Portsmouth mayor eyes new bid for affordable housing at Sherburne site: Will it work?

Portsmouth Mayor Deaglan McEachern, left, stands with City Councilor Rich Blalock in front of the former Sherburne Elementary School.

Mayor Deaglan McEachern plans to name new members to the city’s Housing Committee in a renewed effort to help create below market rate housing at the former Sherburne Elementary School.

The committee hasn’t met for several years, but McEachern intends to work with the rest of the City Council — as soon as its meeting Tuesday, Jan. 16 — to begin the process of adding members to the committee to help advance the redevelopment project at 35 Sherburne Road.

McEachern stressed Tuesday “I’m only one of nine” on the council, but says he remains convinced the property is the best city-owned site to work with the Portsmouth Housing Authority to create affordable housing.

“We’ll try a different approach,” he said about using the Housing Committee. “Like everything in Portsmouth, it will be a community-based approach.”

The committee, as he plans to propose, will be made up of “a mix of councilors and citizens,” he said.

“We want to have input from the public and we’re always welcome to hearing feedback from Pannaway Manor residents,” McEachern said Tuesday.

Neighbors objected when project was discussed in 2023

The city stopped its effort last year to move forward with a housing project on the site after receiving pushback from some Pannaway Manor residents and others about the project.

The neighborhood is located near the former elementary school, which is home to the Lister Academy, the city’s alternative high school.

Lister Academy will move to Community Campus at the start of the 2024-2025 school year, officials have said.

Need for more housing

McEachern has acknowledged the city tried to move too quickly when they pitching the project with the Portsmouth Housing Authority last year.

But he pointed out “there’s a lot of people in Portsmouth, and a lot of people in Pannaway Manor, who recognize the need to do what we can to create more below market rate housing in Portsmouth.”

“In terms of urgency, it’s very urgent to me,” he said about the need to create more affordable housing in Portsmouth. “One of the greatest things about Portsmouth is our economic diversity, we need to do everything we can to keep that.”

During his second inaugural address last week, McEachern said “the dream of affordable housing is at the heart of our vision for a community where every citizen, regardless of their economic background, has a safe and affordable place to call home.”

“Our unwavering commitment to affordable housing will see us partnering with the PHA (Portsmouth Housing Authority), engaging with the business community, and implementing zoning reforms that ensure sustainable, affordable living for all,” he said.

During his speech, he called the need to address the lack of affordable housing in Portsmouth “not just an economic imperative but a moral one, ensuring that the city of the open door remains a haven of hope and opportunity.”

During a series of separate interviews, multiple city councilors said working to help create more affordable housing should be a top priority for the council.

City Councilor Rich Blalock, who lives close to the school and Pannaway Manor, said previously that neighborhood residents should be involved in any proposal to build housing there.

McEachern said, “I want to move as fast as we possibly can, but I don’t want to move any faster. I know folks felt left out the first time, I don’t want that to happen.”

‘Clear consensus’ on Sherburne site

The mayor believes there’s “pretty clear consensus” in the city that Sherburne School would not be a good site for a new police station. Plus, any redevelopment there should involve “retaining the existing building,” he said.

McEachern hopes if the city is able to plan and build a below market housing project at the Sherburne School “it won’t be one and done.”

There are other city-owned properties in Portsmouth that could be looked at, he said. Plus, there are sites with existing housing, like Gosling Meadows, that could be expanded, he said.

“In terms of the things that the city can do, this is an urgent need,” McEachern said. “The market takes care of a lot of things, but creating affordable housing has not been one of those things I’ve seen done in my backyard.”

Developers can help, too, mayor says

McEachern hopes in the future developers will play a role in creating more affordable housing.

“I think that projects that have a component of affordable housing, developers should be commended for that,” McEachern said.

He also believes the city should continue to adjust its zoning “to make it easy for developers to get to yes.

“If I was a developer in the city of Portsmouth, and I’m not, I would feel a responsibility to help keep what is great about the city of Portsmouth going, and that’s our economic diversity,” he said.

Developer Mark McNabb has called for other developers to do the same, saying they should play a role in building places for city workers to live.

His project to add to the Tour restaurant site on Lafayette Road continues to be reviewed by the city’s land-use boards.

He has proposed adding more than 70 apartments there, 20% of which will rent at work-force rates.

McEachern stressed he didn’t know all the details about the project, but added that “anytime anybody is able to put in affordable units, they should be commended for that.”

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