Commonspace’s planned single-room apartments upstairs at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Wiscasset might be ready in January to propose to the town, the Hodge Street church’s senior warden told Wiscasset Newspaper.

Friday afternoon, Dec. 1, the church announced an informational meeting is planned for 6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 14 in Wiscasset Elementary School’s cafeteria.

In a phone interview Friday evening, Senior Warden Jon Young reconfirmed earlier details of the planned housing and shared new ones. He said 10, instead of 12, apartments will be sought. The count changed as planning continued with the architect, including shared bathrooms and shared laundry facility, and a common eating, meeting and kitchen area, Young said.

He said the Portland-based nonprofit commonspace and the architect have been “very open” to his suggestions on the design. “They were talking about the kitchen being in its own little room, and I said, ‘No, take the walls out. The kitchen really ought to be part of the large meeting area.’” 

“Each space up there will either have windows or skylights ... Part of the construction is, they’re going to put some dormers on. The ones facing Hodge Street will be individual dormers, so that they fit in architecturally with other buildings in the neighborhood.”

He said would-be tenants of the housing which commonspace “will lease and manage” will get background checks and sign one-year leases, “just like other people going into a typical apartment house.” And he said commonspace will have a staff member on site at least 20 hours a week. “Commonspace is in charge of (apartment applicants’) background checks. They will run them by St. Philip’s, just in case somebody at St. Philip’s knows somebody or knows something about (them), but it’s mainly commonspace. They’re responsible for these people.”

Young said, “Drug use isn’t allowed,” there will be handicap access and the monthly rent for an SRO “will be in the vicinity of $750.”

Young said he believes income the church gets as a result of the project will be based on rental income. Commonspace is “not giving us a fixed dollar amount, but it will be based on – originally it was based on 12 (units), but now it’s 10 ... some a little bit larger than others, but they’re all in the vicinity of 100 square feet.”

“If we tried to have 12, the rooms would be really tight,” he said. The 10 units will each have room for a bed, bureau, chair, “coat rack or whatever,” and, under the eaves, built-in storage, “whether it’s drawers or open shelving, to put baskets, or for clothing.”

The housing proposal will be commonspace’s second request to Wiscasset involving St. Philip’s. Commonspace pulled a business license request for Harbor Peer and Wellness Center after a July 18 hearing and selectmen’s tabling. According to Wiscasset Newspaper files, the discussion was filled with concerns over trust and potential safety and property impacts, and support for the proposal as a benefit to the town and people in recovery. The license application described the proposed center as “a community resource and recovery center offering support groups and one-on-one coaching/mentoring, along with other community enrichment offerings.”

Commonspace, St. Philip’s and Maine Housing Authority (MaineHousing), which earlier this year announced a grant for the housing, will make a presentation at the Dec. 14 meeting, according to the church’s announcement. It directs meeting goers to park behind the school and enter through the cafeteria door in the back of the building. 

For more on the meeting, call St. Philip’s at 882-7184 and leave a message.