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O-21-059

ORDINANCE

AUTHORIZING A RIGHT TURN ONLY LANE ON AMHERST STREET ONTO
COTTON ROAD CONNECTOR

CITY OF NASHUA

In the Year Two Thousand and Twenty-One

The City of Nashua ordains that Part II “General Legislation”, Chapter 320 “Vehicles
and Traffic”, Article IV “Turning Movements”, Section 320-17 “Right lane for right turn only”
of the Nashua Revised Ordinances, as amended, be hereby further amended by adding the
following new underlined language in the appropriate alphabetical order:

Ҥ 320-17. Right lane for right turn only.
g g y

At the following intersections, the right lane shall be used only for right turns:

Name of Street Direction of Travel Right Turn Only Onto
Amherst Street Easterly Cotton Road Connector”

All ordinances or parts of ordinances inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.

This ordinance shall become effective at the time of removal and/or installation of the necessary
sign(s) and/or device(s).

LEGISLATIVE YEAR 2021

ORDINANCE: O-21-059

PURPOSE: Authorizing a right turn only lane on Amherst Street onto
Cotton Road Connector

ENDORSER(S): Alderman Richard A. Dowd

COMMITTEE

ASSIGNMENT:

FISCAL NOTE: Materials, Labor and Vehicle Overhead: $586.00

ANALYSIS

This legislation authorizes a right turn only lane traveling easterly on Amherst Street turning
onto Cotton Road Connector.

The erection, removal and maintenance of all traffic control devices must conform to applicable
state statutes and the latest edition of the manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. RSA
47:17 VII (a). The Board should consult with the City’s Traffic Engineer to determine if this
ordinance is in compliance.

Approved as to form: Office of Corporation Counsel

By: /s/Dorothy Clarke

Date: April 8, 2021

O-21-060

ORDINANCE

NO PARKING AT CERTAIN TIMES AND NO ON-STREET STUDENT DROP-OFF OR
PICK-UP ON SECTIONS OF CLEVELAND STREET NEAR FAIRGROUNDS MIDDLE
SCHOOL

CITY OF NASHUA

In the Year Two Thousand and Twenty-One

The City of Nashua ordains that Part II “General Legislation”, Chapter 320 “Vehicles
and Traffic”, Article XII “Parking, Stopping and Standing” of the Nashua Revised Ordinances,
as amended, be hereby further amended by adding the new underlined language in the
appropriate alphabetical order as follows:

1. In Section 320-68 “No parking or stopping on certain streets”:

Ҥ 320-68. No parking or stopping on certain streets_and no on-street student drop-
off or pick-up on certain streets.

D. No on-street student drop-off or pick-up shall be permitted on the following
streets:
Name of Street Side Location
Cleveland Street North From a point 350 feet west of Almont Street
westerly to a point 1,000 feet west of
Almont Street
Cleveland Street South From a point 350 feet west of Almont

Street westerly to a point 30 feet east
of Fairview Avenue

ORDINANCE O-21-060

2. In Section 320-70 “No parking certain hours and days”:
Ҥ 320-70. No parking certain hours and days.

No parking whatsoever shall be permitted on the following streets during the hours and
days indicated:

Name of Street Side Hours/Days Location
Cleveland Street South 6am to 6 pm/ From a point 830 feet west of
School Days Almont Street westerly to a point

30 feet east of Fairview Avenue”

All ordinances or parts of ordinances inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.

This ordinance shall become effective at the time of removal and/or installation of the necessary
sign(s) and/or device(s).

LEGISLATIVE YEAR 2021

ORDINANCE: O-21-060

PURPOSE: No parking at certain times and no on-street student drop-off
or pick-up on sections of Cleveland Street near Fairgrounds
Middle School

ENDORSER(S): Alderman Richard A. Dowd

COMMITTEE

ASSIGNMENT:

FISCAL NOTE: Materials, Labor and Vehicle Overhead: $886.00

ANALYSIS

This legislation prohibits parking during certain hours and days and prohibits on-street student
drop-off or pick-up on sections of Cleveland Street near the Fairgrounds Middle School.

Approved as to form: Office of Corporation Counsel
By: /s/Dorothy Clarke

Date: April 8, 2021

A special meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Thursday, April 8, 2021, at 7:00 p.m. via
teleconference.

