Vote No on Zoning Amendment 11
I am writing to inform Peterborough citizens about zoning amendment #11, which is on the May 10 ballot. The amendment allows the Monadnock Community Hospital to build multifamily housing. Presently, the Health Care District zoning only allows housing for hospital staff or students. This amendment change removes the restrictions on who can live there.
For years, the hospital has had a problem of employee housing: it is either unavailable or too expensive. To address this, they have been saying they want to build affordable housing for their employees. Because I feel that it is important for them to follow through with that commitment,
I am NOT in support of this change without including a requirement for a small percentage of workforce housing.
At the March 14 Planning Board meeting, where this amendment was suggested, the public was not allowed to attend. The discussion was dominated by Planning Board members who felt that, “Any housing is good housing,” and that we should trust the hospital to build workforce housing because they say that is what they want to do. But what if the hospital sells the land to an outside party? What guarantee would we have that any of the units would be workforce? The housing units might all be high-end luxury condos, and the town would have no recourse unless “workforce” is written into the zoning amendment.
At the March 14 meeting, I argued strongly that we need to add “workforce” to the amendment so there could be a long-term, guaranteed cap on the price for some units. Adding “workforce” does not require ALL units to be workforce, just some. Including workforce in the amendment should not be a burden for a developer, because it enables the Planning Board to give allowances to make the development financially viable. For example, the Planning Board could give a density bonus, which would allow additional market-priced housing units to be built. Also, state and federal grants and tax inducements can help make the project work.
Some may wonder why I think the hospital should provide workforce housing. I have been told that, as a non-profit institution, the hospital is required to provide some benefit to the town. Originally, the benefit was affordable housing for their employees. Now they don't want to be tied to that. Do you think it would benefit the town if they built luxury apartments or houses?
Why Rush into this Change?
At the first and only public meeting for this amendment (March 30), I asked the hospital CFO if this project would be started within a year, and his answer was no. So, I suggested the Planning Board delay putting it on the ballot to hold more public hearings before deciding if workforce housing should be required.
Planning Board members opposed to including “workforce” persisted and won 4 to 3. (One of the Planning Board members even stated, “Let them sue us!” I would argue that it is inappropriate for a Planning Board member to publicly acknowledge that its unimportant to follow procedure.) It’s a red flag that three out of seven planning board members voted against, indicating that Amendment #11 is not ready for the ballot and, therefore, should not be passed.
So, my recommendation for this amendment is to ask yourself:
Do you want the hospital…
to be able to build any type of housing they want? Vote yes on #11
to require workforce housing in the Health Care District? Vote no on #11
