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Age Friendly Housing forum

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Addressing The Region’s Housing Needs – A Recap 

SNHPC Age-Friendly 
Housing Forum
• Topics
• State Policy Update
• Regional Viewpoint
• Age-Friendly Subdivisions
• Funding Opportunities
• Innovations in Housing
• NH DES Perspective
• Developer’s View on 
Diversity
• AARP’s Livable 
Communities

SNHPC Age-Friendly 
Housing Forum
• Presenters had five (yes, five!) 
minutes to present on their topics
• Each presenter provided a group 
topic discussion
• Audience groups discussed each 
question and developed 
recommendations, answers, and 
more questions to each question
• Presenters shared each group’s 
findings

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
Presenters and Topic Leaders

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
Sarah Jacobs – Director in the Center for Ethics 
in Business and Governance at Saint Anslem 
College (CEBG)
Topic: Housing We Need Initiative
•
CEBG Initiative to find innovative solutions for the crisis in NH
•
The Initiative conducts:
•
Community Surveys
•
Community Roundtables
•
Stakeholder Events
•
Land Use Research

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
Question: How do you encourage a variety of housing 
development in our community?
• Understand community fears
• Where do the fears stem from – what are the fears rooted in
• Who can best describe the fears
• Need for community champions who are objective and have nothing to gain, the 
YIMBY or yes in my back yard
• Having a housing commission for each town – advisory only but a safe place for 
people to talk about housing
• Try for the next step, i.e if attached ADUs are allowed, try detached ADUs
• Identify the messenger for projects, need for the right voice

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
George Reagan – Community 
Engagement Manager, NHHFA
Topic: Overview of New Hampshire’s 
Housing Market
MEDIAN GROSS 
RENTAL COST
2-Bedroom Units

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
Question: If your Master Plan calls for housing 
diversity what is stopping it from being built?
• Ask – are your local regulations reflecting the ‘wants’ of your Master Plan?
• What is causing the shortage of housing? Who is the shortage serving?
• Local leaders needing to be engaged in the housing discussion, to advocate for 
housing diversity.
• Some of the discussion should include inclusionary zoning
• Each community is different but each can consider visualizing what would fit in 
their community
• Turning Master Plan recommendations into reality

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
Cam Prolman – Regional Planner, SNHPC
Topic: Chester Age-Friendly 
Subdivisions
•
Working with a community 
from an input session to a 
voter-approved Age-Friendly 
Subdivision

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
Question: How can communities retain their rural 
character while diversifying their housing stock?
• Need to identify areas in their community where they can increase 
density, decreasing the minimum lot size requirements
• Communities need to define what their character is, and identify what 
housing types will fit in that definition
• Need to plan on a neighborhood level
• Communities should embrace detached ADUs as a way to build more 
housing

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
Robin Leblanc– Executive Director, Plan NH
Topic: Municipal Technical Assistance 
Grant (MTAG)
•
For communities who wish to 
expand options for places to 
live, but find that their zoning 
may be a barrier
•
Grants between $5,000 and 
$20,000

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
Question: How do you or will you know if your 
community is ready for more choices in places to live?
•
Identify public needs through conversation- surveys only get so deep into 
identifying needs and their root cause
•
Ask people what did your town look like 5 years ago, what will it look like 
in 10 more years?

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
James Vayo – Project 
Manager, SNHPC
Topic: Innovations in Housing
•
Examples of housing types 
including
•
Missing Middle Housing
•
Pre-Approved Building Plans
•
Co-Housing
•
And more

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
Question: Which housing innovations stand to have 
the greatest benefit to society?
• How are previous innovations in housing, such as 55+ subdivisions, impacting society 
today?
• Loss of community connection, rural lifestyles make community difficult.
• What are the preferences of seniors? In selecting housing, some prefer 55+ other do 
not.
• How do taxes impact housing types?  Acknowledgement that school funding systems 
play major role in self selection and preferences of households.
• Offering social and health services with dense living

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
Robert Tardif – Administrator, Subsurface Systems 
Bureau, NH DES
Topic: Subsurface Systems Bureau Lot Sizing Requirements
•
Reviewed DES Requirements
•
How these requirements are used at the local level
•
Many communities require larger lot sizes than DES 
requirements

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
Question: How does your town determine minimum 
lot sizes and why?
• Minimum lot size requirements at the state level are much smaller than at the local 
level
• Municipal boards are potentially not aware of the state’s lot size requirements and 
instead carry over requirements that have been in place for decades
• NHDES should increase awareness of state regulations by increasing outreach and 
education to municipal boards
• Why are minimum lot sizes at the local level much larger than state level requirements?
• Potentially a growth control tactic
• Lack of awareness
• Attempt to keep a town’s rural character

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
Kir Harris – Vice President of Development, Elm 
Grove Companies
Topic: Importance of Density
•
Important to hold conversations about increasing units on a 
given parcel
•
Increasing density is essential to reducing costs

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
Question: Would you support diverse and dense 
housing development in your town? How about the 
town next door?
• Hard to have higher density without sewer/water
• Understand the demographics of smaller units – not just new graduates
• Multifamily as a way to revitalize downtown cores
• Acknowledge that even with increasing density allowance, there can be 
problems with financing

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
Todd Fahey – State Director, AARP New Hampshire
Topic: AARP’s Liveable Communities

Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission
Question: How does housing (or lack thereof) impact 
the other domains of livability?
• Housing has the potential to create connections with people with their work –
historical mill example, why not duplicate this again, creating opportunities 
between home builders and companies needing workers
• House vs home and creating homes that are multi-generational – built in 
childcare, social engagement
• When kids move out so do parents – often parents who have contributed to the 
community for decades, with these pillars of the community gone – it leaves a 
large gap
• Need for creating more tools for homeowners aside from ADU

Help us continue the conversation. 
Please share with your communities 
and anyone who should be a part of 
this conversation.
Becoming Age-Friendly
Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission