proposed legislation would balance workforce housing with land conservation

It’s not easy to live and work on the Seacoast. As the state’s population and home values rise, it becomes more difficult for communities to provide affordable housing options for their teachers, police, firefighters and other workers. Many workers cannot afford to live in the communities where they work, and students of N.H. schools often move to more affordable states after graduating. The trend creates challenges for working families and can have disastrous effects on the state’s economy.

But new development projects often decimate open space, putting wildlife species and natural resources at risk.

Balancing the need for workforce housing with conservation efforts is one of the greatest challenges faced by the growing Granite State.

A proposed bill before the Legislature would help communities face that challenge. Sponsored by state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark (D-Portsmouth), Senate Bill 217 calls for a program that would offer matching grants for technical assistance to municipalities seeking to enhance growth and development strategies hand-in-hand with conservation planning.

The Senate Energy, Environment and Economic Development Committee heard testimony on the bill in Concord on the morning of March 12. A total of 10 supporters spoke in favor of the bill, saying the state must forge a partnership between workforce housing and conservation.

“This is a very, very important first step,” said Fuller Clark, who chairs the Economic Development Committee.

The bill emerged as the result of discussions generated by the Growth and Development Roundtable, an organization convened by the N.H. Charitable Foundation in the summer of 2005.

According to statistics generated by the N.H. Office of Energy and Planning, New Hampshire’s population grew by more than 17 percent between 1990 and 2004. It is projected to grow by another 28 percent between 2000 and 2025, adding 358,000 new residents.

A study conducted by the N.H. Housing Finance Authority in 2003 showed that the state requires 9,500 new housing units each year to keep pace with projected employment growth, as well as 8,200 new units to keep pace with population growth.

Median housing price rose by a staggering 75 percent between 2000 and 2005, according to the Finance Authority, while wages rose by only 11 percent during that time. A family earning $50,000 in 2004 could only afford about 17 percent of the houses for sale in New Hampshire that year.

The Charitable Foundation Roundtable members represented housing, business, planning and conservation interests at the state and local levels. Monthly meetings led to development of the N.H. Housing and Conservation Planning Program, which Fuller Clark sponsored as SB 217.

If passed, the program would award grants to individual municipalities or groups of municipalities to guide community growth in a manner that provides workforce housing opportunities and promotes reuse of existing buildings while protecting natural resources with efficient and compact development. The bill would appropriate $400,000 a year for the N.H. Office of Energy and Planning to implement the program over the next two years. Gov. John Lynch included an additional $200,000 for the program in his state budget proposal.

“The program would provide a pool of state funding that municipalities could access on a competitive basis to help pay for technical assistance to effectively plan for future housing and growth needs while preserving quality of life, using land efficiently and identifying key areas to protect for conservation,” read a statement from Kevin Peterson, senior program officer of the N.H. Charitable Foundation.

Applicants for funding would apply under one of four development “stages.” The first stage consists of information gathering and analysis, the second involves growth and development strategy, the third integrates this strategy into the master plan, and the fourth puts the strategy in practice with any necessary municipal ordinances, zoning amendments and rewrites. Municipalities can only apply for assistance in one stage at a time, but they can apply for additional funding in successive stages as long as they accomplish the goals of the previous stage.

The Office of Energy and Planning would channel the funding through planning commissions and private technical assistance providers to help municipalities achieve the goals of each stage. Exact grant amounts are not specified in the bill. Participation in the program is voluntary.

Amy Ignatius, director of the Office of Energy and Planning, told the Economic Development Committee she is “unequivocally in favor” of the program. Also speaking in support of the bill were Peterson; Judy Silva of the N.H. Municipal Association; Jennifer Goodman, executive director of the N.H. Preservation Alliance; Rosemary Heard, president of CATCH Neighborhood Housing; Joel Harrington, director of government relations for the N.H. Nature Conservancy; Chris Wells, policy director for the N.H. Forest Society; David Preece, executive director of the Southern N.H. Planning Commission; and Dick Ingram, president of the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce. No one spoke against the bill.

“We firmly believe that a healthy community requires a healthy business community and good jobs,” Ingram said, adding affordable housing options for workers are critical to the business community.

The Portsmouth City Council recently adopted a development ordinance that offers developers an incentive to create affordable housing units in new developments. A density bonus enables developers to increase the number of units in a housing project by up to 50 percent, provided the sale of the extra units be reserved for buyers or renters who earn 120 percent of the area’s median income or less. For a family of four, this would mean a ceiling of about $86,000 for eligibility.

But residential development poses significant threats to farmland, forestland, water sources and wildlife in New Hampshire. According to the Society for the Protection of N.H. Forests, the state loses about 17,500 acres of forestland every year. Projections from the Forest Society show that 85 towns will lose 500 acres of forestland by 2025, and 20 towns will lose 1,000 acres.

“We really feel the pull at the local level between the development pressure and the conservation pressure,” Silva told the Economic Development Committee on March 12.

Wells said land conservation does not have to be at odds with workforce housing. Although New Hampshire has been the fastest growing state in the Northeast for the last four decades, he said, zoning amendments and strong local planning can help communities meet housing demands while promoting conservation.

Supporters of SB 217 say density bonuses such as the one Portsmouth adopted support conservation efforts by encouraging compact development that covers less acreage. The bill also promotes reuse of existing buildings, minimizing impacts on the community’s infrastructure and the environment.

During a monthly meeting in Portsmouth on March 9, the Seacoast Workforce Housing Coalition outlined a number of measures area communities are considering to address the issue of affordable housing. Brentwood and Kingston are considering ordinances that would provide density bonuses for developers, and the York, Maine, Board of Selectmen recently appointed a Workforce Housing Commission.

Eliot, Maine is contemplating an open space ordinance that will appear on the town ballot in 2009, and Kittery, Maine, is eyeing a parcel of privately owned land that could potentially be used as a workforce housing site.

Should local communities fail to take action, the N.H. Charitable Foundation estimates the lack of workforce housing will cost the state 1,300 to 2,800 jobs per year. The foundation also predicts a $21 to $33 million reduction in state and local revenues, a $57 to $121 million reduction in personal income and a $123 to $253 million reduction in gross state product.

<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]-->