Church Community Housing presents 40-unit mixed-income plan at pre‑application review; board requests traffic, parking and school‑impact studies

Church Community Housing Corporation presented a pre-application concept on Aug. 14 for two residential developments at Sprague Street and Bristol Ferry Road proposing 40 units total — 15 on the north parcel and 25 on the south parcel — with at least 25% of units designated as low- to moderate-income.

Christian Belden, representing Church Community Housing, said the project would include a mix of condominiums and apartments and a mix of unit sizes intended to serve families and other households. “These condominiums are really designed to serve as many different family types as possible,” Belden said, describing 1‑ to 4‑bedroom units and a homeownership model that retains the land in a land trust to preserve affordability on resale.

The applicant presented design work by Union Studio (architect Joel VanderWeele) and engineering by LDEC (Mike Russell). The north parcel concept shows a 12‑unit, three‑story walk‑up plus three townhouses (total 15 units) with 17 parking spaces proposed; the south parcel concept shows a 25‑unit building with 46 parking spaces proposed and two curb cuts to create a looped driveway.

Belden and the project team gave an affordability breakdown in the presentation: 11 homeownership units targeted at households earning 50% of area median income (AMI) or less, 11 units for households at 80% AMI or less, nine units at 100% AMI and nine at 120% AMI. Belden noted that Portsmouth’s existing affordable housing stock is low (the presentation cited 2.66% of housing qualifying as long‑term affordable) and that the two projects plus the nearby Ade Bethune House senior project would raise that share substantially.

Board members and several members of the public raised transportation and service delivery concerns. Mary Ellen Martin of Massachusetts Boulevard said the presentation image understates existing congestion at the Sprague/Bristol Ferry intersection and urged an independent traffic study and an assessment of impacts to schools and emergency services. “That intersection every day…is complete gridlock heading into Newport,” Martin said.

The applicant confirmed an independent traffic engineer has been engaged and told the board the team would provide a traffic impact study. Board members requested the traffic analysis consider nearby approvals and pipeline development (a separate 24‑unit project on Turnpike was noted during the meeting). Several board members also asked for more detail on the parking justification for the north parcel: the applicant cited International Traffic Engineers (ITE) guidance to justify 17 spaces for the north parcel but said they had provided excess parking on the south parcel.

Public questions included how the homeownership affordability would be enforced; Belden said the project would use a ground‑lease/land‑trust model that keeps the land in a trust and requires resale at income‑restricted levels consistent with the unit’s original affordability band. Nancy Grieve asked how resale gain would be limited; Belden said resale pricing would be tied to AMI at resale and that the land‑trust mechanism preserves long‑term affordability.

Board members asked that the applicant provide: a traffic study, a detailed parking demand justification and the anticipated number of school‑age children and likely impacts to schools, police and fire services. No vote was taken; the presentation was a pre‑application concept and the board closed the public comment portion with directions for the applicant’s next submittal.

The applicant and team said they will return with the requested technical studies at a subsequent meeting.