President Lori Wilshire presided; City Clerk Susan K. Lovering recorded.

Prayer was offered by City Clerk Susan K. Lovering; Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws led in the
Pledge to the Flag.

President Wilshire

As President of the Board of Aldermen, | find that due to the State of Emergency declared by the
Governor as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and in accordance with the Governor's Emergency
Order #12 pursuant to Executive Order 2020-04, this public body is authorized to meet electronically.

Please note that there is no physical location to observe and listen contemporaneously to this meeting,
which was authorized pursuant to the Governor's Emergency Order. However, in accordance with the
Emergency Order, | am confirming that we are:

Providing public access to the meeting by telephone, with additional access possibilities by video or
other electronic means:

To access Zoom, please refer to the agenda or the City’s website for the meeting link.

To join by phone dial: 1-929-205-6099 Meeting ID: 893 8882 0492 Passcode: 264334

The public may also view the meeting via Channel 16.

We previously gave notice to the public of the necessary information for accessing the meeting, through
public postings. Instructions have also been provided on the City of Nashua’s website at www.nashuanh.gov
and publicly noticed in the Nashua Telegraph, City Hall, and the Nashua Public Library.

If anyone has a problem accessing the meeting via phone or Channel 16, please call 603-821-2049 and they
will help you connect.

In the event the public is unable to access the meeting via the methods mentioned above, the meeting will
be adjourned and rescheduled. Please note that all votes that are taken during this meeting shall be done
by roll call vote.

Let’s start the meeting by taking a roll call attendance. VWhen each member states their presence, please
also state whether there is anyone in the room with you during this meeting, which is required under the
Right-To-Know Law.

City Clerk Lovering called the roll and asked them to state the reason he or she could not attend, confirmed
that they could hear the proceedings, and stated who was present with him or her.

The roll call was taken with 12 members of the Board of Aldermen present: Alderman Michael B. O’Brien,
Sr., Alderman Patricia Klee, Alderwoman Shoshanna Kelly, Alderman Richard A. Dowd, Alderman June M.
Caron, Alderman Benjamin Clemons, Alderman David C. Tencza, Alderwoman Elizabeth Lu, Alderman
Ernest Jette, Alderman Jan Schmidt, Alderman Skip Cleaver, Alderman Wilshire.

Alderman Tom Lopez, Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws and Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
were recorded absent.

Mayor James W. Donchess was also in attendance.

Special Board of Aldermen 04-08-2021 Page 2

ROLL CALL

President Wilshire

Would the Clerk please call the roll?
Alderman Klee

| am here, | can hear the proceedings, | am alone in my car at the moment and hopefully | will be home
soon.

Alderwoman Kelly

| am here, | am alone and | can hear everyone.
Alderman Dowd

| am present, | can hear everyone and | am alone.
Alderman Caron

Yes, | am here, | can hear everyone and | am alone.
Alderman Tencza

| am present, | am alone here in the room and | can hear everyone.
Alderwoman Lu

| am here alone and | can hear everyone.

Alderman Jette

| am here alone and | can hear the proceedings.
Alderman Cleaver

| am present and | can hear the proceedings; | am alone.
President Wilshire

| am here, | am alone and | can hear the proceedings.

Susan Lovering, City Clerk

You have 9 in attendance.
President Wilshire

Thank you. Also with us this evening is Mayor Donchess. | will, as is customary, turn the Public Hearing
over to the Chair of Budget, Alderman Dowd.

Special Board of Aldermen 04-08-2021 Page 3

Chairman Dowd

Ok this evening we are having a Public Hearing on Legislation R-21-118 — “ESTABLISHING A HOUSING
EXPENDABLE TRUST FUND FUNDED BY APPROPRIATIONS AND MAKING A SUPPLEMENTAL
APPROPRIATION OF $30,000 INTO THE EXPENDABLE TRUST FUND”. Is there someone here to give
an overview?

Mayor Donchess

Yes Mr. Chairman. | will give a brief overview and | believe Director Sarah Marchant is on as well to talk
more about the affordable housing situation, especially if you have questions.

Chairman Dowd

Sure, go ahead Mayor.

