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Planning Board to review Performance Zone uses after members question saturation of self-storage, car washes and similar businesses
Summary
The board discussed narrowing permitted uses in the Performance Zone to reduce perceived oversupply (self-storage, car washes, certain retail) and to shape future redevelopment toward mixed-use and dining, directing staff to prepare suggested ordinance language and parking standard updates for review.
Planning Board members expressed recurring concern that the Performance (commercial) Zone allows a long list of by-right uses that encourage repetitive or low-value commercial development in Hooksett's prime corridors. At the Sept. 22 workshop the board discussed removing or narrowing certain high-frequency uses (examples cited by members: self-storage facilities, car washes, some automotive uses, vape shops, and additional new gas stations) and moving toward a narrower set of preferred uses (mixed-use development, restaurants and pedestrian-oriented retail) to support downtown/village revitalization.
Members said zoning changes should be structured to encourage reinvestment of existing developed sites rather than generating more underused space. Staff recommended a careful rewrite of the Performance Zone to make allowable uses narrower by right and to allow the planning board to consider waivers or special exceptions for other uses; several members argued that narrowing by-right uses would give the planning board more discretion and reduce the need for frequent variances. The group also discussed reviewing parking requirements across use categories to better match modern demand (for example reducing some high ratios to a 1-space-per-unit or a lower per-square-foot standard) and asked staff to provide draft language.
Several board members said any change would require a warrant article and voter approval because zones are set in the ordinance. Staff and the board agreed to prepare a draft list of uses to be removed and alternate language for the Performance Zone; the board asked that draft be ready for review at a subsequent meeting and then, if approved by the planning board, be forwarded as a proposed zoning amendment for public hearing and ballot placement.
Ending: Staff will prepare redlined Performance Zone language and recommended parking standard revisions for the board to review at a future public meeting; the board indicated it will consider a voter-facing warrant article to implement the changes.
