Manchester board approves conversion to add three affordable units at Carpenter Center

The Manchester Planning & Zoning Board on Thursday approved CU2025-009, allowing the owner to convert interior commercial and communal space at the Carpenter Center, 323 Franklin St., into three residential units — a 703-square-foot ground-floor ADA-accessible unit and two units made from an eleventh-floor community room.

The application was presented by Amy Chom of the Chom Group LLC on behalf of Carpenter Affordable Housing LLC. Chom said the building is an existing affordable-housing property with 97 units and that the proposed conversions would bring the total to 100 units without any exterior changes. She described the eleventh-floor community room as long, narrow and underused and said the owner relocated community amenities to a more accessible first-floor space.

Why it matters: Board members and staff framed the request as a modest increase in affordable housing and as a way to add an ADA-accessible ground-floor unit in a building that already serves low-income households and residents with disabilities. The New Hampshire Council on Developmental Disabilities (NHCDD) submitted a letter read into the record in support, citing long waiting lists for accessible housing.

Chom described tenant and subsidy details during the hearing. She said 96 of the building's units have project-based assistance vouchers; of those, 40% are set aside for households at 30% of area median income and the remainder at 50% of area median income. The three new units would be restricted to households at 80% of area median income. Chom also said the eleventh-floor units would be voluntarily age-restricted to 55-and-older and that the first-floor unit would be accessible from grade.

An email from Vanessa Blaise of the New Hampshire Council on Developmental Disabilities, read into the record by staff, urged approval and said the first-floor apartment “will be ADA accessible and have direct access from the exterior ground level” and that expanding such units would help people with developmental disabilities avoid multi-year waiting lists.

Board discussion and conditions: Staff and several board members explored details about trash and recycling access for the ground-floor unit and confirmed the building has on-site maintenance and waste pickup; staff said they would follow up to clarify the service location. Staff also noted that zoning rules tie a school-impact fee exemption to an age restriction of 62 and older; the applicant initially offered 55-and-older for the eleventh-floor units. Staff said the total school impact fee for these units would be $1,875 and that restricting the units to 62 and older would avoid that fee; the fire impact fee would remain $1,536.

To accommodate the applicant's stated preference to keep the units at 55-plus while preserving an option to change, the board approved the permit with staff recommendations plus an additional condition: if the applicant later makes a material change (such as amending the age restriction to 62+), the change must be returned to the board for review and approval. Staff explained that if the applicant later sought to declare the units 62+, the matter would be treated as an amendment to CU2025-009, rather than as a separate impact-fee waiver request.

Vote and recusals: Bob Gagne moved to approve the application, Peter Lennon seconded, and the board approved CU2025-009 with the additional condition described above. Andy Boyle recused himself from the item because his employer, New Hampshire Housing, has business dealings with the owner. The board recorded one recusal and approved the permit.

Next steps: Staff will prepare the written decision and contact the applicant with the board's conditions and the mechanism for returning the application to the board if the age restriction is later changed.