Housing Needs Committee reviewing options to increase housing availability

posted on 6/21/2024; updated 6/25/2024

The City Council’s Ad-hoc Committee to Address Housing Needs is more than halfway through its charge to investigate and recommend options that would encourage more attainable housing within the City.

The City Council authorized the creation of the committee in 2023, charging it “to assist the City Council with reviewing data, options, and other information, and ultimately will recommend long-term strategies to City Council and City Manager to encourage and incentivize thoughtful development for residents of all incomes, ages, and abilities.”

It held its first meeting at the end of October after the appointment of a diverse membership of stakeholders, with representation from the City Council, Planning Board, Dover Housing Authority, Community Action Partnership of Strafford County, business and development communities, and Dover residents representing homeowners, renters, and landlords.

The committee and city staff have spent much of the last year soliciting input from the public by various means, with a particular focus on engagement with residents whose voices are historically underrepresented.

“We want to make people feel heard and part of the process,” said Ryan Pope, the City of Dover’s Housing Navigator, a grant-funded role established last year focused on expanding access to attainable housing in the City. 

Last summer, the Planning Department surveyed the public and conducted dozens of in-person interviews concerning the housing challenges faced by residents, which provided the committee with initial information to begin their review process. Over the winter, the City partnered with the Strafford Regional Planning Commission (SRPC) to conduct a regulatory audit of the City’s land-use policies and assist with the technical aspects of the committee’s review and report. This partnership, funded by a $65,000 state grant, allowed for an additional round of community engagement, including digital surveys, stakeholder interviews and visual preference survey boards stationed at the City Clerk’s Office and the Dover Public Library, in addition to market and demographic analysis conducted by students at the University of New Hampshire.

At its last meeting on May 23, staff from SRPC provided the committee with an overview of the initial results of this outreach and analysis, and initial drafts of the regulatory audit are expected in the coming weeks.

The committee seeks to analyze these findings to identify opportunities to create and preserve attainable housing options, with recommendations delivered to the City Council by the end of 2024.

The committee meets next on Thursday, June 27. 

Find more information about the committee, including links to meeting agendas and minutes, at https://www.dover.nh.gov/government/boards-and-commissions/city-council/community-housing-needs-committee/.