MANCHESTER, N.H. – Another new residential building looks to come to a housing-starved city and on Thursday night it took one step closer to becoming a reality.
A proposed six-story building at 516 Elm Street received two variances from the Manchester Zoning Board of Adjustment from the city’s zoning ordinance for minimum buildable lot area and floor area ratio following a presentation and discussion on the building at the board’s January meeting.
The building will be located on the corner of Elm Street at Depot Street just north of Murphy’s Tap Room. A ground-level parking lot will be removed with the new building’s frontage meeting the sidewalk, although an existing underground parking structure on the site will remain.
Engineer Brian Pratt, speaking on behalf of the variance applicant, said it would not make financial sense to expand the underground parking structure given the physical limitations at the site and the limitations of the city’s housing market. However, Pratt noted that there is available on-street parking nearby as well as parking at nearby garages. Members of the board expressed concern with the usage of on-street parking impacting nearby businesses and residential buildings already using that parking. Pratt responded that he would reach out to the Southern New Hampshire University garage to see if it could provide parking for the building, likely referring to the garage approximately 1,000 feet away on South Commercial Street across the Boston and Maine railroad tracks.
Pratt also noted that while the project is slated at 50 units, that was a maximum estimate and there may be fewer units in the building upon completion. Prospective tenants would also be made aware of the live music next door at Murphy’s, with awnings and modified windows available to minimize sound on the side of the building facing Murphy’s.
On the first floor of the six story building, a commercial area is expected. However, Pratt told the board that there is an agreement in place not to rent to a brew pub or any other business comparable to Murphy’s to avoid potentially luring away their customers.
There was also concern over the building’s historic nature after concerns from the city’s Heritage Commission over the residential project built directly to the east of 516 Elm St. several years earlier. The proposed new building is located in the city’s historic Gaslight District, an area roughly bounded by Elm Street, Granite Street, West Auburn Street and Canal Street. While the Heritage Commission did not send a letter to the Zoning Board of Adjustment noting the historical nature of 516 Elm St., Pratt said that the developer would respect the architectural nature of the surrounding buildings when constructing the proposed six-story building.
Both variances were granted unanimously. The building still requires site plan review from the Manchester Planning Board as well as review from the city’s Arena Overlay District board.