Plymouth, NH

Community Meeting: Housing in Plymouth

Wednesday October 25^th, 2023 at 6:30 pm
Plymouth Regional High School (86 Old Ward Bridge Road)

In 2022, The New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs (BEA) launched the $100 million InvestNH initiative with ARPA State Fiscal Recovery funds.  This includes InvestNH Municipal Planning and Zoning, or HOP (Housing Opportunities Planning) grants. This program is providing funding to municipalities (with no match requirement) to hire qualified consultants to assist with assessing housing needs, analyzing land-use regulations, and suggesting updates to regulations where appropriate. The Plymouth Planning Board, along with the Planning and Development Department, decided to proceed with applying to the program in the fall of 2022. The Town’s application was successful, and Plymouth was awarded a $134,000 grant through the program.*

The funding is helping the town gather information which will contribute to a comprehensive understanding about housing in Plymouth including current status of housing, housing needs, and what the Town wants to do to address housing in Plymouth. Specifically, the project includes:

• Gathering current data about housing (number of units, cost, location and land area, condition, etc.), demographic information (population, age, household income, etc.), economic trends, and employment in Plymouth and develop a report that addresses our current housing situation and future needs.
• Undertaking a substantial public engagement effort to understand the community’s needs, preferences, and perceptions about housing and development in Plymouth.
• Conducting an audit of our current land use regulations that impact housing including density, location issues, available infrastructure, and cost of development of different types of housing. Identify and report about barriers to housing development presented by the Town’s development regulations. (Zoning Ordinance, Site Plan Review Regulations, Subdivision Regulations)
• Drafting amendments to land use regulations which are consistent with the values and needs of the community, and with the identified deficiencies in the current regulatory structure.
  

In November, a Housing Committee was formed. The Committee includes people with knowledge of housing and land use regulations from various sector of our community to help facilitate and spread awareness about the project. In November/December, the Committee interviewed prospective consultants and selected Barrett Planning Group, LLC to assist with the project tasks.

This will be a major project, ongoing throughout 2023 and into 2024. We will be asking all members of the community, including residents, property owners, realtors, and employers, to provide input on housing needs and issues. Together we will work to improve our understanding of housing in Plymouth, including housing needs and preferences and how our land use regulations might better address housing issues. At present there have been multiple public meetings, a survey, and stakeholder interviews. Check this website regularly for information about new and ongoing opportunities to get involved in the project.

*This project is being supported, in part by, federal award number SLFRP0145 awarded to the State of New Hampshire by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Important Dates:

On August 3rd, 2023 the Planning Board and Housing Committee held a joint meeting to discuss takeaways and initial findings from the first two phases of the project (Housing Needs Assessment and Regulatory Audit), and began providing guidance to Barrett Planning for phase three (Regulatory Development). The video of this meeting can be viewed under “videos” below.

Thank you to all of those who attended the April 6th Community Meeting; took the community survey; attended the June 7th community meeting; or otherwise provided input into the process so far! Information about what occured at these meetings and results of the survey are available below under “resources.”

Housing Committee:

Many thanks to the committee members listed below who are giving countless hours to the project. The Committee meets on Tuesdays at 9 – 10 am at Plymouth Town Hall. Please know that we have set this as our meeting time, but we might not meet every week. All meetings of the Committee are open to the public. For more information, please contact planning@plymouth-nh.org.

• Mike Ahern
• Patti Biederman
• Brian Chalmers
• John Christ, Chair
• Brian Eisenhauer (Plymouth State University)
• Bruce Wiggett
• Susan Wood, Vice Chair
• Matt Yeaton
• Town Staff: Joseph Perez (Community Planner), June Hammond Rowan (Planning & Development Director)

Media Gallery