The plan that was proposed and sold to the citizens has changed considerably since the fall of 2021.”

Mary McDowell, resident

Is there sometimes a difference between proposal and completion? Yeah, that happens whenever you’re building.”

Charles Levesque, Town Council

PORTSMOUTH — An update on the new senior center that’s part of a 54-unit affordable housing project turned into a debate Monday night on whether local senior residents were being prioritized enough.

According to some residents who spoke at the Town Council meeting, plans for the development by Church Community Housing Corporation (CCHC) have changed substantially since voters approved a referendum question in 2021 regarding the property. The question, which asked whether the town should enter into a long-term lease agreement with CCHC for the construction of elderly affordable housing (known as Ade Bethune House), a new senior center facility and the possible redevelopment of the Anne Hutchinson School property at 110 Bristol Ferry Road, was approved by a margin of 54 to 46 percent. 

Not so, say town officials. Other than removing the baseball field due to unforeseen complications with the project’s onsite wastewater treatment system (OWTS) — another field for Portsmouth Little League has since been identified — the plan is practically the same, said Town Administrator Richard Rainer, Jr.

“The proposed plan is virtually identical except for the ball field, which was cost-ineffective at the site,” he said. “The two issues we had to face were the topography of the land, which would have required 10-foot retaining walls on the outer edges of the ball field, and the soil conditions which required redesigns of the septic system. We have since secured use of one and likely two superior ball fields at the Navy’s Carr Point Recreational Facility located at Burma Road. The Little League has been notified and they’re very happy with that arrangement.”

But a few residents were definitely not happy with the plans.

“The plan that was proposed and sold to the citizens has changed considerably since the fall of 2021,” said Mary McDowell of Point Road. 

Besides the ball field being removed, she questioned plans for the historic portion of the Anne Hutchinson School, which served as the town’s senior center until fire code violations a few years back restricted the number of people who could congregate there. (An addition to the school that the town built in the 1950s will be demolished.)

CCHC, McDowell said, stated it would first re-develop the historic portion into four market-rate condos that would be used to help finance the rest of the project. She and another resident, Mary Ellen Martin of Massachusetts Boulevard, said CCHC stated during an informational session last month that it is not developing the school into market-rate condos, and in fact plans to turn the building back over to the town. Another resident, Nancy Grieb of Thayer Drive, said she attended the meeting and has Belden’s comments to that effect on video.

“Something changed between the approval of the council referendum on Aug. 10 (2021) and the ballot. And I believe — and I hope I’m wrong — something has changed from the ballot vote until now,” McDowell charged.

Rainer said that was false. “It was always briefed that (CCHC) would do the Anne Hutchinson building second. When they do that, the senior center will already have to have moved,” he said, a statement that was backed up by Town Planner Lea Hitchen.

Later on in the meeting, Rainer said he had just texted Christian Belden, CCHC’s executive director, to clarify the developer’s intentions regarding the old school. Rainer said Belden replied with the following: “I said the same thing I always say. If the numbers work, we’ll do it. If they don’t, we’ll give the keys back to the town. Church Community Housing has a strong interest in seeing the Anne Hutchinson School renovated since it will be right next door to our brand-new senior center and Ade Bethune House development.”

“This is what he’s been telling me for three years,” Rainer said.

Council member Keith Hamilton reminded residents the ballot question mentions “the possible redevelopment of the original Anne Hutchinson School building.”

“‘Possible’ — that’s what the voters approved,” Hamilton said.

McDowell, however, said information the town mailed out to voters before the November 2021 referendum didn’t match up with the ballot question. Rainer replied that the ballot question’s language was identical to the resolution the council approved on Aug. 10, and any inexactitude with the language mailed out to voters was addressed by the Board of Canvassers.

Seniors first?

After Karen Gleason of Massasoit Avenue asked about the current lease between the town and the senior center, Rainer said he didn’t have the exact expiration date on hand but administration was doing everything it could to assure there’s no interruption in service. Under the agreement with CCHC, the town’s senior center organization will be provided with a condo unit at no charge to taxpayers, he said.

“The owner of the housing development will enter into a longterm service agreement with the senior center organization to manage the entire senior center space — the condo and the shared amenity,” Rainer said. “(CCHC) worked with the senior center advisory group, the director of the senior center, and the chair of the senior center board to devise a place for the new senior center. The senior center will include a director’s office, a main office, a thrift shop, a fitness center, a conference room, a game room, a reception area, a library, a multi-purpose room, a dining room, and a kitchen.”

Martin, however, said it didn’t sound like the town was really getting a new senior facility. “They’re simply getting an office space with share amenities with a housing complex,” she said.

McDowell, meanwhile, asked the town to include a stipulation with CCHC that local senior center members are considered first when it comes to programming. “All I’m asking is in some kind of contract there is language that scheduling for these things will prioritize the seniors, because certainly they need that space,” she said.

Martin said local seniors were also under the impression they would get preferred treatment in placement for housing at the complex, which she charged doesn’t seem to be the case.

Who will be allowed to live at the complex is still not clear, council member Dave Gleason said. “I still don’t know the difference between senior housing, elderly housing, and LMI (low- and moderate-income) housing. Are there limitations to the people that can sign up to get an apartment in this building? I don’t know,” Gleason said, adding he wonders whether anyone 50 or older can get an apartment and move in with their children. “I don’t know if we’re telling the seniors the truth. I don’t know what the truth is.”

‘Catastrophe waiting to happen’

Although there are still details to be ironed out, town officials said something had to be done to give senior center members a new space.

“This all started when an assessment was made of the building, and the building is not an appropriate place for congregation,” Rainer said. “We had to close off the second floor. We had to close off the Anne Hutchinson house. We had an engineering inspection done of the 1950s building. There are cracks in the wall, the concrete ceiling can collapse. We have to do something about this. There’s sewer gas being pumped into the building. There are major problems, as has been briefed to the council multiple times.”

Council member Charles Levesque agreed. 

“That senior center was a catastrophe waiting to happen when I was on the council in 1990. We wouldn’t go to the second floor … because it was so unsafe,” he said. “This plan is so beautiful and accomplishes so much, and I’m tired of people coming up here and saying somehow we’ve been misleading people on bonds. We haven’t. We told you exactly what we were going to do. Is there sometimes a difference between proposal and completion? Yeah, that happens whenever you’re building.”