Select Board approves 11-year tax relief for Catholic Charities’ Vose Farm Road affordable housing

The Peterborough Select Board voted unanimously Oct. 1 to grant an 11-year Community Revitalization Tax Relief Incentive (CRTRI) to Catholic Charities for the Vose Farm Road Residences, a planned 96-unit affordable housing development.

Jeff Lefkovich, speaking for Catholic Charities, told the board the project will include two phases. Phase One includes 12 units set aside for households with vouchers and 47 units reserved for households earning up to 60% of area median income; five units will be below market rate. The formal groundbreaking for Phase One is scheduled for Oct. 2, 2024. Lefkovich said onsite supportive services will be provided, including educational programming, financial literacy and mental health supports, and that tenants meet with a resident services coordinator shortly after moving in to identify needed services.

Lefkovich said the tax incentive is a key component of the financing, describing the project’s operating cash flow as essentially break-even and saying that without the CRTRI the development “doesn’t work.” He noted the project’s financing includes a required compliance period of 15 years for certain funding sources; the CRTRI the board approved applies for eleven years as allowed under RSA 79-E.

Town Planner Danica Melone explained that a CRTRI freezes the assessed value for the duration of the incentive only for the improvements made, and that the program is intended to encourage redevelopment of underused properties. Assessing Clerk Ali Kreutz summarized how low-income housing often receives special assessment treatments under state guidance, saying low-income housing communities can be taxed in ways that consider either income-based assessment or municipal portions of tax rates, whichever is lower.

Select Board members pressed for timing and details. Board member Bill Kennedy said the Housing Subcommittee had reviewed the application and that, given the project’s reliance on tax-credit reservations for Phase Two, the applicant hoped to secure approval before construction started. Chair Tyler Ward and other members voted to approve the CRTRI application for a period of eleven years; the motion was made by Bill Taylor, seconded by Bill Kennedy and carried unanimously.

The board’s action authorizes the town to apply RSA 79-E treatment to the qualifying improvements at the Vose Farm Road site for the stated period; the agreement and assessment details will be finalized in follow-up administrative steps. The town has 45 days from the hearing to act on a CRTRI application under the statute, and the board completed that decision at the Oct. 1 meeting.

What happens next: Catholic Charities expects to pursue tax-credit reservations for Phase Two and to complete Phase One construction under the current timeline. The board’s vote does not alter programmatic eligibility—Lefkovich said anyone may apply for the housing once units are available—and the organization retains options for eventual ownership conversion under the project’s financing structure.