Gorham Approved Hundreds of New Homes. What Actually Decides When You Can Buy One?

If Gorham has approved more than a thousand new homes across a handful of projects, why hasn't the number of homes you can actually move into kept up?

The timing for each Gorham project comes from the permit rules it was approved under. Gorham has a town-wide limit on how many new homes can be permitted each year. But its two biggest projects, Robie Street and Fairways South, were each approved under their own contract zone, and those terms set the pace instead. If you're weighing a new-construction home in Gorham against a resale in Westbrook, Windham or Scarborough, the first thing to learn is which rules your phase falls under.

The first question to ask a Gorham builder

Before floor plans or finishes, ask this: is this phase limited by the town's growth permits, by a contract zone's terms, or by neither? The three answers lead to very different timelines.

Builders in most nearby towns pull a building permit and start construction. Since January 1, 2023, Gorham has required a separate growth permit for each new dwelling unit, on top of the usual building approvals. The town can also exempt certain units or swap in a different schedule through a contract zone. As a result, two neighborhoods a few miles apart can fill in at completely different speeds.

The town-wide limit: 125 permits a year, and unused ones expire

Chapter 305 of Gorham's code, the Growth Management ordinance, caps growth permits at 125 per calendar year. They're divided like this:

• Rural areas: up to 25 a year. Up to 15 can go to subdivisions and up to 10 to projects that don't need subdivision review.
• Other residential and mixed-use districts: up to 100 a year, split into up to 75 for subdivisions and up to 25 for everything else.
• One development in a growth area: no more than 10 permits a year. In a rural area, the limit is five.
• Small multifamily units: up to 75 extra permits a year for multifamily units of 1,000 square feet or less in a designated growth area. The Town Council added this in December 2024.

Two parts of the rule affect timing directly. Permits that aren't used by December 31 expire and don't carry over. And applications are reviewed in the order they come in, with one permit per unit. With this post going up in mid-November, whatever is left of the 2026 allocation runs out in about seven weeks, and the 2027 allocation opens on January 1.

The 10-per-development limit means a typical subdivision in a growth area can add only 10 new homes a year under the standard rules. That's why the large projects asked for terms of their own.

Robie Street has its own limit, and it's slow on purpose

KV Enterprises, led by Vincent Maietta and Gorham native Kendrick Ballantyne, is building on 131 acres behind Village Elementary School at 12 Robie St. The plan is 565 homes: 91 single-family lots and 474 multifamily units in eight buildings, each four or five stories tall. The Portland Press Herald reported that the Planning Board granted preliminary approval on February 2, 2026, leaving the project one Board step from full approval.

The town staff memo for that meeting shows that Phase I, with 44 single-family lots, was already under construction. It also lays out the project's own pace. The Robie contract zone, recorded in December 2024, changes the growth rules for this site. It allows 15 single-family building permits per calendar year and one multifamily building phase every 24 months.

After the first 44 lots, 47 single-family lots remain, and at 15 permits a year that's a little over three years of building. The apartment and condo side is limited by phase. Each multifamily phase has to wait two years after the one before it, so the number of phases the 474 units are split into decides how long that side takes. Anyone reserving a Robie condo should ask which multifamily phase their unit is in.

The February memo also listed open items. Those included a MaineDOT traffic movement permit, Maine DEP permits, Army Corps of Engineers permits, and an ability-to-serve letter from the Portland Water District. Those state and utility approvals have their own timelines, separate from the permit schedule.

Fairways South doesn't need growth permits at all

At the former Gorham Country Club, Troiano Properties' Fairways South covers about 170 acres around McLellan Road, with the Stroudwater River at its southern end. The Town Council approved its contract zone in March 2025. The town's staff memo on the master plan is clear about what that means: "All dwelling units created within the contract zone are exempt from the Growth Management Ordinance and do not require growth permits."

