Bath Housing is dedicated to advancing housing solutions to ensure people from all backgrounds and income levels can live, work, and thrive in the greater Bath region.
Over the past year, we have been thinking about how to best repurpose 17.2 acres along Congress Avenue – we call this the Congress Avenue Corridor – that we have aggregated over the past few years. This is a critically important piece of the community fabric in Bath and has presented a rare opportunity to plan new housing reminiscent in scale of the historic war housing developments of the past.
Like then, Bath is facing a need for new housing to support the shipbuilding industry and the regional workforce. The City’s 2023 comprehensive plan highlights this need and includes a series of goals to promote adequate housing to support the community.
Guiding Principles
The principles guiding our planning included:
Create a reasonable number of new housing units on Congress Avenue — balanced by conservation land — and integrated with existing neighborhoods.
Incorporate a mix of housing types and diverse scales.
Prioritize people and community spaces first, emphasizing livability.
Use landscaping to create outdoor rooms and a sense of place.
Emphasize connections across and through the site for both vehicles and pedestrians with parking distributed at the rear or sides.
Vision
Our vision is to transform these parcels into a vibrant neighborhood offering housing options tailored to diverse income levels. By offering a spectrum of housing choices—both rental and ownership—we can help meet the community goal of ensuring that all who wish to reside in Bath have viable housing options.
Proposed Open Space
Working with the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust, Bath Housing will place roughly eight acres into a conservation easement to protect valued open space in Bath. This will also protect a portion of the Whiskeag Trail and provide future connections between Morse High School, new housing, and the Bath Area Family YMCA.
The South Yard (80 Congress Avenue)
The South Yard is the first phase being pursued by Bath Housing. Plans are to build a new four story, L-shaped, flat roof building with 48 apartments as a replacement for the existing Anchorage property. As Bath Housing’s oldest property and most at risk, this is an opportunity to build new, sustainable, healthy housing to better serve our residents. We submitted an application to the City of Bath Planning board in May 2024.
The Middle Yard (100 Congress Avenue)
The Middle Yard will involve the demolition of the existing Anchorage apartments to create small house lots on Edgett Street as well as some mid-rise buildings fronting Congress Avenue.
The North Yard (150 Congress Avenue)
Bath Housing is in discussions with a local developer for the North Yard property. Preliminary plans include 84 apartments for key area workers.
Phases & Timeline
This is envisioned as a three-phased plan to be undertaken over the coming 2 – 5 years.
Community Process
Each phase will include opportunities for public feedback and comments through the municipal permitting process. Bath Housing has prioritized soliciting input from neighbors and existing residents through this process.
We look forward to your support as we begin working through the municipal process with the City of Bath. We will be scheduling site walks for anyone interested. Please e-mail if you would like to join us.
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