Windham Regional Commission Helps Towns Explore Housing Options
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Last spring, the Windham Regional Commission (WRC) entered into a new partnership to explore housing needs and solutions in the towns of Jamaica, Londonderry, Weston, and Winhall. WRC partnered with the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Center for Resilient Metro Regions in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Foundation’s Communities by Design (CxD) Program to assess housing needs and develop recommendations to address potential solutions.
The first phase of the project involved the development of a housing needs assessment led by a UMass graduate student and faculty member. They gathered and analyzed data and identified potential sites that could work for housing because they’re in proximity to village centers, and locations out of flood plains and river corridors. The housing needs assessment identifies gaps in housing tenure, housing types, housing locations, and housing affordability and burdens. This information is important for communities to understand as they plan for the future.
The UMass AIA Team, including students, came to visit the four towns this past September. They met with stakeholders in each town and heard from community members at two public meetings. The public meetings were held at the Flood Brook School and the town’s Planning Commissions helped to spread the word. The UMass AIA Team was embedded in the communities and at the Depot in South Londonderry for three days. The needs assessment was presented at the first public meeting and the team heard from the communities about their housing concerns. The second public meeting involved a presentation of recommendations for the towns and public to consider. The slides and recordings of the public meeting are now available on WRC’s Community Development webpage, as is the needs assessment.
The UMass AIA Team, which includes design and planning professionals from New England and other parts of the country, is now refining their recommendations. The projects they will present in the final report are designed as models to show what is possible but the details have not been flushed out. The final report will be posted on the Community Development webpage as soon as it’s available.
This effort is an experiment to convene a conversation across town boundaries to explore where residents see themselves, their family members, neighbors, coworkers, and the next generations living throughout the different stages of their lives. The end product is not a new plan or regulation, but ideas and concepts that may be built upon by the communities. “If this type of approach and conversation works, we’ll explore opportunities to replicate it with other groupings of towns within the region,” said WRC Executive Director Chris Campany.
