Manchester Planning Board Continues Verizon Tower Hearing, Advances Housing Plan Review

MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA, May 26, 2026, Manchester Planning Board opens Verizon tower hearing, defers decision amid questions on surety bonds and federal eligibility rules. The board voted unanimously May 26 to continue a public hearing on a special permit application by Selco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, to upgrade a camouflaged monopole at 17 Ashland Avenue, adding six new panel antennas and widening the upper shroud from 2 feet to 2 feet, 6 inches, to June 8 at 7:30 p.m., pending confirmation that $10,000 and $5,000 surety bonds from a 2002 approval remain in place and a response from outside counsel on whether the project's federal "eligible facilities" designation limits local conditions. In a separate session, housing consultant Karen presented a draft Housing Production Plan showing Manchester holds 115 units on the state Subsidized Housing Inventory against a 229-unit threshold, a gap of 114, with a median single-family home price of $1.135 million, a $206,369 inflation-adjusted median household income, and an affordability gap at 80 percent of area median income exceeding $800,000. Board members said existing zoning strategies, including MBTA compliance and ADU bylaw revisions, have produced no SHI units to date, and described the state's affirmative marketing requirements as a structural barrier to small-scale affordable projects such as the Powder House Apartments on Elm Street, which cannot be added to the SHI until units turn over one by one through a state lottery process.