A new workforce housing development slated for East Concord received major site plan approval from the Concord Planning Board this week.
Three buildings comprising 123 two-bedroom units would be built near Pembroke Road and Sheep Davis Road, not far from the offices of the Community Action Program of Merrimack and Belknap counties.
“The need for workforce housing in Concord and Merrimack County is huge,” Joe Tamposi, of Brookline Opportunities LLC, said at the meeting. “We’re very excited to be proposing this opportunity.”
Tamposi said that the county’s vacancy rate of 0.4% is far below what experts consider a healthy rate of 5%, and this project would help alleviate some of the pressure on renters in a tight market.
Before voting to approve the plan, the board stipulated that developers would work with city staff to ensure access to public and school buses for the apartment residents.
In addition to apartments and parking, the development near Target and Baked Cafe and Bakery will include green space and a dog park.
Developers Brookline Opportunities LLC received a conditional use permit that frees them from including any commercial development in their plans. Since the 10-acre parcel sits within the Gateway Performance Zoning District, the land is subject to an ordinance that requires residential developments of that size to be mixed-use.
During the public hearing on Wednesday night, the board heard from residents concerned about the waivers that allow the developers to forgo building more parking spaces and a sidewalk on Pembroke Road, as well as the fact that the proposed development will not be mixed-use.
The city has identified Pembroke Road as a future priority location for a safe pedestrian walkway.
William Hebert, treasurer for the Bektash Shriners at 189 Pembroke Road, which is next to the planned development, said he was concerned that apartment residents could walk through the woods to park in the banquet hall’s parking lot.
The board approved the conditional use permit that allows developers to include 204 parking spaces, a ratio of 1.65 parking spaces for each resident, which is below the city’s requirement of two spaces per unit. City Planner Heather Shank said the industry standard for multifamily parking ratios was 1.25 and that the development’s designs allowed for future parking to be built later if needed.
Concord resident Roy Schweiker expressed concern about the lack of mixed-use development on the site, arguing that city residents shouldn’t subsidize housing for people moving from out of state.
“I think we need to try to hold down the projects that are not going to pay for themselves,” Schweiker said. “I think that allowing three buildings of apartments and no commercial space to offset the taxes is a mistake.”
Planning Board member and At-Large Councilor Byron Champlin pushed back. “Would you believe I have an adult daughter who lives with her parents and works two jobs, and lives with her parents because she can’t find an affordable apartment in Concord?”
To be designated workforce housing, the two-bedroom units included in the development must be affordable for three-person households making 60% or less of the area family median income. For family of three earning $52,000 a year, that would mean the rent for two-bedroom unit could not be more than $1,300 a month. The median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Concord is $1,448, according to a 2021 New Hampshire Housing rental survey.