According to the town's Fairways South site and subdivision review, the master plan calls for 1,013 units across 10 proposed phases. On June 1, 2026, the Planning Board gave conditional final approval to phases 1 and 2. According to the Press Herald's account of that approval, those phases include 75 single-family lots and six 12-unit condominium buildings, and Troiano expected site construction to begin this fall.

Neither the town limit nor a contract-zone schedule controls the pace here. Construction, financing and demand do. So the project with the bigger plan may have the fewer rules on how fast it builds.

The smaller projects run into the limits on exemptions

Projects without a contract zone fall under the town's standard rules, and the exemptions have limits.

The Planning Board gave the 30-unit Thistle Petite Condominiums on County Road final subdivision and site plan approval, with conditions, on September 28, 2026. The staff memo describes a proposed mix of roughly three-quarters deed-restricted 55+ units and one-quarter unrestricted units, built in two phases. It also lists turn-lane, lighting, condominium-document and engineering items to resolve before building permits. Gorham's code exempts up to 25 units in an age-restricted development from growth permits. It defines an age-restricted development as one where at least 80% of occupied units have a resident aged 55 or older. A buyer looking at the second phase should ask how its permits are assigned.

The 102-unit, 55+ condo community off Newton Drive received master plan approval in September 2025. That's four times the 25-unit age-restricted exemption. Under the standard rules, the remaining units would draw from the same yearly pool as everyone else, subject to the 10-per-development limit in growth areas.

The fees that come with each new home

New Gorham homes also come with fees that resale homes never paid. The builder pays them when the permit is issued, so they're part of the cost of producing every new unit.

• Recreation and open space impact fee: $980 per person, which works out to $3,136 for a single-family home, $1,960 for a two-bedroom multifamily unit, $2,940 for three or more bedrooms, and $1,176 for a one-bedroom or elderly unit. It's due when the building permit is paid. Town code
• Growth permit application fee: set by the town's fee schedule. January 2025 Finance Committee minutes recorded it at $1,000 per dwelling unit.
• Robie Street contract zone add-on: an extra $1,000 per single-family unit and $500 per multifamily unit, according to the Robie staff memo.

On a new single-family home at Robie Street, the recreation fee, the contract-zone add-on and a growth permit at the January 2025 rate come to roughly $5,000 in town fees before construction starts. The growth permit piece only applies where growth permits are required. Fairways South's exemption removes it there.

What this means if you're buying a resale home this winter

New Gorham homes will arrive in phases over years. For the next few seasons, most of what's for sale will still be existing homes, so county numbers are the best guide. Maine Listings data released October 13, 2026 shows 1,018 Cumberland County home sales for July 1 through September 30, 2026. That's down 0.88% from the same quarter a year earlier, and the county median was $614,950, up 1.64%. Those are countywide figures, and that report doesn't break out Gorham separately.

Sales volume was roughly flat and the median rose slightly. That fits a market where approvals make headlines but new homes reach buyers gradually. When you compare a Gorham resale with a new-build reservation, put the expected delivery date next to the price.

Quick answers

Does a growth permit cost me anything as a buyer? The builder or lot owner applies and pays the fee, which is set by the town's fee schedule. If you're buying a lot to build on yourself, you would be the applicant, and the order your application arrives in matters.

What is Gorham's property tax rate right now? The town set the FY2026–27 rate at $16.00 per $1,000 of assessed value on September 16, 2026. Town of Gorham At that rate, a home assessed at $500,000 would owe $8,000 a year.

Is the Gorham Connector going to change any of this? MaineDOT's Portland West study includes Gorham and is comparing road, signal, bus, walking and biking options. It says no specific project has been chosen, and final recommendations are expected in spring 2027.

This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Permit rules and fees change, so confirm the details of any purchase with the town and the right professionals.

If you're comparing a Gorham new-build reservation with a resale home here or in a neighboring town, the Cates Real Estate Southern Maine team can help you figure out which permit rules apply to your phase and what a realistic move-in date looks like. Contact us and we'll go through it with you.