Planning board OKs rewrite to make redevelopment overlay district functional, promote its use

LACONIA — Members of the city’s Planning Board are open to a rewrite of the Housing Redevelopment Overlay District, which could facilitate adding homes in older and already-dense areas of the city.

They’ll hold a public hearing at their meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 5.

“As per our last meeting, I noted that this specific section of your ordinance could use a rewrite. I think staff has done an admirable job,” attorney Ethan Wood of Normandin, Cheney & O’Neil said at the board's July 1 meeting. “I would recommend that you all approve, as I do think it will function in the manner that the original district was intended. And it will likely help alleviate some of the housing issues that have been brought up at previous meetings.”

The revision to the district is intended to facilitate redevelopment of affordable housing units, to encourage investment in multiunit housing stock, to increase the quality of living conditions for renters, to provide rental housing in close proximity to the urban commercial district and “preserve the character of the city’s urban neighborhoods”. 

The district would be adopted as an innovative land-use control, pursuant to state RSA 674:21. The provisions of subsections B through E would apply to any lot within the overlay district, other than parcels with nonresidential primary use, unless that parcel is being redeveloped for housing.

“We had a Housing Redevelopment Overlay District — nobody’s ever used it since it was adopted back in 1975, I believe,” Planning Director Rob Mora said during the meeting. “We made it a conditional use permit and we made it similar to performance zoning — utilizing an innovative land-use control.”

The rewrite includes certain criteria to limit, to a degree, density and structure height and would require at least two or 20% — whichever is great — of residential units developed on a given parcel to be deed-restricted to workforce housing rates. It would also add parking requirements and define minimum dwelling size plus ensure “dark-sky” compliance.

“We also added in there, as most of these lots are from smaller, older developments, that if you were utilizing [the district’s provisions] and that project was affecting more than one lot, you would have to merge the two lots or three lots to make it more conforming,” Mora said. “That was our intent with that.”

City Planning Department staff are working to rewrite the scope of the overlay district.

Consistent with the law, the intent of the provisions is to promote flexibility in redeveloping parcels when the project includes a workforce housing component, multi-family housing component where at least two units are allocated for workforce housing or an affordable housing component, and follows the guidance of the city’s master plan. 

An applicant isn’t entitled to a conditional use permit, but may be granted one by the planning board. An applicant can also be denied if that board decides it’s not justified or warranted in accordance with the criteria and intent of the regulation. The planning board has sole authority to administer conditional use permits for the district.

All projects within the district, if the rewrite is adopted: could not exceed a density of 20 units per acre; couldn’t exceed four stories; at least 20% or two units — whichever is greater — must be deed-restricted to workforce housing rates for at least 25 years; designate primary use as residential; and have units of at least 400 square feet, among other specific requirements.

Changes described in the rewrite wouldn’t be retroactive.

“Somebody would have to come forward with a new project today to utilize it,” Mora said.