It’s the market that will drive housing development in town, and it may be decades before market conditions create the dense amount of growth allowed by a new state law, South Berwick planners told concerned residents last week.
Two dozen residents met with town planners Feb. 11 to learn details and offer feedback on land use ordinances and 2024 Comprehensive Plan revisions that would bring the town into compliance with far reaching new state laws on growth.
The session, hosted by the Planning Board, the Comprehensive Plan Committee and Town Planner DeCarlo Brown, was the first of four “Planning for Change” community meetings allowing residents to help shape local regulations by sharing their thoughts and concerns about residential growth.
“We need to step back from this panic, that these rules are going to allow this massive growth that is going to take up every square inch of every lot,” commented Planning Board member Tony Palazzetti during the meeting. “The market is still going to drive a lot of decisions of developers and landowners, of what they want to do with their properties.”
Palazzetti used as an example the town’s B1 business district, where zoning ordinances allow unlimited development, but has not been substantially built up over the years.
Before the meeting, a dozen people said they were attending because they were curious about the housing density issue and their interest had been piqued by a Town mailer advertising the meeting. A young couple with a baby said they were interested in the future of the town.
Brown opened with an overview of the push to change South Berwick’s land use laws before July 1, 2026, when a new state law requires towns to allow more dwelling units per acre as long as there is adequate water and sewer available.
However, it might be 20 to 50 years before a significant volume of development could occur, Brown predicted, because multiple residents now living in single-family homes would have to sell their lots to developers interested in building multifamily housing in their place.
The initial discussion by town officials focused on the short timeline to meet the state deadline, with several people suggesting ways to secure more time. Resident Brad Christo proposed the Town place a moratorium on building permits and ask state legislators to change the law to give towns more time.
According to Town Councilor Paul Schumacher, in attendance at the meeting, the council has made that request to legislators and there is no certainty an extension will happen.
Parts of town Brown suggested adding to the growth area, where the most dense housing is possible, are Bittersweet Lane; Portland, Academy, Middle, Pleasant and Lower Vine streets; and Agamenticus Road.
On the other hand, he said, the South Berwick “suburbs” that can be taken out of the growth area are Agamenticus Estates, Old Mill, Farmgate and Farmfield, as well as most of Liberty and Upper Vine streets. Those areas all have water and sewer service, and the new law already specifies minimum lot sizes and density requirements for these areas.
The law, LD1829, is complex and confusing even to career planners like himself, Schumacher said after the meeting.
“You can talk to three smart, experienced professional planners and get three different interpretations of LD1829,” he said.
When the meeting was opened to the residents, seated in a huge circle in the Town Hall auditorium, Academy Street residents expressed concern about adding more housing in their neighborhoods, citing the existing traffic from three schools and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and odors from sewer issues caused by inadequate infrastructure, according to Nina Maurer.
“Traffic is hellacious,” said Kimberley Swenson, also of Academy Street. “I don’t leave my house between 2:30 and 4:00, ever.”
Swenson asked what solutions to problems that already exist would be offered if her neighborhood is in the growth area. Standard design tools like improving existing roads, lowering speed limits and adding connecting roads could bring some traffic relief, according to Brown. Dwellings set close to roads also result in slower traffic, he said.
Residents of the Knights Pond/Junction Road area were audibly relieved to hear their neighborhood was not being considered for the growth area.
Residents asked about property management arrangements like condominiums or home owners associations that exist in some areas of town and might be a way for neighborhoods to organize and protect their land from further development. As private legal contracts that create standards within a neighborhood, Brown said, HOAs are deed restricted and would be unaffected by new state laws or ordinances.
“We’re here not to find ways to block (growth), we’re here to find ways to make it livable in our town,” said Hershey Hirschkop, Planning Board chair and an affordable housing advocate, as she steered the conversation back to the task at hand. “It’s deciding, all of us, the best thing we can do to control it in a way we really like.”
The Planning Board’s next Planning For Change meeting is 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25, when the board will review survey data with the Comprehensive Plan Committee and make decisions on the criteria for defining the growth area. The board has encouraged the public to attend, though opportunity for public comment has not been determined.
