What is a Cottage Court?

Cottage courts are groupings of small houses around a shared public space. Considered a type of “missing middle” housing, they can be built as for-sale or rental units. Homes in a cottage court development are typically limited in size (for example, 1,200 square feet or less), oriented around shared green space, and have parking screened from the street.

Project Overview

In late 2023 and early 2024, the City used grant funding through the InvestNH Housing Opportunity Program to develop an ordinance with input from the community to allow for this type of development to occur in Keene. 

Visit the project page

View the adopted ordinance

Watch a short video

In late 2023 and early 2024, the City used grant funding to explore sustainable parking and transportation options that will enable continued residential development in neighborhoods near downtown.  The goal is to improve parking and transportation for the community while facilitating needed housing development.  Staff will evaluate and recommend parking and transportation changes for implementation in the next few years.

Visit the project page.

View the Draft Report.

Housing Needs Assessment Report (without appendices)

1. Executive Summary and Introduction
2. Demographic & Economic Profile
3. Housing Inventory & Analysis
4. Housing Market Trends
5. Community and Stakeholder Input 
6. Housing Needs Assessment
7. Housing Resiliency
8. Key Housing Challenges and Needs & Housing Strategy
9. Appendices: Data Sources, Survey Results, and Resiliency Mapping Analysis

Overview

The City of Keene is hired Camoin Associates to complete a comprehensive housing needs analysis for the City of Keene that articulates the critical issues, opportunities, and solutions to address the community’s housing needs. The assessment documents existing housing conditions within the City of Keene; identifies market and other forces that affect housing supply and demand now and over the next 10 years; and identifies gaps or deficiencies in maintaining equitable access to safe, resilient, and reliable housing to as many City residents as possible.

Project Schedule

This project began in late October/early November 2022 and concluded with the City Council vote to accept the report on June 15, 2023. 

Community Housing Open House April 20th - Thank you for attending!

A Community Housing Open House was held on Thursday, April 20 from 3:30-5:30 pm at the Hannah Grimes Center. Attendees learned about Keene's proposed housing strategy and were asked to provide feedback using dot stickers and an online poll. 

Community Housing Workshop February 7th - Thank you for attending!

Thank you to everyone who attended the Housing Workshop on February 7. The goal of this workshop was to hear from as many people as possible about housing-related issues, concerns, and ideas. Input from this workshop will inform the housing needs analysis as well as the proposed housing strategy in the final report. Attendees also got a preview of the data collected so far from the project consultant firm, Camoin Associates.

Click HERE to view the presentation slides from the workshop. 

Resources

Regional Housing Needs Assessment (Southwest Region Planning Commission)

Draft City of Keene Housing Inventory (February 2020)

Meeting Presentations

The consultant gave two presentations to the Joint Committee of the Planning Board and the Planning Licenses and Development Committee on March 13, 2023, and April 10, 2023, and gave a final presentation to the City Planning Licenses and Development Committee on June 7, 2023.

March 13, 2023, Community Housing Needs Assessment Presentation
April 10, 2023, Strategy Review Presentation
June 7, 2023, Final Presentation

Background

Today, the City is experiencing significantly different demographic trends and socioeconomic circumstances than the decades following World War II, which is when many of the City’s residential zoning districts last underwent a comprehensive update. These years were characterized by substantial in-migration and rapid housing development.  During this era, the paradigm for planning and land use regulation was focused on limiting or in some instances controlling growth.  In more recent years, the City’s growth rates have sharply slowed and are projected to stay low over the next thirty years.  Keene faces considerable challenges including a rapidly aging population, slow economic recovery, loss of youth and young professionals, and increased competition in an increasingly globalized society. Housing has been identified as a critical challenge for many years and is now at the crisis stage, affecting the local economy and workforce retention and recruitment.

The highest priority implementation strategy of Keene’s Comprehensive Master Plan is to “Rewrite the City’s Land Use and Zoning Regulations to Proactively Achieve the Community’s Vision for the Future.” In May 2021, the City made major strides toward this goal with the adoption of a comprehensive land use code update that combined the City’s zoning and land use regulations into a single document, the Keene Land Development Code (LDC). This effort was focused mainly on re-organizing and streamlining regulations, in addition to creating new form-based zoning districts in the downtown. The next phase of this project involves reexamining the City’s residential and other zoning districts outside the downtown and assessing how well the City’s regulations align with the community’s Master Plan goals, including those related to housing.

Thank you for taking the Housing Resilience Survey!

Building on regional housing efforts, the City of Keene is working to understand the resiliency of Keene’s housing stock and housing needs in Keene, including those due to aging infrastructure and the impacts of climate change. This survey helped describe current housing supply and affordability and inform future action by the City. The survey closed on February 17. Thank you for your participation!

See the Survey Results

In 2023, the City of Keene updated regulations governing accessory dwelling units, or "ADUs" to make it easier to build one in the city. ADUs are now de-coupled from zoning and are allowed by right on any lot in the city with a single-family home. 

View the 2023 ADU Ordinance.

Watch a short video about ADUs in Keene.

View Presentation Slides about the 2023 Changes.

What is an "ADU"?

An ADU, sometimes called a "granny flat" or "in-law apartment," is an independent living unit ancillary to a single-family dwelling unit and under the same ownership as the principal dwelling unit. The ADU may be attached (located within or attached to the single-family home), or detached (a free-standing structure or located within a detached accessory building on the property).