Portsmouth council endorses recovery housing CDBG award after heated public hearing; Sprague homeownership resolution not advanced
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Summary
After a packed public hearing on March 23, Portsmouth’s Town Council voted to endorse a CDBG application for recovery housing at 79 East Main (6–1) while failing to advance the Sprague/Bristol Ferry 40-unit homeownership resolution because it received no second. Residents raised density, contamination and displacement concerns; town planners and the applicant answered technical questions about affordability terms and tax treatment.
Council President Hamilton opened the hearing and urged public comment before the council considered two applications for Community Development Block Grant funding: one to support 40 affordable homeownership condominiums on the corner of Sprague and Bristol Ferry roads and one to fund recovery housing at 79 East Main Road.
The council heard extended public testimony on the Sprague Street proposal from neighbors and housing advocates. Sal Carcella told the council that an existing nearby mobile-home park — Sunny Acres — amounts to deeply affordable housing for many residents and warned that, “If this park closes, we will effectively lose 126 affordable units in Portsmouth.” Residents, including Tom Grieve and David Souza, pressed concerns about neighborhood density, infrastructure capacity and the potential for contamination on a former gas-station parcel at the site.
Bob Plaine, who advises the town on CDBG matters, told the council how affordability will be enforced under the applicant’s financing approach: “State law mandates that they must be affordable for at least 30 years,” and Plaine said Church Community Housing uses a ground lease approach that he said “ensures that these properties will be affordable in perpetuity.” When neighbors asked about property-tax treatment, the town tax assessor explained that an assessed value generally reflects any covenant or deed restriction and that assessed values for deed-restricted units are typically lower than unrestricted market value.
On the second application — a proposed recovery housing project at 79 East Main to be operated by Community Blessings Foundation (doing business as Healthy Living Recovery) — the applicant’s consultant and project representative described a renovation program and an expected project total cost of about $2.2 million. After hearing from neighbors and the applicant’s representative, the council considered the two resolutions required to endorse CDBG funding.
Resolution A (Sprague Street) did not receive a second when moved and was not advanced. Resolution B (the 79 East Main recovery housing endorsement) was seconded and approved in a recorded vote (motion passed 6–1). The council’s endorsement is a step in the grant-application process; Plaine reminded the public that council endorsement does not itself approve construction or change the prior planning-board approvals that determine whether the development may proceed.
Next steps: with council endorsement, the town will submit the CDBG application for the 79 East Main site. The Sprague Street/CCHC application could be brought back for reconsideration if a councilor moves and seconds a resolution in a future meeting.
