Housing plan sent forward
By Adam Leech
Portsmouth Herald
PORTSMOUTH — Dozens of residents, business owners and affordable-housing advocates attended Monday night’s public hearing on an ordinance that would provide incentives for developers to create affordable housing.
Most of the feedback from the public was positive, but some residents opposed the proposal because it would effectively allow 39 affordable townhouses to be built on a five-acre parcel in Atlantic Heights.
The City Council unanimously moved the ordinance for a third and final reading at the Jan. 8 meeting.
The ordinance would allow developers to create more housing units per lot, provided that a portion of them are affordable to middle-income people. The incentive would only apply within General Residence A and B districts of the city. The Planning Board would have conditional approval on all projects.
Most of those who spoke at the public hearing had a vested interest in affordable housing in the city, such as bankers, real estate brokers and members of local housing groups. Some proponents represented local businesses who have found it difficult to recruit new employees because of a shortage of affordable housing locally.
The ordinance would apply to very few parcels in the city.
Approximately 95 percent of the lots in the general residential zones are smaller than the one-acre requirement for developers to use the density bonus.
Attorney Douglas Macdonald, who represented Richard Fusegni of 201 Kearsarge Way, took issue with the proposed ordinance because it lacks assurances the units will remain affordable and provides too much flexibility. And though the council did not want to focus discussion on the Atlantic Heights project, the net effect of the ordinance, he said, is the project moves forward “along with all its flaws.”
City Attorney Bob Sullivan said the ordinance was constructed to provide the Planning Board with flexibility and that provisions would be made to ensure the units remain affordable.
David Choate, a resident and member of the Housing Partnership, said the city should expand the ordinance to the entire city. Given the Planning Board has the ability to deny any application, he said it would not be an issue.
Dick Ingram, president of the Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, said 72 percent of the chamber members believe it is very important for the city to pursue affordable housing.
Ray Will, a planning board member speaking as a resident, said his family had to leave Portsmouth after the housing boom in 1986 because of cost.
“We were priced out of the city,” he said. “No proposal will solve the problem completely, but this is a good tool to keep Portsmouth people here.”