With one of Jaffrey’s largest employers planning an expansion that’s expected to bring hundreds of new jobs to the area in the next five years, the pressing question is: Where will those new employees live?
Maintaining the rural, natural beauty that attracts people to the region, while also providing enough housing at prices people can afford is a delicate balancing act.
The major issue with providing houses or rentals in line with what the average person in a town like Jaffrey makes is that developers are looking to conserve costs, which calls for higher density developments, said Jaffrey’s Director of Development Jo Anne Carr.
But “density” isn’t a popular word with those who love Jaffrey for its scenic views of Mount Monadnock, waterways and general rural nature.
Carr said proposed changes to Jaffrey’s Open Space Development Ordinance to allow more housing on smaller lots received “an outpouring of opposition.”
“So, we backed off on that, and we’re rethinking,” Carr said.
But, she said, the numbers show there’s a need for more diverse housing.
The town of Jaffrey has an average household income of $59,698. While there have been about 50 new single-family homes constructed in Jaffrey from 2014-2019, their average assessed value was about $227,743.
The Southwest Regional Planning Commission’s housing plan for the region also notes a need for more diverse housing. About 72 percent of the region’s housing stock is composed mostly of single-family owner-occupied homes that are between three and four bedrooms, while 62 percent of households are between one and two people. Also, the cost of rent in the region has increased by more than 14 percent in the last ten years; over the same period, wages in Cheshire County decreased by 1 percent.
Tim Foley of Jaffrey, who owns Cedarwood Development Corp., said he’s developed a few multi-family units in Jaffrey’s downtown overlay zone, including a 15-unit building on Main Street and a four-family condominium on Stratton Road. He said the only way to make those projects work was the higher density allowed in the downtown zone.
Most towns have a formula for density, in areas where they allow those kinds of developments, but they require significant amounts of land to build large developments, limiting the amount of parcels that could support them.
“Which, depending on your point of view, is either a good thing or a bad thing,” Foley said. “There’s an element that will always say, ‘I like it the way it is.’ I’ve seen it my whole career.”
Carr said the density concerns are a turn-off for prospective developers.
“Having spoken to developers in town, asking them, ‘Do the numbers work?’ to entice more affordable housing, and by and large, they don’t unless you’re taking advantage of certain state programs,” Carr said.
Bu, she said, that doesn’t account for growth. MilliporeSigma, one of the town’s largest employers, is looking to add another 500 jobs in the next five years. According to MilliporeSigma spokesperson Karen Tiano, 160 of those jobs are expected to start in the next four months.
“Rising housing costs in communities across the country have forced our employees to live farther and farther away from our facilities, resulting in long commute times that have negative consequences for our employees, our operations and our communities,” Tiano said. “MilliporeSigma strongly supports policies that seek to make housing more affordable, available and accessible for our employees.”
“Our manufacturers are growing, and they offer good-paying jobs. And their employees are the kinds of people we need to provide housing for,” Carr said. “That is ‘workforce housing.’ There is sometimes a negative connotation of who these people are that need ‘workforce housing,’ but it’s people with good paying jobs, with families, folks that we want to have in town – teachers, government employees, people in the industrial sector. We need them and want to provide housing for them, but the market isn’t necessarily going to provide that by itself. Towns need to be more proactive in ensuring that affordable housing exists.”