Jobs are plentiful at New London-based businesses such as the hospital and Colby-Sawyer College, but housing in town is not.
“You need starter homes,” to attract and retain workers, Housing Commission Chairman Peter Nichols said by phone last month.
The Housing Commission is an advisory body formed in 2020 to study the town’s housing situation and make recommendations to the planning and select boards. It will hold a public forum on Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. in Colby-Sawyer College’s Wheeler Hall to solicit input on how best to address the town’s housing needs.
The forum comes as New London’s housing landscape has been complicated in recent months by uncertainty around the capacity of the municipal water supply, and how that supply is allocated to potential users.
Two separate housing developments were set to break ground in New London this fall, a 139-unit senior and assisted living facility being developed by Maine-based Continuum Health Services and 60 units of workforce housing being developed by White River Junction’s Twin Pines Housing. Both project sites are located near New London Hospital.
The rents for the workforce housing units were expected to be $1,500 for one bedroom, including heat, hot water and electricity, and $1,700 for a two-bedroom unit, Twin Pines Executive Director Andrew Winter said in an interview last month.
Continuum’s president, Joe Hogan, declined to provide pricing details for that facility citing the uncertainty of the construction timeline.
But both projects are in limbo after the discovery in July of tetrachlorethylen, or PCE, contamination in the groundwater adjacent to a local dry cleaner. The contaminant was found in the Continuum site’s groundwater, and the state has halted water testing on the nearby Twin Pines site for fear that the test itself might cause the PCE plume to spread.
With well water unavailable, both developers have approached the New London-Springfield Water Precinct with requests to connect to municipal water.
Twice denied, Twin Pines has taken its request to the New Hampshire Housing Appeals Board, where a hearing is set for Nov. 21.
The town of New London supported the Twin Pines workforce housing project by obtaining a $600,000 municipal services grant from the state aimed at accelerating the construction of affordable housing. In addition, voters in 2023 approved zoning changes that would create incentives for workforce housing construction by allowing higher density development for projects that cost no more than 30% of the median household annual income.
“The town of New London Board of Selectmen are very much in support of workforce housing,” Selectboard Chairman Bill Helm said in an interview last month. The viability of the town’s businesses and institutions “are all in jeopardy if they cannot attract employees,” he added.
But statements this summer from Ken Jacques, chairman of the water precinct’s three-person board of commissioners, illuminated a difference of opinion about the feasibility of such housing in New London.
“I understand the need for affordable housing in New London,” Jacques said just before an Aug. 12 permit hearing for the Twin Pines development began. “I think to be fair, New London has never been a place for average workers to live. It’s just not that type of community economically.”
The Twin Pines project is targeted specifically at residents who make no more than 60% of the county’s median income of $88,806. That is slightly less than the statewide median of $90,845, according to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.
Twin Pines alleges in its appeal that the water precinct’s denial of service was “arbitrary, unlawful, and unreasonable,” and that the board of commissioners is unfairly predisposed to support some projects and oppose others.
The Appeals Board hearing is open to the public and will take place in Concord, with a remote option available. Information is available online at: hab.nh.gov.
Meanwhile, Continuum, the senior housing developer, is “still in the evaluation phase as we have not heard anything definitive from the water precinct yet,” Hogan said Monday. “We hope to hear from them soon.”
Next week’s housing forum is part of the Housing Commission’s Paths Home initiative. The effort is supported by a $103,000 Housing Opportunity Planning, or HOP, grant from the state’s Housing Finance Authority that New London was awarded in June. The grant will fund the study of existing land uses, regulations and housing types to help the commission better understand the town’s housing needs.
The grant is a “very exciting” opportunity,” Nichols said.
The effort also includes events such as the forum in order to give residents a chance to help shape the future of New London, Nichols said, and he encourages people to attend.
“I want to really engage the public” in the process, Nichols said, “to help us understand what our town character is.”
More information is online at: newlondon.nh.gov/pathshome.
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