Tiny homes, cottage courts, cluster housing and short-term rentals are all on the radar of the Antrim Planning Board as the town tries to combat the effects of the statewide housing crisis at the local level.
“We are open-minded, and we are being mindful of what works for Antrim. Everything is on the table. It is not a quick fix,” said Mark Murdough, chair of the Antrim Planning Board.
In the past few months, the Planning Board has had three public informational meetings to gather information about the housing crisis. At the Aug. 15 meeting, the board passed a motion to create a proposal for a Connected Village Overlay District, which would allow for the creation of small neighborhoods in and adjacent to the downtown including smaller, more energy-efficient and affordable homes for residents, with better access to village services.
The board hopes to expand housing, particularly multifamily housing, in areas already served by town water and sewer.
“We have had some really eye-opening information about housing on the local level, and the board has had some serious discussions,” Murdough said. “We have unhoused people in our town who have been displaced for different reasons, such as fire and illness. The issue might not even be that they can’t afford housing – there just isn’t anything available. People want to stay in Antrim, but they have nowhere to go.”
Planning Board Member John Anderson noted that when it comes to rental prices and wages in New Hampshire, “the math just doesn’t work.”
“The average rent is much higher than the average income. Rents are higher than what working people can qualify for,” Anderson said.
At Thursday night’s Planning Board meeting, Murdough and Anderson shared a video of an existing tiny-house development in Dover. The development was built for employees of an assisted living facility after the owners were not able to attract staff due to lack of available housing.
“This is very encouraging that this type of development happening right here in New Hampshire,” Anderson said.
The Dover development, also known as a “cottage court,” contains 44 housing units, all under 400 square feet, on land that was originally going to be used to build nine homes on larger lots. Murdough said he had been in touch with the city planner in Dover to learn more about the challenges and issues around building a cottage court development.
Currently, Antrim zoning requires two-acre building lots for single-family homes, but the Planning Board is proposing that lot sizes within the proposed overlay zone be reduced by one-third to allow more flexibility with existing lots in the village. Anderson said that the purpose of the proposed overlay district, which will go through Town Meeting in March, is to “find out what will fit for Antrim and figure out what will work.”
“If something doesn’t change with housing, younger generations won’t want to stay here, and the won’t be able to stay here,” Anderson said. “We need to keep our young people in town. We need to make sure people who grew up here can come back and raise their families if they want to, because right now, it isn’t possible.”
Short-term rentals discussed
The Antrim Zoning Board of Adjustment has requested that the Planning Board consider creating an ordinance around short-term rentals, which is defined by law as less than 30 days.
State law allows towns to prohibit short-term rentals, but Murdough reiterated Thursday that the Planning Board is not trying to prohibit Airbnb in Antrim.
“We want to be very clear; we are not trying to prevent local people from renting out their properties. We need travel and tourism here in Antrim, but we don’t want it at the cost of residents, so that it becomes an investment community, ” Murdough said. “The concern we have is landlords and businesses from out of state coming in here and just making money off of Antrim and using our services, and that there is no one on-site when problem arise.”
Murdough said there are a growing number of short-term rentals on Antim’s waterfront properties, including Gregg Lake, Steele’s Pond and Franklin Pierce Lake. Anderson said that the Antrim PD has reported increased visits to several short-term rentals in town.
“It’s not because the guests are doing anything bad in most cases; it’s that they do not have anyone to call when they have some kind of an issue, because the owners are off site, and the visitors are not familiar with the local area. One short-term rental has caused three traffic accidents, because the guests were not aware that it is on a dangerous corner. There are too many cars, people don’t know where to park. Our health and safety officers have to do more work, our fire and police have to do more work. It’s issues like that,” Anderson said. “If you are a property owner in Antrim and you have an Airbnb, no one has an issue with that.”
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