At a workshop on Oct. 15, the Peterborough Planning Board outlined several possible zoning ordinance revisions, including updates to the town’s workforce housing ordinance, density regulations for multifamily housing, and potential allowances for multifamily housing in the Traditional Neighborhood Overlay Zone 1 (TNOZ1).
The board also plans to revise a long-outdated “phased development” regulation that is no longer legal under state law.
Planning Board Chair Carl Staley said workforce housing remains a top priority for both the board and the Peterborough Affordable Housing Committee. A state law passed in 2023 created a loophole allowing developers to build workforce housing at the same density permitted for elderly housing if a municipality did not specify a density limit in its workforce housing ordinance.
To close that loophole, Peterborough voters in 2024 approved an amendment rescinding the elderly housing density bonus. However, Staley said that change left the town without a tool to encourage workforce housing construction.
“Since the town voted to rescind the elderly housing density bonus, we don’t have a way to incentivize builders to build workforce housing,” Staley said. “Right now, we don’t have a mechanism to offer developers a bonus for building workforce housing, which is something our community desperately needs.”
Board member Gary Gorksi volunteered to lead efforts to refine and revise the multi-family housing ordinance in West Peterborough.
“West Peterborough has very creative and inclusive zoning,” Staley said. “Right now, the way the ordinance is written, there is no defined number of how many units there can be in a multifamily housing development. We have density numbers attached to everything but workforce housing, so that is something we are looking at.”
Staley and Planning Director Danica Miller will lead revisions of the town’s outdated “phased growth” ordinance.
“Peterborough has a very old ordinance that was written as a way to control growth. It specified that no new project can add more than 1% of population growth per year, which is now totally illegal. The state does not allow towns to do that,” Staley said. “What we need is a phased permitting ordinance which will allow the town to require any large developments to be built in phases to enable the town to accommodate the infrastructure at a reasonable pace; it is not about limiting growth.”
Gorski also volunteered to lead work on a zoning amendment that would allow multifamily housing in the TNOZ1, where it is currently prohibited.
Only one member of the public attended the Oct. 15 workshop, and Staley encouraged residents to participate.
“We encourage the public to come and attend our meetings and share their ideas about all these things. We rely on residents for feedback and ideas,” Staley said. “We invite anyone who might be interested to come participate.”
The next Planning Board zoning workshop is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 27. Meetings are open to the public and streamed live at video.ibm.com/channel/peterborough—our-town.
A complete map of Peterborough’s zoning districts is available at https://cms5.revize.com/revize/peterboroughnh/GIS/Zoning%20Districts%20Poster.pdf.
Data farm ordinance to be explored
Also at the Oct. 15 meeting, Gorski raised the idea of creating an ordinance to limit or restrict development of large-scale data centers—such as those used for cryptocurrency mining or artificial intelligence—that consume significant natural resources.
While no developers have approached Peterborough about such projects, Staley said the board wants to be proactive.
“These data farms have massive amounts of servers, and they all have to stay cold,” Staley said. “They use an enormous amount of water, and we have water issues here, so that is something we should keep an eye on.”
According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, large data centers can use up to 5 million gallons of water per day, or the same amount used by a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
For more information about the Peterborough Planning Department, visit https://www.peterboroughnh.gov/departments/planning_and_building/index.php.