To address the town’s long-term housing needs, the Planning Board is proposing zoning amendments that could pave the way for up to 800 new housing units in the next 15 years.
The Planning Board will bring its three zoning amendment proposals before the public at a 7 p.m. hearing on Tuesday. Residents will get a chance to cast ballots on the amendments in all-day Town Meeting voting on May 13.
But supporters still have some work to do to sway skeptics.
“I respect that Hanover needs more affordable housing especially for young families,” resident Keri Craft, who lives on Ledyard Lane, said in a phone interview this week. “I think a lot of the development that has happened sadly has been catered to student housing or people with second homes.”
Craft argues one of the proposed amendments goes against Hanover’s 2024 Sustainability Master Plan, which states “natural resources supporting healthy ecosystems and scenic beauty will continue to define Hanover’s sense of place.”
The plan outlines a goal to “facilitate the development” of 800 new housing units between 2020 and 2040.
“My main concern is that we will lose the character of the neighborhoods because people are building bigger homes on smaller lots and taking down large mature trees that used to define much of downtown,” Craft said.
The Planning Board is proposing two zoning amendments to encourage housing development. One is meant to permit more so-called infill housing, which allows for the construction of homes on lots where water and sewer services are already available. Another amendment is designed to make it easier for nonprofits to create workforce housing in zones they’re already allowed to build in.
The first zoning amendment, if passed, would create the “house-scale residential dwelling overlay district,” allowing for the creation of up to four housing units in as many as two separate buildings in districts served by town water and sewer.
“The overlay district will make building small, multi-unit developments easier by not having to go through special exceptions or as many planning board processes,” Alex Taft, a senior planner for Hanover, said in a phone interview.
A “house-scale residential dwelling” is defined by the zoning amendment as “a building with one to four dwelling units the size of a small-to-large house.” This includes duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, courtyard buildings and townhouses.
Currently, two-family and, in some cases, only one-family dwellings are allowed in the districts served by town water and sewer.
“The intent and purpose of this overlay district is to provide for moderate-density, housescale residential dwellings in neighborhoods containing a mixture of housing types,” says the amendment.
The amendment includes lot size minimums and footprint dimension maximums for each type of building to “ensure that new development is compatible with nearby residential areas, and that the district’s existing residential scale and dimensional appearance will be maintained,” the amendment says.
The second proposed amendment makes way for nonprofits to build workforce housing in the same districts they’re currently allowed to build in, but without getting a special exception.
In 2020, Hanover added a zoning amendment permitting affordable nonprofit-provided workforce housing by special exception on lots in single, general and some rural residential districts that are served by town water and sewer.
“By establishing the threshold of a nonprofit entity the thinking was we could avoid student housing,” Town Manager Robert Houseman said in a phone interview.
College students often meet the income requirements for affordable workforce housing, but nonprofits developing this type of housing in the Upper Valley usually have their own requirements that bar full-time students from living in those units.
Twin Pines Housing, based in Hartford, is one such nonprofit. It’s “unlikely” a student would qualify to live in a Twin Pines’ managed dwelling, said Andrew Winter, the executive director of the organization.
In Hanover, Twin Pines currently manages 76 affordable housing units at Gile Hill, which is near the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
In 2020, Town Meeting voters approved a warrant article to transfer 4 acres of town-owned land on Greensboro Road to Twin Pines to develop workforce housing. Conversations are ongoing between the Selectboard and Twin Pines around the potential development of that site, Winter said.
The final zoning amendment would create guidelines for Dartmouth to put up “campus wayfinding signage.”
“There would be signs directing community members or visitors to places like the library, academic buildings, parking, athletics facilities, or the arts district, for example,” said Jana Barnello, a college spokesperson. “Only a small number of signs are being considered for the coming years.”
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