MDI Tomorrow
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The next meeting of the MDI Tomorrow Housing issues group will be on Thursday, January 23rd from 8 to 9:30 AM at the offices of MDI Housing Authority, Malvern-Belmont Estate, Mt. Desert Street in Bar Harbor. The agenda will include:

- a brief overview of the work we have done so far, as summarized in the most recent draft of the housing portion of the "State of the Island" Report 

- beginning to frame projects that would help us meet our goal of increasing the rental and home-buying options for people and families who comprise the year-round, core community workforce on the island.

Clearly, one such project is the idea of setting up a project along the lines of Eric Henry's proposal-- to set up a collaborative effort among existing key players (MDI Housing Authorities and Mt. Desert Community Trust, local banks, Maine State Housing Authority, MDI's philanthropic community to purchase existing homes as they come on the market and with a shared equity arrangement much as has been done with West Eden Meadows, to sell those homes to eligible families who are part of the year-round community workforce.

Another project is to work with existing developers and land-owners and the above partners to develop new housing, some or all of which is part of this ongoing pool of housing stock affordable to the year-round core community workforce.

A third project is to adapt or develop model land use ordinances that would have the affect of reducing development costs for new housing, consistent with our vision of healthy "down-towns" and villages and keeping the rural character of our outlying areas. These models could be then taken up (and adapted further by each town, as citizen's and elected officials choose.

And you can supply project ideas 4 through 104!

We welcome new participants to the process, so if you have never attended a housing meeting, but want to get involved, this will be a great opportunity to do so.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call or contact me by email.

Ron Beard, Extension Educator University of Maine Cooperative Extension / Sea Grant 63 Boggy Brook Road Ellsworth, Maine USA 04605

To contact MDI Tomorrow:
MDI Tomorrow, c/o University of Maine Cooperative Extension, 63 Boggy Brook Rd., Ellsworth, ME 04605, 207-288-8212.

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