MANCHESTER, N.H. – A proposal to convert a former office building at 22 Hazel St. into five apartments moved forward at the Manchester Planning Board’s first meeting of February after the property owner withdrew an earlier plan to create a 14-unit rooming house that drew significant neighborhood opposition last fall.
The current application, seeks a change of use request to convert the building, located near the intersection of Hazel and Brook streets, into a one-bedroom unit, three two-bedroom units and one three-bedroom unit on a roughly 9,000-square-foot lot.
The scaled-back plan follows a contentious September 2025 public hearing, when property owner Hsiu Chang sought a conditional use permit to operate a 14-unit rooming house at the same address. That proposal generated multiple letters and public comments in opposition from residential neighbors, members of the nearby Amoskeag Presbyterian Church and then Ward 3 Alderman Pat Long, who cited concerns about neighborhood safety, traffic and quality of life.
Back in September, Mark and Robin Katsalis of 8 Hazel St., opposed the use of 22 Hazel St. as a rooming house, arguing that a transient population would alter the character of the street. Another resident, Rania Barton of 17 Hazel St., then told the board she feared a rooming house would bring “traffic, cars, strangers constantly without a stop” to the one-block street.
Alderman Long also registered formal opposition, writing that Ward 3 already has a high concentration of rooming houses and warning of potential disturbances and erosion of neighborhood quality of life.
During that September hearing, Chang said he intended to create a managed facility with an onsite superintendent and emphasized his ties to the city. He also hosted an open house to address neighborhood concerns.
In the months that followed, Chang returned with a new proposal that eliminates the rooming house component entirely in addition to scaling back the scope of the proposal.
Under the current plan, the use would be permitted by right in properties zoned R-3 under the city’s zoning ordinance, which includes 22 Hazel St., thus removing the need for a conditional use permit.
At the February hearing on the revised proposal, Pastor Scott Creole of Amoskeag Presbyterian Church said he previously spoke against the rooming house plan but now supports the apartment conversion, saying the applicant had worked to address neighborhood concerns.
Creole also noted that the church has used the property’s parking lot on Sunday mornings for roughly 25 years and hopes to continue that informal arrangement as the project moves forward. Chang confirmed that the church’s parking use has been informal and that he expects it to continue.
Planning Board Vice Chair Bob Gagne commended the applicant for revising the proposal, saying the five-unit development fits the neighborhood better than the earlier rooming house concept.
Board members focused their discussion on site details, including parking configuration, pedestrian access and trash handling. The applicant indicated the apartments would likely be leased on a long-term basis. The board also sought slightly more landscaping on the property.
With these questions pending, the public hearing on the request as well as separate requests for three waivers were kept open until the board’s March 5, 2026 meeting.