North Yarmouth has no true artesian wells. As Mr. Ryerson told us all those years ago: a pumped well is not artesian.

Nevertheless, a working streambed and soggy areas suggest the water table is relatively high. I highly doubt North Yarmouth is "bone dry" as you claim.

Apples and oranges.

Morgantown is at the intersection of 2 major interstates and has a major university located in it. Nothing in Maine like it.

Coal is everywhere in WVa, same with shale gas. Pollution is everywhere. Large farms are cheap. Some state road corridors have more hookers than laborers, and the gas workers from TX, OK and WY are more than happy to utilize their services.

Maine is way different.

>a lot of north Yarmouth is bone dry

You've got 2 brooks merging with the Royal River in North Yarmouth. Last time I was near Runaround Pond, it was not dry so Chandler Brook cannot be dry. Same with the river coming from New Gloucester. Not dry at Cunningham's in the Intervale.

>Times have changed.

Right.

Few complained as heartily as the keyboard whiners of today.

>A 401k millionaire is literally wealthy off of other people's labor.

huh.

So, the contributions they make from their paychecks are actually coming from other people's paychecks?

[That is not how it works!]

>Our
>
>combined
>
> income barely netted us a house in southern Maine.

Well then. According to most folks in these threads, you are doing very well. Might even be wealthy and in need of having your single family lot turned into high-density housing.

It is a statement which appears not responsive to anything I posted.

>This zoning isn't a free market--it's a politically imposed regulation that favors current SFH owners at the expense of others.

Zoning is very much a political creature, true. Not sure it was ever intended to be "free market," whatever the heck that means in this context. Its purpose is to provide different zones for different uses within a municipal entity. It neither favors nor disfavors single family homes.

Single family home zoning is intended to provide areas, i.e., zones, where single detached homes are the only type of structure (aside from a detached garage) that may be built on one specific lot. The zoning allows for the formation of residential areas in which other types of intrusive construction, ie, high-density housing, industrial or manufacturing, warehouses, transfer stations, XXX uses, etc., are not allowed. Those types of uses are allowed in other areas of the municipality (indeed, most states require a municipality to provide zones for other uses) within those specific types of zones.

Zoning of any type has long been a controversial subject. I understand why those who advocate for doing away with single family housing so, but outside of Maine rezoning away from single family homes has resulted in increased density, increased crime and increased gentrification of older and more stable neighborhoods. It all may sound great in theory, but the result is not always what the loudest advocates expect.

>In every city and town different parts have different zoning

I'm fairly certain that in Maine there is case law wherein “spot zoning” is the singling out of one lot or a small area for different treatment under the zoning code even though the lot receiving different treatment is indistinguishable from surrounding parcels with respect to physical characteristics and potential uses.

As to MA, spot zoning is, as the link states, unlawful. If it was allowed to occur, it was only because no one challenged it. Judges rarely allow it for small, house-size properties. https://www.phillips-angley.com/blog/2021/05/spot-zoning-what-you-should-know/

WVa is like the Gowanas Canal. Comparing Maine to that is ridic.

I do not doubt that housing prices in, around and south of Portland are higher than in most other parts of the state, but using median prices really says nothing. Does not even provide size of a house sold, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, acreage, town it in which properties are located, proximity to water bodies or major roads, nothing. Just a number where half the number of units sold is below that figure and and the other half higher.

>You don't have to zone the entire town that way, just a couple of acres

That's called what, spot zoning? Prohibited. There is a reason it is called zoning.

Nonsensical rubbish.

I know folks who worked at BIW who lived over by China Lake. They were resilient.

When I was in high school, my summer job was 14 miles distance but I had no way to get there except my bicycle. I did not spend my time whining about it. The next year I found a different job.

Minimum wage in Maine is what, $13.80/hr? Hardly depressed when compared to other states - a large number of which remain at $7.25/hr. CT's, a much more expensive state, is only $14/hr.

So, you fail at the "very depressed" claim.

Since Maine is very white, what is your point?

>We need to make it possible for builders to build more multifamily homes all over Maine to provide affordable first time homes for buyers and stable rents.

If builders are not building new housing then folks need to look at why that is the case. Hint: it is not because builders cannot turn a profit.

>$328,000, (which is the median price of a 1 family in Maine).

The median price swings by quite a bit amongst the websites. Neighborhoodscout uses ~$200,000. Zillow nearly $400,000.

I find the use of median to be misleading. But it does point to half of the prices being below that figure. Using average, imho, would provide a better - and truer - figure.

Whatever happened to being resilient? If conditions change, we change. If one town does not have what can be afforded, look elsewhere. Man has long desired for a better life. And for the better things in life. This whining about how others have what you do not have is... childish. Be better.

Or get a better job.

I guess that's a bad thing, eh? If I take what I earn and buy what I want, that's bad because... someone wants to work at crack donald's and they don't want to walk to far to get there? I'm guessing that putting in extra hours and saving up for something better is bad, too, eh? Because "libertarian."

Under your theory, I should never have bought anything better than a yugo.

Any way to get some of the thumbnails bigger than thumbnails without trying to download?

Not wrong.

>But this is exactly what those people want.

"those people" sounds childish.

Also, if folks work for their wealth (being a 401k millionaire isnt what you think it is), why are they not allowed to live as they wish? Or do you want them to have fewer rights than you do? Frankly, if a person lives according to what they earn thru their own hard work, then they've earned the right to live as they wish.

>If it's good soil (which we don't have a lot of up here) then it should be protected.

No farms, no food.

>you should be able to build 4-5 two family homes on an acre lot.

Absurd. Why do you want any town in ME to turn into Brooklyn dense?

If you build it, they will move north from Boston and NYC.