Feb 23 2008
Preserving Cape Elizabeth(‘s property values)
I just finished reading an interesting article on The Vigorous North entitled Preserving real estate, not nature. In it, the author relates a story of a recent trip to one of the nature preserves down in Cape on a warm winter day in Maine. There are numerous pieces and parts to the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust, and Cape itself is a beautiful little peninsula town. The most photographed lighthouse in America, Portland Head Light, is in Cape Elizabeth, as is the previously mentioned Crescent Beach State Park. Our church is in Cape, and the ride down there is quite lovely.
However, the blog post at Vigorous North is not all rosy. The author expresses great frustration (perhaps not so) unintended consequence at the land trusts in Cape Elizabeth and Portland’s northern neighbor, Falmouth. While they are set up to preserve the rustic heritage of these two former farm towns, in actuality, the real accomplishment of the trusts is to keep populations low and property values high. That, and to preserve the scenic views from the kitchen windows of the million dollar homes that dot the landscape. She and I daydream about a home with an ocean view on Shore Road, but it’s certainly not something that will be possible any time soon, if ever. Cape Elizabeth and Falmouth exude exclusivity. They have great school systems and beautiful homes, all at barely attainable prices. With very few exceptions, the Cape and Falmouth residents we’ve met personally have all be friendly and welcoming, but the towns themselves have a “we’re better than you” aura.
The goal of preserving nature is a laudable one, but not when it is a thinly veiled attempt to preserve an idyllic illusion of rural living in a town 10 minutes from Maine’s largest city. I’m still too new to the area to really be acquainted with the people or politics of local land preserves, but I can see the author’s point that
[t]here are also tremendous environmental costs hidden in those pastoral meadows: because the close-in suburbs are unaffordable, the hoi polloi must move further out to places like Scarborough or Windham (which were, until recently, actual rural communities) in search of affordable housing, with the net result being more pollution everywhere. By any measure, putting ten houses on two acres of a Falmouth “preserve” is better than ten houses on a thirty-acre ex-pasture in Gray. (emphasis in the original)