Mayor Donchess

As we have discussed before, the housing situation is critical in Nashua. We have a vacancy rate of less
than 1%. Housing demand is very strong both for apartments and for single family homes. As a result,
rents have gone up significantly, and of course, housing prices have as well. The rents, especially in the
smaller units, have gone up 40% in the last few years. Believe it or not, the demand and escalation of rents
is even greater in a smaller unit range, one bedrooms and studios, than it is in the larger apartments.

As a result of these escalating rents, we have more and more people who are having difficulty paying for a
decent living space; people who are paying too much and beyond what they can afford just to have a place
to live. So we want to do everything we can do increase the supply of housing in general and particularly
the supply of affordable housing. Now as you know, Mr. Chair, we’ve recently established the Workforce
Housing on Marshall Street; that’s 150 units. We are currently working with the Housing Authority to
finalize a plan to increase the number of affordable units at Bronstein from about 50 to over 200.

Based upon these facts and based upon the activism of a number affordable housing activists in the City
and | thank them for continuing to bring this issue to the fore. We want to establish this affordable housing
trust fund where we can deposit funds which we can accumulate from various sources, possibly from
developer contributions in order to stimulate or help the development of affordable housing. So, as you can
see from the language of the Legislation, it enables us to help with lower income housing development
including workforce housing, supporting the preservation of affordable units, possibly support a first time
home buyer plan, and other steps that would help with the affordable housing issue.

Now that brings me to the initial contribution. We are proposing that $30,000.00 be the initial contribution
into this fund. I’d like to emphasize that this money is not tax money, the initial contribution is not property
tax money. This is coming from Clock Tower. The way this is working is when | was Mayor before, we won
two large federal grants which enabled the development and the conversation of the mills that are now
Clock Tower into 350 units of housing. And as a condition of that grant, there are periodic payments that
come to the City from the Clock Tower Development. This $30,000.00 is coming from Clock Tower. So we
are proposing that since it is from that source that we make this initial deposit from the Clock Tower
contribution.

If this Legislation passes, we will have the Affordable Housing Trust Fund activated so that if we find
additional funds we can deposit those and it makes the initial contribution from the Clock Tower Funds, the
contribution we are receiving from Clock Tower. Now | know that Ms. Marchant has more detail and more
information regarding the scope of the housing situation. ls Ms. Marchant on here?

Special Board of Aldermen 04-08-2021 Page 4

Chairman Dowd

Yes.

Mayor Donchess

OK, so | will turn it over to Director Marchant to provide any additional information.
Chairman Dowd

Director Marchant.

Sarah Marchant, Director of Community Development

Thank you so much. If it is OK with you, I’d like to share my screen. | have just a couple slides to put up.
Chairman Dowd

Sure.

Director Marchant

Thank you. Tonight we are here to talk about the Housing Trust Fund as the Mayor has suggested. He
outlined the purposes of the fund. The Housing Trust Fund, this idea came about through the Housing
Study that Economic Development and Community Development partnered on last fall. It really highlighted
the incredible need for doing more to support housing and affordable housing in the City. So | was just
going to run through a couple of those stats because it has been awhile since we talked about. But by all
means, the full information is in the Housing Study which is available on the website if you want more
information.

First and foremost, the median household incomes of and I’m not sure why this isn’t full screen, | apologize.
Median household incomes in Nashua vary greatly depending on race and ethnicity. If you are White and
Asian household, median income that’s almost 2 % times higher than that of our Black, Hispanic, and
Latino populations. A really important thing about future growth and between now and 2030, we are
expected to need approximately 4,700 new housing units; that is the very conservative number. Who
needs those housing units? And the key thing is if we look at the left side of the screen, this would be
keeping todays or the 2018 household composition steady. You can see that 1 and 2 person households
make up over almost 65% of all households in the City. That was not the case 10 years, 20 years ago, 30
years ago where there was much higher percentage of larger 3, 4, 5 plus person households.

Based on our growth in the last 5 years or the ’13 to ’18 period and it has certainly even been exacerbated
more so in ’19 and ’20. The vast majority of our households have been 1 and 2 person sized households
and of these 4,700 housing units, we expect over 70% of those to be needed for 1 and 2 person
households. So it is incredibly important that we look at the what and what we are encouraging and what
we need to have built in the City. 1 and 2 person households don’t need very large single family homes
which was what we were building through most of the 2000’s.

