MANCHESTER, N.H. – A request for 79-E tax relief for a new downtown apartment complex was approved by the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BMA) on Tuesday following opposition by the Manchester Heritage Commission.
The Heritage Commission found in January that 24 Depot St. and 21 West Auburn St., the two properties that would hold the new apartment building, were culturally and historically significant to the city. Under New Hampshire Revised Statute Annotated Chapter 79-E, a law designed to help renovate dilapidated parts of downtown areas through tax relief, any properties found culturally, historically, or architecturally significant are not eligible for the 79-E tax relief.
City solicitor Emily Rice told the BMA they had three options regarding the 79-E requests for the two properties: approve the requests, send the matter back to the Heritage Commission or request additional investigation on the cultural, historical and architectural significance of the property by the New Hampshire Department of Historical Resources.
Susan Manchester, an attorney for the applicant, told the BMA that under 79-E, any city can modify RSA 79-E to its own needs, and that the Heritage Commission is an advisory body to the BMA.
Manchester Board of Assessors Chairman Robert Gagne said that the two properties did meet the other requirements of RSA 79-E, providing a public benefit and being located within the downtown area or village center of a municipality.
Michael Duffy, a former member of the Heritage Commission, felt that the request for tax relief was inappropriate given the decision of the Heritage Commission on what the loss of the building would mean to the city’s cultural and historical makeup.
“To make taxpayers bear the cost of destroying our cultural heritage is insult to injury,” he said.
At-Large Alderman June Trisciani, who served as chair of the Planning Board when the application was approved last fall, re-stated the need for housing in the city that this development would help alleviate as well as the complicated nature of the building due to the various uses and tenants that have occupied the building over the years.
Trisciani also noted that the applicant also agreed to incorporate historical elements of the two properties into the new development.
Eric LeClair of Jones Street, the financial backers of the proposed development, noted that the new building would include facades from the original buildings, columns that echo the design of the original buildings and brick on the first floor.
LeClair said that if the 79E request was not approved in full, the proposed development would have to “go back to the drawing board.”
The measure passed on a 9-3 vote, with opposition from Ward 5 Alderman Anthony Sapienza, Ward 6 Alderman Sebastian Sharonov and Ward 8 Alderman Ed Sapienza.
