MANCHESTER, NH – Located in the heart of the city, Ward 5 was the spotlight of the latest community zoning meeting hosted by Manchester’s Planning and Community Development Department.
On Saturday morning, 35 people came to the Manchester Community Resource Center to hear about the recommended changes in the first draft of the city’s proposed zoning ordinance revision, which if approved would become the fourth set of zoning ordinances in Manchester’s history.
This meeting marked the eighth of its kind in the city so far, with Manchester Planning and Community Development Director Jeffrey Belanger and Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais reminded the assembled crowd that the current proposal is only a draft and requires community input before it goes to a steering committee and eventually the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, something they have noted at all the earlier meetings.
Belanger also reiterated some of the ordinance rewrite’s goals such as simplifying the city’s zoning ordinance to make it easier for people to understand and update it to reflect the current reality of Manchester’s neighborhoods.
Both of those goals combine in Ward 5 as the proposed zoning rewrite will remove three types of zones from the ward felt to be of no further use. One is the Redevelopment District, or RDV district, has been eliminated in the new ordinance draft. This zone was designed to redevelop a former railroad line with residential and industrial uses, but that redevelopment is largely complete and with an incoming rail trail, industrial uses will no longer be allowed in what will be an incoming Business Corridor – Neighborhood (BC-1) district. That new BC-1 area will include the former RDV, which extends diagonally from Valley Street to Massabesic Street and several other blocks of Valley Street.
Another small industrial area extending into Ward 6’s industrial areas will also be removed and incorporated with a new BC-1 that extends through portions of Hanover Street and Page Street near the Hannaford Plaza, although the plaza itself will be BC-2 (Business Corridor – Regional) which allows for larger retail uses.
A BC-2 area will also be placed near Mammoth Road as replacing the C-2 (Civic District – Hospital) zone, a type of zone that will no longer exist in the proposed ordinance. Under the C-2, only hospitals and comparable healthcare uses are allowed, but Belanger stated that as hospitals face problems attracting employees, new homes to house those employees and new retail spaces to provide services to those employees may be in the hospitals’ best interest, in this case the main campus of Elliot Medical Center.
The rest of the ward east of Mammoth Road will be limited to R1-B (Residential One-Family High Density) and the rest of ward west of Mammoth Road will be either MX-1 (Mixed-Use Neighborhood) or MX-2 (Mixed-Use General). These mixed-use zones focus on low to moderate density residential uses with limited commercial use allowed, although MX-1 has more restrictions on that commercial use than the MX-2 districts.
Ward 5 State Representative Kathy Staub said that the proposed changes are comparable to what’s already in place within the area and hoped that the city could do more outreach with Hispanic and African communities within the Ward regarding the proposals.
She added that the low turnout, the lowest so far among the ward meetings, was partly due to the nature of the ward itself.
“It’s hard to get folks out, we have a lot of renters in this neighborhood and a lot of people who haven’t been around long enough. Most of the people who came out today are people who have been home owners for years and are very invested,” she said. “This is a very transient neighborhood. People aren’t as connected as they are in some other parts of the city.”
Belanger said that even though the crowd was small, it still provided value to staff in his department given some of the vocal opinions of those in attendance. Like the Ward 6 meeting recently, walkability and housing prices were significant points of discussion once the meeting went into breakout groups.
While he noted that the approach across the city is to pursue incremental changes such as reduced minimum lot size requirements to increase the supply of housing without damaging neighborhood character. However, the Ward 5 residents in attendance felt that the changes were too incremental.
“We heard from many people that we did not go far enough, we may need to rethink density caps or units allowed per lot because a lot of people said maybe we didn’t go far enough to allow people to build more housing,” he said.
Previous meetings:
Ward 8 – South Manchester residents express concern over zoning proposal
Ward 10 – Ward 10 gets look at its proposed zoning future
Ward 12 – Zoning ordinance community meetings kick off with Ward 12 gathering
Ward 11 – Zoning rewrite draft proposes more mixed-use in Ward 11
Ward 1 – Gamut of perspectives at Ward 1 zoning gathering
Ward 7 – Community zoning meetings reach halfway point
Ward 6 – Concerns raised with the limited changes proposed for Ward 6
Votes of most important issues for meeting participants to this point.
- Walkability/Bikeability – 197
- Housing – 168
- Architectural Quality/Neighborhood Character – 165
- Allowing Neighborhood Business in More Places – 77
- Streamlining Permitting – 74
- More Parking/Parking Enforcement – 29
- Traffic – 14
- More multi-family homes – 7
- Flooding – 3
- Record these meetings – 3
- Jobs and Housing on Hackett Hill – 3
- Less Density/Reduce Crime – 3
- Traffic Noise – 3
- Infrastructure investment – 3
- Maintain Green Space – 3
- Reduce setback rules on accessory structures – 3
- Recreation Activities/Children’s Sports – 2
- Amoskeag Bridge Impacts – 2
- Speed Bump on Milford Street – 2
- Entry/Exit Roads – 2
- Get rid of useless stop signs – 2
- No more chicken restaurants/Cash for Gold on South Willow St – 2
- Less Bars/Clean up Elm Street – 2
- Ensure Sununu Youth Center land has affordable/ADA accessible housing – 2
- Create boarding housing – 2
- Don’t allow homes near city’s water supply – 1
- Climate Change – 1
- Public Transportation – 1
- Enforce speeding laws – 1
- Prohibit short-term rentals in single-family residential zones – 1
- Ensure home values do not drop due to development – 1
- No 5G towers in residential areas – 1
- Safety/More Lighting – 1
- Increased housing variety – 1
Remaining Meetings
- Aug 21 6 p.m. — Ward 4, McDonough Elementary
- Aug 28 6 p.m. — Ward 2, Smyth Road Elementary
- Sep 4 6 p.m. — Ward 9, Bishop O’Neil Youth Center
- Sep 7 10 a.m. — Ward 3, Palace Theater Spotlight Room
Residents who can’t make the designated time for their ward are welcome to attend other meetings.
Residents who are unable to attend the meetings can participate in an online survey or learn more about the ordinance at manchesternh.gov/landusecode.