Residents getting zoned out, Study says state’s zoning laws restrict affordable housing
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Emily Aronson
Portsmouth Herald
A study by a Washington, D.C., think tank has concluded southern New Hampshire has highly restrictive zoning laws when it comes to affordable housing.
The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit organization, analyzed land-use regulations in the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the country. The study was based on the idea that “local land-use regulations help define the character of cities, towns, counties and entire regions.”
And one aspect of a community’s character affected by land-use regulations is its socioeconomic diversity — which, in the study’s case, means whether regulations promote or restrict housing for renters and lower-income people.
The study’s focus supports what many in the Seacoast have been saying — more needs to be done to promote affordable housing, and zoning laws are a part of that process.
The city of Portsmouth is rewriting its zoning rules, and one of the first ordinances under review by the Planning Board relates to affordable housing.
The Portsmouth area was included in the Brookings Institution’s survey of zoning regulations. The study analyzed zoning in 50 metropolitan areas (southern New Hampshire was part of greater Boston), and placed the areas into various categories based on how the rules relate to affordable housing.
Southern New Hampshire, which included Portsmouth, Manchester, Nashua, Rochester and surrounding suburbs, was put in the “extreme exclusion” category. The greater Boston area was also included in this group.
“Comparatively few local governments, with small shares of population and land area, use either regulations or funds to support affordable housing,” the study said of southern New Hampshire.
Among the criteria used to measure if a community is “friendly” to affordable housing is whether zoning concentrated on low-density or high-density development. Low-density is usually associated with large lots and single-family homes, whereas high-density allows multi-unit buildings and smaller lots, which often translate to lower prices.
The study found that two of the New Hampshire cities surveyed and 89 percent of the towns had zoning that only allowed low-density.
Brookings also rated communities by determining if a town’s zoning laws would allow a hypothetical two-story, 40-unit apartment building on a five-acre lot.
It found the apartment building would not be allowed in nearly half of the New Hampshire cities and 82 percent of the towns.
The study did give credit to the 60 percent of the New Hampshire cities that use incentive measures to promote affordable housing, but noted that only 15 percent of towns in the state have such programs.
By pairing the data with census information about the local population and real estate market, the study determined that “exclusionary” zoning is associated with higher home prices and less economic and racial diversity.
“They are less dense. They have less opportunity for low-income residents and minority households to live in suburbs. They offer less opportunity for people to own homes in central cities … and have fairly high housing prices,” the study concluded.