Portsmouth races the clock to develop below-market-rate housing at Sherburne School

PORTSMOUTH — City staff are working to draft a request for qualifications (RFQ) for partners interested in working with the city to develop below market-rate housing at the former Sherburne School.

City Manager Karen Conard told the City Council this week that “we don’t want to spend a whole lot of time, we want to get out on the street with an RFQ, and we will do that within a very short duration.”

The 5.3-acre, city-owned former school site at 35 Sherburne Road is currently home to Lister Academy, Portsmouth’s alternative high school. Lister Academy will move this fall to Community Campus, which the city also owns.

City Councilor John Tabor raised concerns about the timing of the RFQ process. Tabor co-chairs the Housing Committee with Assistant Mayor Joanna Kelley.

“A number of the members were concerned that the RFQ process for Sherburne fit within the time frame, so that any of the nonprofit developers we selected could get the federal tax credits,” Tabor said during this week’s City Council meeting.

He pointed out there is only one City Council meeting in June and one in July, should anything come “to the council to approve.”

Timing a factor in Sherburne School project

“So are you comfortable that we would have the RFQ process, the responses, selection …certainly by July 15th?” Tabor asked.

Conard replied, “We understand the sensitivity to time. So we will huddle and provide a much better, more in-depth update, perhaps even to tell you the RFQ exists on May 20 (a reference to the council’s next meeting). That will be our goal.”

Tabor stated “if the council had to sign any kind of contract, or letter of agreement, we’ve only got those two dates. That was a concern of a number of members of the Housing Committee."

Reached Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Deaglan McEachern said he was “happy to go through the process the Housing Committee recommended” on issuing a RFQ for potential partners.

But he talked about his “preference and faith and full confidence in working with the Portsmouth Housing Authority.”

“Not simply because of the work they’ve done on the Ruth Griffin (apartments) project, but the history of projects they have within the city of Portsmouth,” McEachern said.

“I have every confidence they would be a great partner to choose,” McEachern added.

He acknowledged the city could end up working on multiple projects to address the lack of affordable housing in Portsmouth.

An RFQ could expose them to additional potential partners, he said.

“It’s a worthwhile endeavor to understand all the options that exist,” the mayor said.

McEachern also talked about the importance of making sure the RFQ process allows them to meet all funding deadlines.

“I think we are moving as quickly as the process allows us,” he said.

McEachern noted nonprofits face August deadlines to apply for tax funding credits, which he said shouldn’t be missed.

“To lose a year based on process would be unacceptable,” McEachern said.

He hopes the Sherburne project will be “a model for how we can convert other properties identified in the city of Portsmouth for affordable housing.”

Conard said RFQs are open “two to three weeks, depending on the complexity of the document.”

Deputy City Manager Suzanne Woodland told the council “we’ve been working on very preliminary drafts of these documents.”

“A lot depends on what you’re asking for, that’s kind of what we’re struggling with,” Woodland said.

Conard added that city staff would also work on an update on its request for proposals for the redevelopment of the city-owned South Meeting House by May 20.

City Councilor Andrew Bagley said he thinks “the South Meeting House could take a back seat if staff time was limited.”

“I’d much rather see us move … more quickly with the Sherburne School disposition,” Bagley said.Both the City Council and Housing Committee voted previously to work “toward the official disposition and land lease of Sherburne School property for the creation of permanent below market rate housing.”

The city in 2023 pitched the idea of partnering with the Portsmouth Housing authority to build below market-rate housing on the site of the former elementary school.

But they dropped the idea when faced with opposition from some residents of the nearby Pannaway Manor neighborhood.

Mayor reaches out to other SAU 50 communities about workforce housing

In other housing-related news, McEachern recently released a letter he sent to town officials of the neighboring School Administrative Unit 50 communities.

He told the council this week that his decision to send the letter came as a “direct result from members of the community who asked why Portsmouth is the only one focusing on affordable housing.”

“I would assume many other communities are,” the mayor added.

In the letter to officials in New Castle, Newington, Greenland and Rye, McEachern states its purpose “is to initiate a discussion about what each of our SAU 52 communities are doing to address work-force housing and to work collectively to identify properties that would be suitable for work-force housing developments.”

He also shared the city did research on the enabling legislation that created the Portsmouth Housing Authority.

That research led the city to learn that “Portsmouth Housing Authority’s area of operations is not limited to Portsmouth but extends six miles from the city’s border, which includes all SAU members that do not have a housing authority,” McEachern said.

PHA’s housing developments are funded through loan tax credits, which are administered by the NH Housing Finance Authority,” he told the town leaders.

The deadline for final applications for those loans is Aug. 30 this year, he added.

He hopes the information he shared will prove “useful to our neighboring communities” and helps them understand “we’re all in this together when it comes to solving affordable housing.”

That’s especially true, McEachern said, “when we share a high school with these communities.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth, NH races to build affordable housing at Sherburne School