Meredith zoning board delays decision on workforce housing

D&D Realty LLC asked ZBA to permit construction of a group quarters-style residence with maximum of 45 beds at 189 Waukewan Street in Meredith

The Meredith Zoning Board of Adjustment voted to continue a request for a use variance to allow East Coast Flightcraft to construct workforce housing in a vacant office building at their facility at last Thursday night’s (May 9) meeting.

The application, submitted by D&D Realty LLC, asked the ZBA to permit the construction of a group quarters-style residence with a maximum of 45 beds at 189 Waukewan Street in the business and industry district in Meredith.

The building would include two stories of retrofitted dorm-style housing and would be rented out to commercial entities to provide housing for temporary and seasonal workers who flock to the Lakes Region during the busy tourism season to work for restaurants, hotels, manufacturers and other businesses.

The first group of tenants would likely be those who have received H2-B and J-1 work visas and come to work in the area every summer. East Coast Flightcraft co-owner Ryan Cardella said he’d like to transition the use of the facility to accommodate newly graduated college students who need a place to stay while starting their careers at local businesses, along with professionals in transient occupations such as traveling nurses.

Members of the ZBA asked Cardella to return with a specific business plan that includes the vetting process for tenants and details of the proposed living quarters.

Cardella said people who receive work visas have already been vetted extensively by the federal government but he will develop a strategy to further evaluate them.

Meredith, along with most of the Lakes Region, lacks both long-term and workforce housing accommodations, and a boarding facility of this sort may alleviate some of that stress on the economy. If a solution isn’t found, businesses in the area will likely suffer, Cardella said. 

The presentation was met with significant opposition from residents, who argued offering such accommodations could be precarious as there is no guarantee workers could be properly vetted and could pose safety concerns. The property is not zoned to accommodate workforce housing and such a project would be better placed elsewhere in town, others argued.

“We went with a model that we saw out west and in Europe where it’s community living, and I want to make sure that people understand that this isn’t low-income housing, these are young professionals,” Cardella said at the meeting. “We have about 30 of them that work for us every year. They work on the docks, they work at the stores that we have, a bunch of different things. These are qualified candidates that I want to hire, and they leave every year for the past seven years since I’ve been up here. It’s just tough.”

During his presentation, Cardella said if workforce housing isn’t addressed comprehensively then local businesses could go under. 

“My biggest fear is that if we don’t get workforce housing in this area or if we don’t fix it, more and more restaurateurs that we’re talking to are not going to be able to stay open all the time — they can’t afford the cost of overhead,” Cardella said. “It’s an ongoing, spiraling race to the bottom.”

Without specific details on how the business will operate, including a plan for vetting tenants above what is required for work visas, the board doesn’t have enough information to make an informed decision, Chair Tom Girard said at the meeting. 

“The town is requiring you to come up with a plan that makes sense for us to approve and that everyone will feel comfortable with,” Girard said. “We’re here to try to work something out that meets the needs of everybody.”

Board member Jack Northcott said he applauds Cardella’s creative thinking in the attempt to address a significant lack of workforce housing, but even if the proposition was more developed, the board would be hard-pressed to approve it because of zoning issues.

“Generally I think that everybody would agree that we need affordable workforce housing. And my hesitancy here is that it seems that every other district has some accommodation, whether it’s for a group home or hotel, motel,” Northcott said. “The difficulty is the district and the zone you’re in. It appears that every other district supports multi-family dwellings, which maybe you could create something like that, except this one. This doesn’t even have a special exception even related to a group home, multi-family, hotel/motel. That’s kind of the hurdle, how do you grant a special exception for a category that’s not even close?”

Cardella said Friday morning his team believes there is a legal pathway that would allow a special exception, as a portion of the property is already zoned residential. He could conceivably place mobile homes or cabins there and offer workforce housing as is, he said.

“The property that we own, half of it is already residential as-is,” Cardella said. “If it can happen in the back, why can’t it happen in the front?”

Eric Lundgren of Meredith said leaving all other concerns aside, the zoning ordinance does not allow for such a development at that property.

“This zoning, which was well thought out, vetted out, already excludes residential,” he said. “The general purpose is for business and industry. In the details of what you can do, there is a very important sentence, it says ‘any use not listed here is prohibited’. The variance, I don’t agree with the points that were made, that it’s not going to impact the public. … This is in the middle of an active commercial building.”

Lundgren said there are also significant safety concerns.

“They’re running a boat business. If you are a resident that gets put into one of these buildings, you’re going to have boats going around the yard, you’re going to have boats parked in front there in the busy season,” Lundgren said. “The primary business is going to be No. 1, and the boatyard is going to be buzzing.” 

Paul Nutile of Framingham, Massachusetts is listed as an abutter to the property and said he’s concerned about safety for nearby residents.

“Safety is an issue to me. I started the process of buying this land two years ago, and if this goes through it wasn’t the purpose that I bought this for. I planned on this being a retirement home eventually,” he said at the meeting. “To say that this is going to be professionals and traveling nurses, that’s all that I’m hearing. But the reality is the workers that are needed are needed in the restaurants and the hotels, and they’re not college graduates and they’re not traveling nurses that are applying for these positions.”

Richard Hodges of Meredith said he opposes the development because there’s no telling where the development could go down the line and Flightcraft isn’t experienced in the housing business.

“The zoning is there to prevent, regardless of how solid the plan is, it really doesn’t belong in the middle of an industrial center,” he said. “I commend you guys for trying to come up with a solve, I just don’t feel like this is the right spot.”

Cardella said Friday he got the sense at the meeting that residents and the ZBA were apprehensive about his proposal in part because of unknown factors and security concerns. 

“I think what they want to hear or see is ‘Who are these people?’” he said. “They asked what the business plan would be for vetting — I’ve never heard of that before, ever. I think they’re missing the point of what J-1 or H-B2 [visas] are. Getting people in there who are hardworking and qualified.”

Cardella said the project is not expected to be profitable for his business but would potentially reduce the workforce housing shortage, which would benefit many businesses in the area. At this point, even if approved in the near-future, the project would not be likely completed for the upcoming summer. 

“It’s really not a money-maker for us — it’s a lot of headache for no return.” he said. “We don’t want this place to turn into a ghost town.”

The board will hear updates on the proposal at their next meeting on Thursday, June 13.

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