The Peterborough Planning Board has approved a proposed zoning amendment to revise the density requirements in West Peterborough, setting a uniform limit for single-, two- and multi-family housing.
The amendment will appear on the Town Meeting ballot in May 2026.
The majority of the board voted in favor of putting the proposed amendment on the 2026 ballot, with only Andrew Dunbar voting against.
“I don’t feel I can support this until I know how people in West Peterborough feel about how this might affect them,” Dunbar said.
Board member Gary Gorski, who drafted the amendment, said the revised language “should eliminate bias against certain housing types,” and eliminates “arbitrary, unlimited density.”
“The current issue, as I see it, is that we have multi-family with no defined density limit,” Gorski said. “West Peterborough is the only place we allow residential development where we don’t set a density limit. It could be 15 or 20 units or whatever you can fit on the lot–since it is undefined, it just leaves it up to the board. I don’t think that’s a good approach. I think the way this is currently written, it invites frustration from neighbors, and from people who might be supporting our current projects to have this limit left undefined, ” he said. “I don’t think it makes sense to base the density on what type of home you are building.”
Gorksi said he felt the board should support housing developments with mixed types of housing.
“What we need is developments that are not all the same type of housing, so we can have different types of people, different types of families, people in different phases of life,” Gorski said.
Currently, zoning regulations for West Peterborough state that the density limit for single-family dwellings is four dwelling units per acre; the density limit for two-family homes is eight units per acre, and multi-family and mixed-use density “will be determined by the Planning Board during Site Plan Review.”
The proposed new language to Peterborough Zoning Ordinance §245-9.1C4 states: “Density: Residential: Eight (8) dwelling units per acre.”
“There is a value to putting amendments on the ballot that are simple and easy to understand, and that create effective change,” Gorksi said. “I feel this amendment will be changing the bias against any one type of housing.”
Members of the board acknowledged that the need for a revised amendment came about due to the reactions of some West Peterborough residents to the development of Our Town Village, a 30-unit housing complex currently under construction on Union Street.
“I proposed this change because of the reactions we had to the large development,” Gorski said. “We need to move this proposal to the ballot so the voters can decide.”
Planning Board member Stephanie Hurley, who had several questions about the proposed amendment, said she agreed that “this is better than what we currently have.”
The board expressed support for revisiting the ordinance for mixed-use buildings in West Peterborough in a separate hearing.
According to the Peterborough zoning ordinance, “mixed use” is defined as a development combining both residential and commercial uses.
For information about the Peterborough Planning Board, visit peterboroughnh.gov/government/boards_and_committees/planning_board/index.php.