Council declines to reconsider Housing Champion designation

LACONIA — City councilors declined to reconsider a potential application for the state’s Housing Champion designation at their meeting Tuesday night at City Hall. 

If accepted to the program, municipalities of all sizes are eligible for preferential access to state funding and grant programs which could be used for a litany of purposes including upgrading public infrastructure such as water and sewer. In order to qualify for the designation, a municipality must meet criteria over a broad range of requirements, including pertaining to the zoning ordinance.

The first year of the program is funded by the state to the tune of $5 million and could increase in the future.

At their meeting on Sept. 23, counselors tied 3-3 on a measure which would have signaled support to apply for the program in its first open application period, which closes Friday, Nov. 15.

This time, the councilors declined to suspend council rules in order to reconsider that decision and consider the submission of an application for the second period, which would have been due in the spring of 2025, but tied 3-3 and the matter did not move forward.

Councilors Eric Hoffman (Ward 3), Mark Haynes (Ward 4) and Tony Felch (Ward 6) were in favor of suspending council rules and Bruce Cheney (Ward 1), Robert Soucy (Ward 2) and Steven Bogert (Ward 5) were opposed. 

A notable feature of the Housing Champion designation program includes offering a $10,000 award per unit of workforce housing developed in a given municipality and access to grant funding. Grant and incentive funds could be used to overcome barriers to development, such as cost-prohibitive infrastructure improvements.

But significant public opposition to the proposal, first in September and most recently on Tuesday night, suggested constituents were not interested in developing workforce housing in the city at the expense of changes to the zoning ordinance. Councilors also wondered if needed changes to the ordinance could be made without applying for the designation. 

Planning Director Rob Mora and Planning Assistant Director Tyler Carmichael, in a presentation to the council, said the city is close to qualifying for the program already and would need only minor changes to language, definitions and other items in the zoning ordinance or to other municipal regulations. They proposed various options over three categories which would allow the city to qualify.

Proposed changes included adding language to the zoning ordinance to address the definition of workforce housing. At present, the city’s ordinance does not address workforce housing despite a state RSA requirement to do so.

“If we were to enter into the program, our zoning ordinance would have to meet certain criteria within their criteria for the Housing Champion program,” Mora said, noting all changes are optional, not required. “All these are options of what we could do.”

“We only need to adopt three changes to meet [the Department of Business and Economic Affairs] requirement for the Housing Champion program,” Mora said. “It’s not a requirement for us to adopt each and every one but it’s the requirement from BEA of what their requirements are for what the ordinance would need to read for each of these sections.”

Other planning department suggestions included definitions regarding cluster development, changes regarding density bonuses, changes to the ordinance regarding inclusionary zoning which the city’s existing ordinance doesn’t address, changes to minimum lot and dwelling sizes, parking and added language to address zoning requirements for manufactured housing on single-family lots. 

“For each zoning requirement you meet, you get 10 points and you need a total of 80 points for the designation,” Mora said. “Forty of which can come from zoning, I believe it’s 25 can come from training and it’s several other criteria that you can meet, but you need to meet at least the first four criteria in some regard.”

Mayor Andrew Hosmer said approving the item to apply to the program would allow the city time to prepare.

“What this allows us to do, it seems to me and listening to Rob [Mora], is that it gives us these months to ramp up and look at ordinances or zoning and make individual determinations whether we can be somewhat proactive to address some of the housing concerns in this city,” Hosmer said. “If we’re not proactive, we’re reactive, and what happens when we’re reactive is we’re behind the curve on stuff. That’s kind of what I understand you were saying, Rob.”

“That is absolutely correct,” Mora said.

Hosmer noted being ahead of the curve regarding development could be beneficial, pointing to the large project expected to be soon underway at the former State School property on Parade Road.

“So as we prepare for the number that was floated out there, 2,000 units — which to me sounds mindboggling and, probably can’t get it done — I think as a city, do we want to be in a position where we have a strong set of updated ordinances for zoning and allowing the Planning Department to make confident decisions based on the fact that we’re not trying to catch up and rewrite ordinances in response to this,” Hosmer said.

Hoffman noted the designation doesn't require the city to make any changes councilors don't support.

“By making a certain number of zoning changes that we would all have to agree on, right, it would make us eligible for money that we could use for infrastructure projects related to say, the State School, right?” Hoffman wondered. “But this status doesn’t obligate us to do anything.”

Bill Milner, of Marshall Court, who spoke against the city applying for the designation in September, said he attended a presentation made by the BEA, read the program’s criteria and still does not support the measure. He said he doesn’t see the demand for the program — which hasn’t named recipients yet and it’s unknown how many will apply by the Friday deadline — in New Hampshire.

“I think there’s some confusion on Housing Champion and workforce housing, I think that they conflate the two and they’re not clear on this,” Milner said. “I spoke then about the factor of the fear of Housing Champion and trust — trust that we do the right thing here.” 

Milner pointed to the recent approval of plans to build a housing development at the site of the old Friendly’s restaurant on Union Avenue, where developers agreed to a 35-year deed restriction maintaining a fraction of units there at workforce housing rates. 

“Maybe municipalities don’t want to go in and 'reform,' that’s the word that they use, to reform your city zoning ordinances. Maybe that’s one reason it’s not as popular,” he said.

“I would question the real demand and the need for that and I want to say, does the city really need the housing designation to advance workforce housing?”

Matt Cashman, also of Marshall Court, said he, too, attended the September meeting and he’s still not in favor of the proposition.

“I came in tonight to be open-minded, to listen to this — and not for nothing — but this presentation left me no confidence whatsoever,” Cashman said. “Looking out at you folks, I’m not sure you have a lot of confidence in it. [Bruce] Cheney brought up a great idea, that if you want to change ordinances, try them one by one. You don’t need this designation.”