An out-of-state developer is in the process of buying land across the road from Lebanon High School and Hanover Street School. On Monday, November 21, the developer is presenting a plan to the Planning Board for conceptual review. We want to make it clear to the developer and to the City that the residents, voters, and taxpayers are actively against this proposal and will continue to fight it at every step of process. 

The plan is to build 436 units with 654 parking spaces (Think: 654 ADDITIONAL vehicles on the tiny stretch of Hanover Street where 100% of the elementary school and high school traffic must go twice a day). This will be a nightmare for drivers, buses, bicyclists, and pedestrians in an area where traffic calming measures are already needed.

Even worse than the guaranteed increased traffic congestion, this ENORMOUS development will be built on wetlands that make up an important wildlife corridor at the base of one of Lebanon’s most significant ecological areas (Boston Lot). The City has allowed significant development in the wetlands around the schools over the last few decades. If we do not protect the limited wetlands and wildlife corridors that remain, our local plants and animals will not have the space they need to survive. We have seen what happens when our bears do not have the space they need. It is dangerous and tragic. Wildlife corridors are the only hope for our bears, deer, and even reptiles and amphibians to move safely around the land that we have already developed. We need to ensure our wildlife has room to coexist with us successfully, or we risk upsetting a delicate balance that cannot easily be restored. And we need to remember that paving any significant portion of wetlands in this area would trigger the need for very expensive improvements to the storm sewers under the interstate at the cost to the City. We do NOT want a repeat of what the City had to do to accommodate the Hypertherm and Hilton projects. This project is premature and scattered, and we want to make sure it does not get pushed through with a series of waivers that do no need to be granted. 

Finally, this proposed development is housing that Lebanon does NOT need. It is new construction, which means it will require higher salaries to rent than the older, existing buildings in already developed parts of the city. It is not low-income housing or rent-controlled housing. And Lebanon has already built and is continuing to build far more than it needs in new construction apartment buildings. From 2010-2021, Lebanon added 1,350 housing units while COMBINED, the surrounding towns didn’t come close: Hanover – 188, Enfield – 90, Plainfield – 52, Grantham – 34, Norwich – 62, Hartford –371. And there are at least 1,260 additional units being built in Lebanon right now (source: Vital Communities).

The Greater Upper Valley, which is comprised of 67 towns in NH and VT, has been assessed to need an additional 1,854 rental units built between 2010 and 2030 for the ENTIRE REGION. Lebanon alone was assessed to need to build ONLY 534 rental units between 2010 and 2030 (source: Keys to the Valley). It is only 2022, and Lebanon has already added over 2,600 units, with the vast majority being rental units. This data was prepared by the organizations responsible for solving the affordable housing crisis. We cannot allow the City to ignore these numbers and the vast overbuilding of market-priced rental units.

It is not clear that there will even be enough demand for additional new construction units like this in the Upper Valley. If there is, it is neither healthy nor equitable for Lebanon and its residents and taxpayers to bear the burden of all of the growth of the region. Unchecked expansion driven by out-of-state developers will lead to Lebanon’s taxpayers paying even more to fund the infrastructure needed to support the drastically increased population (Think: school size, sewer capacity, police and fire station requirements, solid waste facility limits, road-widening, etc.).

We care about the character and the future of Lebanon. That means protecting it from traffic congestion, destruction of wildlife habitat, and unhealthy growth. For those reasons, we oppose this development concept and will fight to prevent it.