‘A very precious resource’: Penacook housing project denied zoning exception

Thursday, January 9, 2025

By Catherine McLaughlin, Concord Monitor

The five members of the board were torn.

A motion to deny the application hung in the air, without anyone willing to second it. Then a motion to approve it met the same fate. Residents in the audience “ooohed” with intrigue.

On the table was a request from New England Family Housing for permission to put a condo and apartment project on 40 acres of industrially zoned land between the interstate and the Merrimack River in Penacook.

In the end, the Concord Zoning Board split 3-2 to reject the request. It means dwindling paths forward for a plan that was once the largest proposed housing development in the city.

The city and the developer’s team, led by CEO Kevin Lacasse, have gone back and forth on whether or not an industrial development on that land was desirable or even possible and the value of 100 new units of affordable housing the proposal would bring to Concord.

But it was ultimately the city’s argument that won out: that the 2008 Master Plan had set aside this land for industrial development for a reason, and there wasn’t overwhelming evidence that the area was better suited for housing.

“I don’t think we can have too much housing,” board member Laura Spector-Morgan said. “But I don’t think we need it here.”

Lacasse originally proposed a mixed-use housing development with more than 900 units in the area. After two years of discussion with the city about potential cost-sharing on infrastructure costs, Deputy City Manager Matt Walsh told Lacasse firmly that Concord would not consider rezoning the industrial land until after a new master plan is drawn up — a process that has yet to begin and expected to last years. Lacasse then downgraded his plans to just under 200 units, roughly half affordable apartments, hoping it would be more appealing, he said. While a path through the Concord City Council is still possible, the headwinds are strong.

At the zoning board, Lacasse argued in favor of a variance, which would have allowed the project to go forward.

An industrial project at this location isn’t feasible in the current market, he said, and the city would be better off with the added affordable housing and the tax revenue it will generate.

Initially, Lacasse said, he looked into an industrial project: “Everyone that we talked to just said, ‘No. The site is too constrained, so it just won’t work.’ ”

“Industrial is a non-starter,” added John Cronin, a lawyer for the project. “To ask someone to wait until 2028, 2030 or maybe beyond to get productive use of their property, we don’t think is reasonable.”

Walsh underlined the city’s stance that the land held far more value to the people of Concord as a potential future industrial project.

“Concord will continue to grow,” he said. “There are only 221 acres of undeveloped, raw industrial land in the city of Concord today. That is a very precious resource, there’s not a lot of it and it needs to be preserved for future economic development.”

Zoning Board members said they saw compelling cases for both sides, but the industrial nature of the area — at least as intended by city leaders in the most recent master plan — overwhelmed the argument for housing in this particular place.

“I was in fourth grade when the master plan was written in 2008,” board member Mark Davie said. “Nobody my age has known a fair housing market in their adult life, so you don’t have to tell me there’s a housing crisis.” But, he concluded, “Ultimately, it’s just blatantly in the industrial zone.”

If circumstances in the city had changed since 2008, and if that kind of development was no longer a good fit there, that kind of decision making wasn’t up to the zoning board.

“It’s not our job to change the zoning. It’s our job to repair little bits and pieces that fall off the wagon because they weren’t put on quite right,” Chair Chris Carley said. “It’s possible the master plan is in error, but it’s not our job to correct the error in this case. That is the job of city council and the planning board.”

The ordeal has been frustrating for Penacook resident Brennan Bourque to watch. He liked the old plan.

It “would have been great for the town of Penacook. I think it would have brought things for young people to do. It would have brought housing,” he told the zoning board. He argued the request for this smaller proposal should be rejected, but for the opposite reason than it was. “It’s not enough.”

The project was first called Monitor Way because it initially included 95 acres of land to be purchased from Newspapers of New England, the parent company of the Concord Monitor. The most recent proposal involves 40 acres owned by the Concord Regional Solid Waste Coop, called the “North 40.”