Why Liberal Elites Trumpet Against Affordable Housing in Cape Elizabeth

What is it about following the law that’s so difficult for Donald Trump and the liberal elites of my home town?

The latest salvo in the tortuous battle for affordable housing in Cape Elizabeth on Gull Crest known as Community Housing is the notion of hysterics and oppositional opportunists that before we take another step towards putting a shovel in the earth to build 75 or so lovely modest homes along a spectacular stretch of the Spurwink River nestled among hundreds of acres of trails, we need an expert to lecture us about racism that surely must be baked in to the proposal since a small capped landfill that soon will be decorated with solar panels is near-bye.

One self-reported expert who knows everything about affordable housing and morality wrote an email with gusto, so it’s settled. We just don’t get it. Housing on Gull Crest is an outrage! Despite a feasibility study by experts and momentum in the community to do something meaningful within reason and the law.

It would be “inhumane” to create a charming neighborhood of homes with front porches, garages and lawns where families with up to 120% AMI could get into the sizzling real estate market and purchase their first home and longterm economic security, the elites argue. It’s “shameful” to consider a modern complex for seniors wanting to downsize among friends and grandkids.

Look no further than the Town of Cumberland - a comparable coastal town - to see how well housing pairs with solar-capped landfills.

Literally next door to the landfill in Cumberland is a beautifully renovated school that’s been affordable housing for a decade and so successful another project is slated for around back. Across the street from Cumberland’s solar-capped landfill is a cul-de-sac lined with single family homes valued close to a million dollars in the current market.

The Cape Elizabeth capped landfill - stuffed with Pottery Barn furniture and golf clubs - is 6 acres of a parcel totaling over 200 acres. It is surrounded by other things - Community Gardens, an ice rink, football fields, hiking trails, compost piles, the renowned and ridiculously popular Swap Shop, and the Public Works Department - and slated to be home to an array of solar panels. The housing proposed on 22 acres of Gull Crest north of the landfill is gorgeous, crisscrossed with trails and zoned for housing.

Community Housing will comply with all existing environmental and zoning laws - and Gull Crest is the only viable location. It either gets built at this location or does not get built.

But still not good enough, they say.

Because developing affordable housing for kids who could walk to school on trails without crossing a street is “immoral.” Because building housing for the employees who work at the transfer station but can’t afford to live in town would be cruel, they cry, literally, because they feel SO BAD for us morons pushing for an achievable outcome within the confines of the law.

And these bleeding-hearts certainly don’t trust elections!

That crazy majority of Cape voters who shut down gutting the zoning ordinance for an ugly, expensive Hampton Inn-style monstrosity of Section 8 housing next to historic Town Hall must have been “confused,” they say.

The majority who voted down the super-sized school bond needs more reports, more consultants, more surveys, they say, as they fork over hundreds of thousands of public dollars hoping to bolster ideas grounded in unicorn dirt.

The elections were rigged by our ignorance, they think.

And the sanctimony! My God. It’s so rich here you might think working to create affordable housing for kids where it’s legally feasible is human trafficking, or worse.

The fight against housing is now about “ethics,” they say.

“We know better than the law,” or “the law isn’t good enough for us.”

Sound familiar?

Insisting the proposal for legally sited housing in one of Maine’s most affluent, charming towns “is so wrong we can’t stand for it” sounds like right-wingers still litigating the 2020 election with pitchforks and hammers.

Where’s the beef? On whose behalf are these elites falling on the sword? The “poor people” who can’t think for themselves and might actually want to live and raise a family in Cape Elizabeth and willing to risk it?

The audacity!