The Keene City Council voted unanimously Thursday to adopt two ordinances that could help bolster the local housing stock. Thursday’s action comes as communities in the Monadnock Region continue to contend with a tight housing market.
One of the ordinances reduces parking requirements to one space per residential unit from two in some areas of Keene. The other allows units to be added on a property without requiring more land there.
Both ordinances, which went into effect immediately, were intended to help Keene combat the housing crisis, and make it a more attractive place for developers and homeowners to add dwellings.
The ordinance eliminating additional land requirements for each additional dwelling unit on a property pertains to the medium density, high density and downtown transition districts. The change allows people interested in adding an apartment to their home, or turning a single-family home into multiple units, to do so without needing more land.
Additionally, developers need only a base amount of land to put in a multi-unit building in those three districts, rather than needing additional land per unit.
“Staff proposed this change because it was identified as a barrier to housing development, to infill opportunities, and to redevelopment opportunities,” according to Thursday’s City Council agenda packet.
Senior Planner Mari Brunner said residents are eager for these kinds of changes, noting that “what we’re seeing now is a really strong desire for addressing the housing crisis by encouraging more density in our already built-up areas of the city … where we have the infrastructure in place already, where there is, you know, on-street parking available, or public parking lots nearby.
“It just makes sense for that to be where we add density,” she said.
Councilor Kate Bosley spoke briefly at the meeting to introduce the minimum lot size ordinance and advocated for it. “This is a pretty simple ordinance change,” she said.
“This will help create some density … and it’ll put us that much better in position to meet our future housing goals.”
Parking requirements were reduced to require only one parking space per residential unit, and even fewer spaces in specific cases. Before last night, two spaces per unit were required in most places in the Elm City. Before the ordinance was adopted, there were no parking requirements in the heart of downtown, and this remains the case.
Reducing parking requirements is one way for municipalities to encourage development, since minimums can prevent development in existing neighborhoods.
Additionally, developers could be dissuaded from pursuing multi-family housing developments by the cost of putting in required parking.
This week’s ordinance changes are among ongoing efforts by city officials to address the housing crunch in Keene. Last year, councilors voted to allow accessory dwelling units throughout the city, and recently voted to increase the height buildings can be in the commerce district.
Places to live in the Elm City are both pricey and in short supply. To keep up with demand, about 1,400 new dwellings need to be added to the housing stock by 2033, a 2023 needs assessment conducted for Keene found. And in 2021, about a third of residents were paying more than a third of their income on housing costs, according to the report by Camoin Associates.
Josh Meehan, executive director of Keene Housing, attended public hearings last month to support both ordinances adopted Thursday.
Keene Housing supports people in need of affordable housing, and manages several affordable housing properties in the area.
Meehan told a Sentinel reporter that Keene Housing might consider converting a large empty lot it was required to have into additional housing.
“One of the few levers that a community like ours has is zoning and density and land use,” he said at the hearings.
“And so while the City Council can’t come up with the millions and millions of dollars that we need to build, you can address land use and zoning to help those of us who are trying to address our housing crisis.”
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