“It’s so important to make sure that people with disabilities are included in our communities,” says Jennifer Putnam, Executive Director at Waypoint Maine, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to supporting and empowering individuals with intellectual and other disabilities to reach their fullest potential. “It’s integral for all of us to make sure people with disabilities are a true part of our community. That’s what we strive to do at Waypoint every day – to provide those opportunities and to also educate the community as we’re doing it.”

Waypoint supports a population that runs from early childhood to later adulthood, with a diverse range of specialized programs and services, including day programs, in-home and remote support, and a comprehensive range of residential services designed to support adults with autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities. Adults can choose from small group homes, Shared Living homes, or independent living with in-home and remote support, offering flexibility to match each individual’s level of independence.

“I arrived at Waypoint just before the pandemic started,” says Jennifer. “Throughout the pandemic, we really were thoughtful about examining all of the group homes we had and whether or not they could meet the needs of our members as they age in place. That was something that was really important to us. As we went through that process, we realized that some of our homes were not going to meet the needs of our members. That’s how 12 Riverview came to be.”

Exterior Elevation Plan

the road to riverview

“After meeting CIL at a MASCP Conference, Jennifer expressed interest in group home development,” recalls CIL’s Sr. Real Estate Developer Melissa McGeown. “Waypoint asked us to come and take a look at their properties in the Sanford area.”

In her role as Senior Real Estate Developer, Melissa works as a liaison with consultants, advisors, and vendors to create real estate solutions for CIL’s clients. She immediately started reviewing Waypoint’s property in Sanford for development opportunities.

“Maine’s a little different. You’d think by looking at the geography of the state that there would be a lot of land available —and in a way, there is—but a lot of it isn’t for sale,” says Melissa. “The home we were planning on developing was a six-bedroom, three-bathroom home, so we needed space. We started looking at commercial buildings; we looked at a couple different lots, but they were a little too small.”

As part of CIL’s development consulting services, Melissa combed through the assessor’s database, scouring for available options and reviewing every property within Waypoint's portfolio, determining which ones held the potential to accommodate the construction of a new home. After a period of time reviewing options and coming up empty, Waypoint approached CIL with a potential option – a property they owned on Riverview Street. They enlisted CIL to inspect the property, seeking to ascertain its viability for transformation into the fully accessible home they had envisioned.

“We shifted to looking at repurposing one of our older, existing homes,” says Jennifer. “It was clear that what was important to us was making it a home anyone would want to live in – beautiful, warm, inviting, and also able to accommodate those with unique accessibility requirements or other support needs.”

Everything with the property checked out, and Melissa laid out options for renovating the existing home or demolishing it and building a new one. After some time balancing the benefits of renovation versus new construction, the team decided to move forward with building a new home, but there was one critical question to resolve before moving forward: how to accommodate the current resident during and after construction.

independent living & zoning reform in the pine tree state

The existing house sported a cozy little apartment on one end where someone lived. Before forging ahead with plans for a new home, CIL and Waypoint wanted to ensure this individual would not be displaced without a solution.

“There was an existing 650-square-foot two-car garage on the property and we asked if it would be possible to turn that garage into a one-bedroom home for the individual,” says Melissa. “My question to our engineer was: ‘We’re no longer building a single-family home here, we’re building an apartment. Would this be allowed by zoning?’”

Fortunately, the State of Maine had taken proactive steps to combat the housing crisis. A bipartisan housing and zoning reform bill had been passed, outlining an ambitious, state-driven plan to ease the housing crisis by enacting several pro-homes policies. One of the items in the bill included the legalization of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) on all single-family home lots, a policy that proved pivotal, tipping the scales in favor of development of the Riverview property.

Groundbreaking Ceremony

Fall 2024 Progress Photo

Looking toward the future

On October 10, 2024, CIL proudly attended the groundbreaking ceremony for Waypoint’s new six-bed home in Sanford. The event brought together the project team to celebrate this milestone and mark the beginning of construction. The fully accessible home will feature modern amenities, including central air, private outdoor access from bedrooms, and both communal and quiet spaces to support relaxation and connection.

“Working with CIL has been an absolute joy,” says Jennifer. “Working with Melissa has been wonderful. She’s been flexible, understanding, and helps us understand what we need even before we can identify it, particularly in the early days of design work. This is the first time our team has done such an extensive build, and in today’s environment with the prices being what they are, we felt it was important to have someone at the table with us that we can trust, and CIL is definitely that entity.”

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