Seacoast Local Housing Wins

In a time when it can feel like there's a lot to worry about, sometimes it's nice to focus on small wins. At the Workforce Housing Coalition of the Greater Seacoast, we're fortunate to witness a lot of hard work and local wins. During our 2025 Spring Policy Session, we shared a few of these. Here's a quick recap:

Town of Durham

In December of 2024, the Town of Durham adopted an Attainable Housing Overlay District meant to help increase opportunities for more affordable rental housing in Durham.  

The goals of Durham’s attainable housing ordinance are to: 

• Provide reasonable and realistic opportunities for the development of workforce and affordable housing.

• Ensure the availability of a diverse supply of rental opportunities.

• Provide an adequate supply of affordable housing in Durham as set forth in the Town’s (2015 and 2018) Master Plan and the Town’s (May 2024) Housing Needs Assessment.

• Address the regional need for affordable housing (as documented in the Strafford Regional Planning Commission’s Housing Needs Assessment).

  
  

This ordinance arose from the hard work of the Durham Housing Task Force. Throughout the past year, members of the Durham Housing Task Force conducted outreach, through presentations and conversations, with a variety of other boards and other commissions in Durham, as well as with the public. These community conversations helped to encourage ongoing dialogue about what attainable housing can look like in Durham, and assisted in the movement of the overlay through the Planning Board and City Council.  

The Durham Housing Task Force continues to work on updating Durham’s zoning ordinances to allow for more housing opportunities in Durham.  

Town of Exeter

The Exeter Housing Advisory Committee is one of the longest-standing housing committees that we work with. When we spoke about what the committee was most proud of in recent history, their work on ADUs in Exeter quickly came to the forefront. 

In March of 2024, voters in Exeter approved changes to Exeter’s zoning that would simplify the process for homeowners hoping to develop an ADU on their property.

The proposed change removed language that: 

• Required at least four parking spots for a house with an ADU. 

• Mandated that the appearance of the building remained essentially that of a single-family dwelling.  

• Prohibited the construction of ADUs in manufactured housing.  

The zoning was changed to:  

• Aligns parking requirements with existing town regulations on off-street parking. 

• Allows one ADU per detached single-family dwelling. 

• Allow ADUs in all zones where they are permitted, regardless of whether or not that is within manufactured housing.  

These changes removed barriers to the creation of ADUs in Exeter.  

Town of Farmington  

We were very excited to see the outcome of ballot initiatives in Farmington this March! Farmington was one of the many New Hampshire communities that received a Housing Opportunity Planning (HOP) Grant from New Hampshire Housing. 

On the ballot in March, Farmington voters saw a few zoning changes that would help to increase housing options in their community.  

• Farmington voters passed two articles that established mixed-use districts, allowing for the construction of commercial, residential, and mixed-use buildings in the same areas.

• Voters also removed an existing overlay district to lessen regulatory barriers, and allowed the expansion of existing mobile home parks.  

  
  

City of Portsmouth

The City of Portsmouth recently approved an ordinance that will allow co-living in certain areas of Portsmouth. The initiative comes at a time when city leadership, elected officials, and residents of Portsmouth are all looking for ways to address a growing crisis in affordability in the city, particularly for the workers who keep things running. The zoning for this ordinance defines co-living as “a use that combines private resident co-living units used primarily for living and sleeping with shared resident co-living common areas that provide common areas for residents' other daily needs.”  

This ordinance was greatly helped in its passage by some tireless Portsmouth housing advocates, many of whom are a part of Progress Portsmouth. This group, led by Gerry Duffy, focuses on many aspects of political engagement in Portsmouth, with housing being a big part of that effort. Progress Portsmouth did amazing engagement work around the co-living effort – gathering groups of supporters, busting myths about co-living, and encouraging folks to show up to Planning Board and City Council meetings. If you’re interested in learning more about the group, check out their website – you’ll be glad you did! 

City of Somersworth

The Somersworth Housing Task Force first convened in early 2024, and immediately got to work. A regulatory audit conducted by the Strafford Regional Planning Commission recommended a variety of possible changes, including updating Somersworth’s zoning to allow for detached ADUs. The Housing Task Force set out with a series of goals for themselves, including changing the town’s zoning to allow for detached ADUs.  

At the time that the Housing Task Force was convened, Somersworth allowed one attached ADU by right. The Housing Task Force took on the challenge of working to change Somersworth’s zoning ordinance to allow for detached ADUs as well. The Housing Task Force first drafted changes to their zoning regarding ADUs in July of 2024. The draft changes altered existing ordinances to remove sections that prevented detached ADUs. 

Somersworth’s ADU ordinance passed the City Council on Monday, June 16th! After nearly a year of work, the ordinance now permits an ADU, attached or detached, on any property containing an owner-occupied single-family dwelling.  

We are so fortunate to work with many of these communities, and hope to continue building relationships and working with as many Seacoast communities as we can!