MANCHESTER, N.H. – On Thursday night, the Manchester Planning Board closed their public hearing on a proposed site plan for a new eight-unit congregate housing facility on Maple Street.
The new facility, located just north of the 7/11 location on Bridge Street, is situated within the R-3 zoning district, which allows congregate housing as a permitted use. The applicants, NFI North, sought to change the use of the property, which currently exists as an office space for a law firm and an attached annex that is used by a cleaning agency.
A request was also made to the Planning Board to modify the property’s site plan, adjusting the building’s parking lot to allow eight spaces and also removing an extra curb cut from Arlington Street along the southern border of the property.
Founded in 1991, NFI North currently operates 18 other congregate housing units in New Hampshire and Maine. According to representatives of the applicant, approximately two to five staff members would be on site at all times to help the residents of the facility, with only those staff members and van expected to use that parking lot. They added that the majority of residents in their other facilities are those in psychological distress, looking to recover and adjust with diagnoses such as schizophrenia.
Although the building is located in the R-3 zoning district, many nearby homes are located within the R-2 zoning district, which does not allow congregate housing.
Several neighbors were concerned with an increase in traffic, as the building is currently largely empty, as well as off-street parking with specific concerns in traffic and parking in the afternoons when students from nearby Manchester Central High School ending their day increases congestion in the area.
There are also concerns with drug usage and littering related to drug usage, both near the 7/11 and in alleyways near the building.
“I feel that this property being changed into a congregate house is really going to hurt the community,” said Terry Carr, pastor of a church directly abutting the property on Arlington Street.
Public comment on the application is now closed, the Planning Board is expected to act upon the application in two weeks.
