Council approves support for grant to fund updating master plan, sets public hearing for change to Howard St

LACONIA — City councilors voted to support the city’s planning department in applying for a Housing Opportunity Planning grant largely meant to fund its effort to update the city’s master plan at their regular meeting on Tuesday night. 

The meeting was held Tuesday night at City Hall because city officers were closed Monday to observe Columbus Day.

The request for councilors' support in applying to the grant previously failed after councilors tied 3-3 at their last meeting in September amid a large crowd generally opposed to several agenda items having to do with housing-related issues.

On Tuesday, Ward 1 Councilor Bruce Cheney made a motion to reconsider the agenda item and this time it passed unanimously. No members of the public spoke for or against the item during a section of the meeting reserved for public input on current agenda items. 

“We had quite a crowd here that night and one of the speakers made the comment, or the observation, in the midst of it all that we hadn’t gathered enough data to make decisions about housing or other things,” Cheney said. “My understanding is this grant would be used to work on our master plan which will include some discussion about housing, but the primary thing is this grant will give us the ability to get data for all sorts of things — sewer and asphalt and new roads and all sorts of things.” 

The HOP grant, in the amount of $100,000, is available as part of a $100 million InvestNH initiative, $5 million of which has been allocated to provide support to municipalities to analyze and update their land use regulations to help increase opportunities for housing development. 

“This is a grant that the city could access up to $100,000, if I’m not mistaken Councilor Cheney, which would allow us to do some work on housing, land use and vision statements of the master plan which is in line for a reworking at this point anyway,” Mayor Andrew Hosmer said. “It should be revisited every 5 to 10 years, I think we’re at year 7 or 8 right now. It’s something we’ve been talking about, so this may be an opportunity for us, instead of fronting paying the freight for consultants to come in and work with us, this may allow us to do that, allow us to better plan for water and sewer as you indicated and also give us some of the data for a housing needs assessment if it’s requested and required and part of the data.”

The New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs contracted with New Hampshire Housing to administer the grant. 

Laconia’s planning department would use the grant to rewrite the land use and vision sections of the city’s master plan and to add sections on housing and implementation. Funds would also be used to audit the city’s zoning ordinance, subdivision regulations and site plan review regulations for causes of the lack of affordable housing in the city. The planning department would also seek to identify potential changes to those regulations. 

“I think one of the things that came from the Sept. 23 meeting was that we weren’t prepared, which was not exactly in line with what’s going on,” Ward 4 Councilor Mark Haynes said. “I think that as we look at the master plan, as we look at regulations, we’ve got to be adjusting to modern times and things are going to change.” 

And in other business, councilors chose to move forward with changes to Howard Street, located near downtown, to make it one way for its entirety and restrict parking to only the even-numbered side of the street. 

The request originated with a constituent of Ward 2 Councilor Robert Soucy, who then brought the matter to the Public Works Committee for further review. That committee sent the request on to the city council, who discussed it Tuesday night. 

According to a city staff report, Howard Street is 19 feet wide and parking is currently allowed on either side. The street is partially one way, from Riverside Court to the entrance to Victoria Woods, and there are two pickup trucks habitually parked at the corner between 11 and 15 Howard St. When the trucks are parked there it is difficult for other cars to pass by and there are concerns regarding access for fire trucks and other emergency response vehicles. 

Soucy said Fire Chief Tim Joubert indicated the navigability of the street is impeded. 

“He brought up specifically that he’d have to cross over a couple lawns,” Soucy said. “Especially with ladder trucks trying to get in that area.”

If enacted, Howard would become one way for its entirety from Riverside all the way to Church Street and no parking would be allowed on the odd-numbered side. Riverside Court is a private street and is eligible for inclusion in the city’s accept as-is program, according to a city staff report. 

Most properties on Howard Street are multifamily dwellings and some have limited parking. The anticipated cost to the city for the proposed changes is $800.

A public hearing was scheduled to take place during the Tuesday, Nov. 12 city council meeting, and abutters will be notified.