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The Upper Valley Housing
Coalition
Can Help Developers Get Their Projects
Off the Ground in the Right Way
by Jon Cormier
The shortage of affordable housing for working
families in the Upper Valley is a threat to the
region’s economy, as it affects a broad spectrum of
the Upper Valley’s workforce. How long will people
continue to work in the Upper Valley at fair-market
wages when they’re forced to commute from
ever-increasing distances?
The Upper Valley Housing Coalition (UVHC) has been
informing Upper Valley residents about, and
advocating for, affordable housing since 2001.
Thanks to these efforts, more projects like the Gile
Community Housing Project in Hanover (page 5) are
likely to come about in the future. To help ensure
that future developments take affordable housing and
the environment into account, as the Hartland Group
and Twin Pines Housing Trust have done with the Gile
Project, the UVHC has recently begun offering a
design review process to developers with plans to
develop in the Upper Valley.
The process can reduce the
time spent applying for permits.
According to Anne Duncan Cooley, the Executive
Director of the UVHC, the design review process, “is
a free opportunity for a developer to get a sense of
how their project will be received in the
community.” This confidential feedback is helpful to
a developer because it comes straight from local
professionals who monitor both the demand for
housing at different price points, track changes in
zoning regulations, and review residents’
perceptions that could affect a project’s final
configuration. This process can reduce the time
spent applying for permits, which results in better
bottom-line outcomes.
The design review process begins when a developer
submits an application to the UVHC along with
information on the project he or she intends to
propose to their local planning entity. From there,
the team of professionals and citizen planners
organized by the UVHC reviews the developer’s plans,
then meets with the developer.
Discussion focuses on how consistent the developer’s
plans are with UVHC guidelines for smart growth and
affordability. “This meeting is seen as an informal,
‘coaching’ process for the developer,” Duncan Cooley
said.
Following the meeting, the developer is issued a
letter rating the project “highly consistent,”
“consistent,” or “not consistent,” with UVHC
guidelines. If the developer’s marks from the team
are good, this can increase the chances of getting
the project through the local planning entity, as it
indicates that their plans will be beneficial to the
community from both environmental and economic
standpoints. If the marks aren’t good, nothing has
been lost, because the entire process is
confidential.
“One of the most important things developers need to
know about our design review process is that it’s
not an obstacle,” Duncan Cooley said. “It’s a way to
help developers get their projects off the ground in
the right way. I think the fact that one developer
has been back three times indicates the usefulness
of the process.
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