BANGOR — Bangor officials are proposing new ways to try to tackle the city’s housing shortage.

The city’s Community and Economic Development Department wants to make housing development easier by providing developers with free, pre-approved, building designs.

“We’ve been looking at different ways of removing barriers to housing for developers, small developers [and] large developers,” said Bangor’s Director of Community and Economic Development Anne Krieg. “To be able to add units to their property and lower those costs for them.”

If the idea is approved by the city council, Krieg said it could cut down on the time and expenses involved in building new homes. 

“Our code office usually has to look at those plans and make sure that every aspect of that plan meets our building, safety and energy codes,” said Krieg. “But, with his being pre-approved, that makes the review time a lot less.”

Some of the designs will include a garage apartment, a detached accessory dwelling unit, and units for families of varying sizes.

“So we thought, what if we had a set of pre-approved plans for different housing types so people who want to add a garage apartment, or an accessory dwelling unit, or a three family or a four family — they wouldn’t have to pay to have those plans prepared, and those plans would meet our current building code, energy code, and safety code.”

The department is currently working with architects to make sure all of the designs will be up to code. Krieg estimates the proposal will head to the city council in late April. 

The council must give its approval before the designs can be used.