leaders, who want to boost Portland’s population from about 67,000 to 72,000 by 2027.
These new Portlanders will need homes and, spurred by high rents and low vacancies, developers are building lots of them. But they have too often been high-end, low-occupancy units that don’t attract the families who would drive sustained population growth and build vibrant neighborhoods, said Planning and Urban Development Director Jeff Levine.
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