Portsmouth seeks housing plans — with and without demolishing Sherburne School

PORTSMOUTH — The City Council voted to authorize the release of a request for proposals to four finalists selected by the city as potential partners to redevelop the former Sherburne School property into below-market-rate housing .

The council voted unanimously to allow City Manager Karen Conard to draft and release the RFP, which will seek two redevelopment proposals from each finalist, one that keeps the former elementary school building in place, and a second plan calling for its removal.

The council passed a motion made by Assistant Mayor Joanna Kelley for Conard to draft the RFP after getting input from the council Monday night, and then hearing from the Blue Ribbon Housing Committee on Thursday.

Kelley co-chairs the committee and stressed how its members want to offer their input into the RFP.

Conard told the council that city staff could “move forward with an RFP this month in fairly short order.”

The former Sherburne School, which was built in 1930, has in recent years housed the Robert Lister Academy, the city’s alternative high school. Lister Academy is moving to the city-owned Community Campus this fall, leaving the roughly 5-acre site at 35 Sherburne Road open for redevelopment.

Who are four finalists for Sherburne School housing project?

The four finalists, chosen from a field of eight , are Avesta Housing of Portland, Maine, Pennrose of Boston, Portsmouth Housing Authority and Preservation of Affordable Housing of Boston, according to Conard.

Councilors offered their feedback during Monday’s meeting on a host of issues related to the proposed redevelopment.

They included if the school building should be demolished or redeveloped, what the housing should rent for, if the site should include any market-rate housing and should an existing softball field be preserved.

All councilors who addressed the issue agreed with city staff the property should be leased to the nonprofit developer chosen for a term as long as 99 years.

The plan has been for the development partner to get access to the property and to manage the housing built there in exchange for paying for the redevelopment of the site.

Councilor Tabor suggests 80 units

City Councilor John Tabor credited Conard for presenting  “a good path to go in a rapid manner. The goal here is to use this land as the big opportunity we have for permanent affordable housing, and that was the recommendation of our Housing Committee. ... We know that the market can create lots of additional housing units, we see those projects in the paper. We can create thousands of units from the private sector, but the rents will stay high.”

He believes the housing project must have “healthy density in this property to make an impact, I would personally like to see at least 80 units.”

Tabor added he thinks the existing softball field space could be used for development, noting a new turf field is being built at Community Campus.

What councilors say about allowing some market-rate units, saving school building

Tabor acknowledged “there’s a good case to let the school (building) go,” but added the council has to think about “what’s the experience of living there.”

He raised the possibility that the school could be used for “some kind of community center,” which could perhaps include a day-care center or convenience store.

Tabor added, "If we allow some market rate housing and see what these nonprofit developers can create for us,” it could result in allowing the city “to serve all income levels without having to subsidize.”

City Councilor Kate Cook stressed it’s her preference “that all housing on this site be below market rate.”

“I would not want to see market-rate housing, because we have market-rate housing throughout the city,” Cook said during Monday’s meeting. “We have very little opportunity to develop below-market-rate housing.”

“I don’t want to see market-rate housing, we have plenty of it in the city,” Cook added.

City Councilor Vince Lombardi said the softball field “is probably ideal for some development.”

But, he added, “one of the problems with tearing down the building is it’s an ecological disaster, and that’s one of the reasons to actually keep the building. ... "If we can get a higher number of work-force or multi-variable income units, all (renting to people) under the 100 percent AMI (area median income), I would really like to see that.”

Lombardi wants to see “as many” units “as we can on that site, we need them. It’s really important to maximize the affordable housing opportunity there."

City Councilor Andrew Bagley stated he’d love “to see us focus on work-force housing” at the former Sherburne School site because “that’s where we have the fewest number of units in the city.”

But he stated “if we did have a couple of market-rate housing units, I’d be OK with that because you’re now kind of creating a stratification of different socio-economic levels in the same development.”

He is leaning “toward not saving the Sherburne School,” Bagley said, explaining that “we could get a really good plan” if you “start with a fresh design and you don’t have to work around something that’s already there.”

“The school kind of blocks the view of where the housing would be,” Bagley said of the school building, which sits toward the front of the site. “(It’s) hard to develop something that really feels like it’s part of the fabric of the community.”

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City Councilor Rich Blalock believes “there is some sentiment to …keeping the school. I understand that puts limitations on the project, so I would like to see both options. I do think the building still has good bones. I’m not concerned as much with the ballfield.”

City Councilor Beth Moreau explained that she’s “gone back and forth with the school.” She believes the city has “some good plans” to replace the softball field, but the school building is “a harder one.”

“In my mind, I really saw it as a great place where there could be a community center, there could be child care,” Moreau said during Monday’s meeting.

In terms of rental rates, Moreau said, “In my mind, mixed income goes up to 100 percent AMI.”

“It’s still below market, it’s below the market that we have,” she said. “If it’s a fully mixed income project that will help make it more affordable for the development.”

City Councilor Josh Denton shared that he’d “much rather keep the school and allow what’s built behind the school on the ballfield to be more dense.”

Mayor Deaglan McEachern concluded after the discussion, "We’ve reached a good spot here. I really think that the city should spend most of its attention when it comes to parcels that we have partnering to build below-market-rate housing."

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth seeks housing plans — with and without demolishing Sherburne School