ROCKLAND, Maine — Another project to respond to the region’s acute housing shortage will go before the Rockland Planning Board.
Community Housing of Maine is scheduled to go before the board at its 5:15 p.m. meeting Tuesday, April 7, at City Hall for a proposal to construct a 10-unit affordable apartment complex at 59 Main St. that will be named Collins Family Commons.
The existing former church building will be demolished and build a structure with 10 apartments, a mix of one-and-two-bedroom units. There will be 10 parking spaces, new utility connections, and screened solid waste storage. The footprint of the new building will be 3,000-square-feet with two-and-a-half stories.
The April 7 meeting is called a pre-application meeting so the developers can hear from the Planning Board and any residents before the formal application is submitted.
Community Housing purchased the property in March 2025 from Robert Hallett of Hadley, Massachusetts, for $265,000. Hallett had purchased the property in 2010 from the Church of God for $84,388.
Last year, then Community Housing Executive Director Cullen Ryan praised city officials for their efforts to encourage affordable housing by putting an affordable housing bond referendum before voters. The council gave unanimous final approval March 10 to sending a $10 million bond referendum to voters at the June 10 election to enable the city to fund capital projects that provide “sustainable housing options for working families.”
Community Housing is a nonprofit charitable organization that also created the 26-unit Stevens Green apartments at Lovejoy and Thomaston streets in 2005. Ryan said that apartment complex has long been full.
Community Housing provides housing with support services for people with low income or disabilities.
The rents have not been determined yet but will be affordable, according to Community Housing Interim Director Kyra Walker.
Construction is expected to begin in the fall of 2026 and be completed in the fall of 2027.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.