WATERVILLE -- Petitioners are seeking to overturn City Council approval of a tax break for the Gilman Street housing project.

Councilors voted 6-1 recently to approve a tax-increment financing project for the gymnasium section of Gilman Place, a 35-unit housing complex to be built in the former Gilman Street School.

Developers Collaborative of Portland plans to restore the building to historic standards and rent the apartments to people earning between $20,000 and $37,000 annually.

The council approved the $10.3 million project last year. On Nov. 11, the council approved the TIF, which is designed to make use of the gymnasium affordable and reinvest money in the city that otherwise would be lost.

However, neighbors of Gilman Place claimed at a council meeting this month they were not told when discussions began more than a year ago that the housing project would be for people with low incomes. They opposed the TIF and urged councilors to vote against it. Councilor Mary-Anne Beal, D-Ward 2, was the lone dissenter in the 6-1 vote.

Neighbors now are going door to door seeking signatures on a petition requesting a referendum to allow voters to agree with or overturn the council vote on the TIF.

Petitioners need to gather 1,700 signatures of registered voters by Tuesday in order to set a referendum. Three neighbors involved in the petition effort declined to comment Thursday on the matter. Beal did not return a message left on her answering machine early Thursday evening.

Developer Kevin Bunker, of Developers Collaborative, said Thursday that even if the TIF vote were overturned, he still would develop Gilman Place.

He said he thinks the neighbors are not upset about the TIF as much as they are about having people who make less money than they do living near them. He said a neighborhood impact study done last year was clear about the income levels of people who would live in the apartments and that those numbers never changed. The Maine State Housing Authority, which provides tax credits for the project, requires that income levels be $20,000 to $37,000, he said.

"I think (petitioners) don't want people of more modest income living near them," Bunker said. "I think it's a few people trying to undermine a community consensus that we've all worked very hard to build."

City Council Chairman Dana W. Sennett, D-Ward 4, agrees with that assessment.

"It would appear that they have some feelings toward people that make less money than themselves, which is really -- I just don't have any words to describe it," Sennett said. "I mean, retirees and people that are disabled or handicapped and on fixed incomes have every right to have clean accommodations."

Mayor Paul R. LePage said Thursday that developers bent over backward to do the project right, and the information they issued about income levels is the same as it was in the beginning.

"Unfortunately, there's a lot of misinformation out there," he said, adding that he wants to meet with the petitioners to discuss the issue.

LePage said he thinks Gilman Place is a good project and a lot of the disagreement is about semantics -- what people think "low-income," "moderate-income" and "work force" housing mean.

"I just think that they are misguided," he said of the petitioners. "I believe that quality housing for the working man is vital for the community."

LePage said what neighbors of Gilman Place think is low-income is what the majority of people in Maine earn annually.

Both he and City Manager Michael Roy said the city initially was interested in leasing the gymnasium in the old school but decided against it because the city now uses the Alfond Youth Center facilities, and that arrangement is working well.

Roy said he believes petitioners did not want to see the housing project approved to begin with.

"Do they realize that if we have a referendum and people vote to support the petition that the project can still go through?" he said. "Because the petition itself is just on the TIF. The project itself has been approved."

Bunker said the irony is that the petitioners are seeking signatures from people who earn between $20,000 and $37,000 -- the income range of those who could live in Gilman Place.

Amy Calder -- 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com