Some of Luke Paradis' beef cattle pause to investigate a visitor during feeding time.
DOVER
GROWING PAINS are nothing new to New Hampshire communities. The tension between development and preserving open space has long been a challenge for builders, planners and residents of our cities and towns.
But the combination of a dramatic increase in home prices, a spike in interest rates and a shortage of housing stock has created a crisis, pushing rents sky-high and leaving homeownership out of reach for many Granite Staters. So how do communities create more affordable housing while preserving the wild places that residents cherish?
"It's certainly a balancing act," says Donna Benton, director of planning and community development in Dover. The city needs more housing, she said, "but we also want to conserve Dover's rural character."
In recent years, Dover has revamped some of its ordinances to make it easier for developers to build homes and apartments. An approach known as transfer of development rights allows developers to pay fees to build higher-density projects. The city can use the money for other conservation projects.
"You're essentially buying development rights, and then the city is able to purchase land and conservation easements elsewhere where it makes sense," Benton said. "The intent of the transfer of development rights is to allow for creativity where it makes sense and allow for a little more density, but not going overboard."
The city also allows nearly every residential property to add an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU.
One developer who tried to combine those two ideas recently withdrew his plan, after abutters voiced deep concerns about the site chosen for the project.
But a funny thing happened along the way in Dover: People on opposite sides of an argument came together and reached an amicable resolution.
Worth preserving
The Ambrose Farm property may be some of the prettiest land left on the Seacoast, with open fields framed by mature trees and teeming with wildlife.
Nine years ago, federal wildlife officials released endangered New England cottontails, New Hampshire's only native rabbit, on one section of the property. The Ambrose family had partnered with federal and state wildlife experts to create and preserve the kind of shrubby habitat favored not only by the bunnies but many other species as well, including turkey, deer and songbirds.
But the family recently sold the land to a developer, who wanted to build houses with ADUs there. Some neighbors worried that would impact the protected wildlife and change the character of their rural neighborhood, so they came out in force to express their opposition to the Planning Board.
John O'Neill, owner of StoneArch Development, said he is used to having to deal with abutters when he proposes a project. "I'm not angry at all," he said. "It's just the way it is."
His idea for Ambrose Farm was to add ADUs to some of the houses, he said, so owners would have a built-in rental property to help cover their mortgage payments, and renters would have affordable homes.
O'Neill doesn't call it affordable housing; he uses the word "attainable."
Ken Herd, who lives across from Ambrose Farm, said the transfer of development rights program is "a good model" for conserving land. But applying it to the Ambrose Farm land, in the section of the city zoned rural residential, took people by surprise, he said.
That land, he said, has "significant conservation value."
His wife, Leslie Herd, who previously served on Dover's Open Lands Committee and has a background in ecology and urban agriculture, said the neighbors are not anti-development. "We understand that we need housing," she said.
But she said Ambrose Farm is a rare property, the sort that communities should prioritize for conservation. "If this is the kind of property that we don't value, I think we're kind of screwed," she said. "We have to think longer-term."
Quieting concerns
One of the strongest opponents to that project was Luke Paradis, who operates the last working farm in Dover -- right next door to the Ambrose Farm property.
"We've got to do something different," he told the Planning Board at a hearing. "Because if that's going to happen, I don't want to be there."
Bear, deer, moose, bobcats and eagles thrive there, Paradis told the board. "There's habitat there for them," he said. "I'm not against development, but that's ridiculous."
Paradis bought his land, a former dairy farm, in 1996, and in the years since he has built corrals, a horse barn, cattle barns, outbuildings, fences and roads. "Everything here has a purpose and a reason," Paradis told a recent visitor.
Paradis grows hay on about 600 acres in the area and raises about 120 head of beef cattle, a Hereford/Red Angus cross. His daughter, Haley, boards and trains show horses, and his wife, Kris, runs a therapeutic riding program for children with special needs. They also host equine competitions for New Hampshire Special Olympics.
"That's why it's pretty important up there to keep it quiet," Paradis said.
"I don't have money, but I've got a lifestyle," he said.
And he's determined to protect it.
An amicable solution
O'Neill said he met with Paradis several times, and he respects the farmer's concerns about the impact on his animals and the children in the therapeutic riding program. "I get it," he said.
Now O'Neill plans to bring a new proposal forward for the Ambrose Farms property, with 32 market-rate homes instead of the original 54, built on the far side of the property, adjacent to an existing 50-lot subdivision O'Neill previously built. "The affordable component's out," he said. "I need to get to the finish line at some point, and it was not going to happen."
The land next to Paradis's farm will remain as open space.
O'Neill said he also has been meeting with federal officials from the Natural Resources Conservation Service to talk about putting some of the land into conservation easement.
"The government on one end is asking for more housing, but on the other end, they're giving away federal money in grants so that you don't develop approved projects," O'Neill said.
Paradis said he's happy that O'Neill no longer plans to build houses next to his farm. He and O'Neill speak regularly now; their relationship has changed. "He's a neighbor," he said.
Abutter Ken Herd said he and his wife are "absolutely thrilled, especially if some of that land ends up being permanently protected."
Competing rights
Dover planning director Benton said she sympathizes with the neighbors in such disputes. "When you buy a home, that's likely your largest investment, so certainly you want to protect those (property) rights," she said.
"I think in general, we do need to make sure we're protecting our current residents and our current land that we have," she said. "We want to make sure we're keeping that rural character and still protecting our environmental resources, like the wetlands and the wetland buffers, and to keep all that in mind with development."
But people who want to develop their land also have property rights, she said, and land that's appropriate for development is limited. "That's why the city has been trying to get more creative," she said.
The Dover land dispute may be heading toward a resolution, but the broader issue isn't going away in New Hampshire.
Developer O'Neill said there's a 10-year shortfall right now for housing nationwide. But he said in New Hampshire, the cities are carrying the burden of creating workforce housing.
"When you have communities that are willing to work with you, that's where you go," he said. "And until there's a mechanism in place that rewards a community for doing this, it will only be select communities like Rochester and Dover and Exeter ... that will think outside of the box."
Dover "gets it," O'Neill said. "They have a vision and they're doing a great job," he said.
City planner Benton said it makes sense that cities are bearing more of the burden to create housing, since they have the services such as water and sewer. But she said, "I definitely think there are ways that towns can participate, to help increase housing stock in a way that still maintains their character."
Dover resident Ken Herd said communities need to be more proactive in identifying land that's more appropriate for developers to build on. "Then they're not knocking on doors in areas where they're going to run into a strong headwind," he said.
"We kind of have to work together," Leslie Herd said. "We don't want to destroy our state. We don't want it to become just a bedroom community. It has to be thought out."
Benton urges other communities "to be creative" when it comes to housing projects -- and engage the public in the conversation.
"Obviously we need more housing units, but we still want to maintain what we have in New Hampshire as well," she said.