BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 29, 2022
A progressive referendum aimed at increasing affordable rental housing and requiring environmental standards on publicly funded units in Maine’s largest city scared off some developers in its first year. Portland’s “Green New Deal,” one of five referend um questions approved by voters in November 2020, requires new or substantially altered buildings with 10 or more units to make 25 percent of them affordable starting with plans filed in December 2020. Developers said the requirements are making it less affordable to build and recoup investments in an already expensive market that desperately needs new housing.