Planning board weighs HOP-funded rules tying workforce units to NHHFA limits

Jennifer Rowden of the Rockingham Planning Commission presented draft regulatory language sponsored by the Housing Opportunity Planning (HOP) grant to add Workforce and Affordable Housing income criteria to Hampton’s Site Plan and Subdivision Regulations. She said the changes are intended to guide applicants and the Planning Board while minimizing paperwork burdens for staff and prospective renters or buyers.

Rowden described specific proposals: require units identified as workforce housing to have final sales prices that do not exceed the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority (NHHFA) Workforce Housing Purchase and Rent Limits; lock resales to the then-current NHHFA estimated Affordable Purchase Price; and require applicants to execute a restrictive covenant recorded at the Rockingham County Registry of Deeds. The draft text in Section VI (Special Requirements) included a covenant duration placeholder noted in the minutes as "{25?} years." Town Planner Jason Bachand requested that rental-agreement reporting be due June 30 to avoid overlapping December 31 Stormwater O&M deadlines, and Office Manager Andrea Novotney asked that the regulation include language specifying fines for failure to submit required rental agreements.

Board members discussed whether affordability restrictions should be time-limited (for example, 25 years) or perpetual and requested clarifying language on enforcement and reporting. The Planning Board did not adopt final wording at the meeting; Rowden will return to finish the HOP regulatory work before the program ends in late September.