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Maine is stifling this homemade solution to the housing crisis

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Maine is stifling this homemade solution to the housing crisis


SOUTH PARIS, Maine — Home builders around Maine routinely turn clients away or add them to yearslong wait lists. This one is begging for more business.

KBS Builders, a manufactured home company, can churn out up to four homes a week in their hulking western Maine headquarters. Their customizable modular homes are built to the same standard as a stick-built home and leave the factory within months to be shipped — 90 percent finished with utilities already installed — to sites all across New England.

But KBS is only operating at 60 percent of that building’s capacity. Five years ago, the company bought a second factory out of bankruptcy that sits empty. While their business is growing, a web of arcane regulatory barriers unique to Maine is holding it back from doing more here.

The state treats manufactured homes as singular products, so they are taxed once on materials and again on installation. They also cannot be sold directly to consumers, so KBS requires middlemen to put them up. Neither the installers nor contractors working on stick-built homes need licenses, but Maine requires licenses to do modular work.

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“I’ve taken all the complexity out of assembling this building, and you’re still requiring someone to have licensure to install this on site. But somebody can go get all the raw parts and build it themselves on site with zero license?” KBS President Thatcher Butcher said. “You tell me where that makes sense.”

A workman guides a wall structure as it’s lifted with a crane at KBS Builders in South Paris. KBS is the largest home manufacturer in Maine and roughly half its output goes to out-of-state customers. Credit: Troy R. Bennett / BDN

New Hampshire and Vermont regulate the industry the same way, although New Hampshire has no sales tax. Licenses are administered by the Maine Manufactured Housing Board, which was established in 1986 to control the quality of mobile homes, which were synonymous with poorly built trailers. Today, a modular home is often more energy efficient than a stick-built home.

Butcher has repeatedly lobbied legislators to provide parity between modular and traditional site-based construction. Lawmakers have been more interested in licensing all contractors like 35 other states do, although a bill on the subject failed last year. Rep. Tiffany Roberts, D-South Berwick, plans to submit a similar measure again this session, she said.

There are only a dozen licensed modular home installers in Maine, Sarah Sturtevant, a research consultant at the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition, found by calling through a list on the Manufactured Housing Board’s website. Those installers are able to charge a premium, edging consumers away from modular construction, Butcher said.

“Our growth in Maine has very much been more limited than in other states, which is unfortunate, because out of all the areas that we service, I think Maine has the most need for housing,” Thatcher said.

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KBS’ expansion would also bring more dependable construction jobs to western Maine, a region that was once home to several manufactured housing builders before the 2008 recession. KBS currently employs 120 people, many of whom said they preferred working for a modular builder to doing site-based work.

“The big advantage for these guys is the inside environment. Working inside, they’re not shivering to death when they’re doing their job, and it makes a big difference,” Gary Cossar, a receiver at KBS’ warehouse, said.

Being able to build homes year round is another perk of building modular in Maine. Sam Hight, who runs the Hight family of car dealerships in Skowhegan and is a developer who has built three rural affordable rental projects with KBS, broke ground on an 18-unit project in Madison in November and had it finished by April.

Using a nail gun, a workman installs exterior trim on a kitchen window at KBS Builders in South Paris. Credit: Troy R. Bennett / BDN

Unlike with stick-built projects he’s done in the past, Hight didn’t have to wait for laborers or subcontractors to become available and travel to his remote site. KBS has a full team including electricians, plumbers and finishers working together in South Paris.

Lawmakers will soon consider promoting modular construction to meet lofty housing goals this upcoming year. Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, said he is submitting one bill that would remove the double tax and another that will focus on rebuilding the industry in Oxford County with startup capital and incentives. Other lawmakers are interested in focusing on it as well.

“[This] industry presents an opportunity for future growth and innovation in how we get housing built and how we address the underproduction issues that we face, not only here in Maine, but certainly across the country,” House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, said.

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Maine

26-year-old Maine fisherman dies after accident on boat off North Shore, officials say

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26-year-old Maine fisherman dies after accident on boat off North Shore, officials say


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Two crew members on the fishing boat suffered life-threatening injuries after they were struck by a snapped rope.

A 26-year-old fisherman died Friday after he and another crew member were injured in an accident aboard their fishing boat off the North Shore, officials said.

Just before 4 p.m., the US Coast Guard responded to a distress call reporting that a snapped rope had struck two crew members on the 25 TO LIFE, a fishing vessel, according to spokesperson and Petty Officer 2nd Class Diolanda Caballero. The boat was located about 25 miles east of Nahant.