Again, of the new households that we have added recently, the households are growing faster than
population and that’s, again, because they are 1 and 2 person households. Single households accounted
for almost 37% of all households in the new household growth in the five years viewed in this study. In
addition, | think it’s important to note that our older residents are a huge portion of that 1 and 2 family
households, but there are also married couple households. Nashua is unique compared to the rest of the
State in that yes, we certainly have a growing population of older households and older householders, but
we also have a very large population of 24 to 35 year old’s which are our young professionals and our first

Special Board of Aldermen 04-08-2021 Page 5

time homebuyers. We need these people to fulfill all of the amazing jobs that are open in the City and we
need housing options. Those two different age groups are competing for the exact same product; they
don’t want giant houses, they want smaller houses with accessibility, great locations. So that is making that
market incredibly tight.

Affordable rental units are desperately needed as well. The households making 30% of the area median
income, there’s only about half as many units as there are people who need those units. So you can see
here the darker blue shows the number of renter households and the lighter blue shows the number of
rental units affordable to those households and there’s a giant mismatch. What is unique to Nashua also is
the other end of the spectrum that we have a very large amount of people in the highest or the more
wealthy area median income over 120% that are renters and enjoy being renters. We have very little
product for them, which in turn squeezes our middle units, because they take up units that they can very,
very reasonably afford and it squeezes out and helps to rise increased rents on those who have more
trouble affording them.

Single family housing is still the dominant type in Nashua. You can see that over 60% of our land area is
dedicated to single family housing, all the yellow on the map. And it is also over 50% of all of the housing
unit type in Nashua. The red parcels which there aren’t that many of are 100 unit plus and those are
making up a greater percentage of our units but it is still a very small land area. And those are done in
areas with great infrastructure to support them, water, sewer, roads, accessibility and connections. As we
all know and the Mayor just talked about, rent is rising substantially; 20% on average over the 13 to 18
time period and it has gone up even more substantially through these last years of COVID. And, in
addition, housing sales and the cost of buying a home has gone up and very, very quickly; even more so in
the past couple of years. So these increases in pricing are well over 20% and if any of you have tried to
buy a house or sell a house recently knows, you are talking about days if you are lucky, you turn a house
around. So if you don’t know about one coming on the market, it is very, very difficult to get a house.

The last point | wanted to touch on is that Downtown Nashua is very different than the rest of Nashua and
we need to think about that when talking about affordable housing and how we are going to make this work
going forward. Renter households are much more prevalent Downtown than anywhere else in the City.
The darkest color on this map, here is Main Street here, here’s our beautiful Downtown Riverfront, is 75 to
95% renter which is not the case throughout the rest of the City. And so that’s important because we can
add density of housing there and this is where we have infrastructure, we have services to support. But we
also have the highest amounts of lower incomes in the Downtown and making sure that we are not
concentrating poverty going forward, that we are spreading affordable housing throughout the City and we
are balancing out our neighborhoods for the best outcomes for all of Nashuans, is a key part of why we
want to move forward with the Housing Trust Fund.

So starting the Trust Fund and the Legislation that is before you, includes the $30,000.00 initial deposit
from Nashua Housing Associates and an older agreement with Clock Tower based on federal grants that
they initially got as the Mayor just reviewed. And continuing the $10,000.00 a year annual payment until the
agreement ends in the future. The program initially will be managed by the Urban Programs Department.
And for the next steps as this is as woman very eloquently put it at the Imagine Nashua Meeting earlier this
week, this $30,000.00 is creating a tiny, little baby of a trust fund but to do what we need it to do, it has to
grow. So it is a very exciting starting point, but we know we have to be looking ahead from here. So next
steps would be to focus on identifying and developing additional revenue sources as outlined in the
Housing Study which may include inclusionary zoning policies, ways that development fees are paid into
the fund or partnerships; public/private partnerships in different ways.

A strong assessment to understanding to create a more detailed structure and administration for the
Housing Trust Fund over the next couple of years as additional dollars are going into the fund and we start
to see the long-term management of these properties that will be keeping affordable; it’s going to need to
be a longer term assessment on staffing and management and how all that works. But as we have just a
little baby right now, this is more than a sufficient structure to get started. So | am more than happy to
answer any questions and | will bring this down.