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One of the crew members suffered a concussion and possible broken ribs, and the other, later identified as Jaxson Marston, had a broken neck and was “intermittently unresponsive,” Caballero said in a statement.

The Coast Guard launched response boats and diverted a helicopter to aid in the recovery, according to officials. Shortly after 5 p.m., one of the response boats reached the 25 TO LIFE and delivered the two crew members to a Gloucester pier.

The crew members were transferred to emergency medical services and taken to Beverly Hospital, where Marston was pronounced dead on arrival, officials said.

Marston was originally from Addison, Maine, according to the Bangor Daily News. Josh Stubbs, a member of the town’s select board, said on Facebook that he loved Marston “like a brother.”

“I have had trouble all day trying to find the right words to say,” Stubbs wrote. “I have known you for a long time. But the last years we have been close. I don’t know what to do.”

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Cape Ann Lobstermen, a fish market in Gloucester, started a fundraiser to provide for Marston’s family, scallop fisherman Jesse Roche posted on Facebook. For the fundraiser, fishermen are encouraged to donate a bag of scallops out of their final catch, with the proceeds going to the family.

Maine State Representative Tiffany Strout offered her condolences on Facebook.

“Jaxson, only 26 years old, a husband, a dad, hard worker, passionate hunter and a freind to many was doing what he had done many times before, just trying to earn an honest living to support his family,” she wrote. “Now his family can use all the support as they try to move forward with the loss of their loved one.”

Strout also encouraged community members to keep the other crew member and his family in their thoughts, writing that he “needs all the support for him and his family as he tries to recover from his injuries.”

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“A reminder that life is short, things can change in an instant and sometime accidents just happen, even with the most caution and readiness,” Strout wrote. “Please keep the fishermen’s family’s in your thoughts and give your family and friends big hugs as I am sending big hugs to the families.”





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Zoning can’t be ignored in Maine’s housing crisis | Letter

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Zoning can’t be ignored in Maine’s housing crisis | Letter


I read Peter Ryner’s April 12 op-ed, “Zoning won’t solve Maine’s housing crisis — and zoning didn’t create it,” with interest. His central assertion, “Zoning … is neither the source nor the solution to Maine’s housing problems” is incorrect and not supported by his argument. Many cities, towns and villages in Maine could not be rebuilt today. Most buildings in these places are “non-conforming,” i.e., they don’t meet current zoning regulations.

In many instances, municipalities have applied suburban building standards to their traditional town centers. Requiring a half-acre lot in the center of a town or village doesn’t just prevent the “warehousing” of people, as Mr. Ryner frets, it prevents the building of anything at all. Not only are most towns not adding housing to their historic centers but, as housing is lost, it’s not being replaced. This is bad and we should address the problem: outdated zoning regulations.

Maine’s recent law permitting accessory dwelling units statewide was a good step in the right direction. Still, we must do better. Allowing, and encouraging, the “thickening up” of the historic centers of our cities and towns would be a great place to start. Eliminating minimum lot sizes, shifting to a focus on form rather than use or density and, perhaps, eliminating zoning requirements altogether around transit hubs would all be good next steps.

Zoning reform is not a panacea, however any meaningful expansion of housing opportunity will require at the hard look at the constraints zoning imposes.

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Brian Banton
Topsham



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Coast Guard proposes removal of dozens of buoys in Maine waters

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Coast Guard proposes removal of dozens of buoys in Maine waters


A beached buoy is pulled off Wells Beach by the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Marcus Hanna on April 22, 2024. Carl D. Walsh/Portland Press Herald

The U.S. Coast Guard has proposed the removal of over 100 navigation aids in Maine waters, along with many more along the East Coast.

In a notice posted earlier this month, the Coast Guard said the removals are intended to modernize and rightsize the setup of buoys, most of which were deployed before modern GPS systems.

“This effort will result in the most sustainable navigation risk reduction to support and complement modern mariners, today’s much larger ships, ECS system availability and requirements, and powerful smartphone navigation subscription apps affordably accessible to virtually all waterway users,” the Coast Guard wrote.

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Locations listed for buoy removal include Portland, Camden, Cape Neddick, Castine and Wells harbors, as well as Penobscot Bay and the Damariscotta, Penobscot, Saco and Scarborough rivers.

The buoys serve various purposes, such as marking harbor entrances and coastal hazards.

Many waterway users have objected to the proposed removals online on sailing forums, yacht club Facebook groups and Reddit. An unofficial interactive map with the approximate locations of the buoys slated for removal has been published online as well.

The Coast Guard is accepting public comments and feedback on its proposal via email at DPWPublicComments@uscg.mil until June 13.



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