Community Revitalization Tax Relief (79-E) Case Studies

Issues Addressed:
Housing Costs Infrastructure Redevelopment

Allenstown, NH

In 2020, Allenstown approved 79-E tax relief for ​​an 155-year-old textile mill that had been underutilized. The town also rezoned the area to allow for residential uses to enable the project. Project plans called for 150 new market-rate apartments. As of this writing, the rehabilitation project is under construction.

Exeter, NH

Exeter, NH Exeter, NH used 79-E for the first time to aid the rehabilitation of a riverfront restaurant location, making way for a brewpub location.
  • Exeter 79-E materials
  • Exeter News-Letter. “Sea Dog Brewing building could be town's first 79-E project” (July 29, 2017).
A historic riverfront restaurant in Exeter was renovated using 79-E tax relief and is now a Sea Dog Brewing brewpub location.

Dover, NH

In Dover, the City is using 79-E to incentivize the rehabilitation of a vacant courthouse into new housing. The courthouse itself will be renovated, and a new four-story structure will be built there. The City negotiated for 20% of housing units to be deed-restricted Affordable Housing for low-income residents.
  • Fosters Daily Democrat, “Chinburg's old Dover courthouse housing project: What's new, what's next” (February 25, 2021).
Dover’s vacant Strafford County courthouse in 2021 (above) and a rendering of the 79-E enabled redevelopment (below). (Images via Foster’s Daily Democrat)

State Law

Resources

Related Tools

An axonometric diagram of two versions of the same area of land. On the top is a diagram of the area with five two- and three-story buildings, plus large empty lots breaking up the area. An arrow points from the top to bottom. On the bottom, the empty lots now contain additional mixed-use buildings and homes.
Infill Development
A diagram showing two versions of the same building. At the top: a darkened mill-style building with missing windows, a broken roof, and sparse plant growth around it. An arrow points to an image below where the image has been brightened, the windows replaced, the roof repaired, and a tree growing next the structure.
Adaptive Reuse
A diagram with two versions of the same plot of land, one over the other. On the top version, the land contains only one single-family home with many wings and a large garage and a long driveway. This version is labeled with a large 'X' and "Regulations cannot mandate unaffordable housing everywhere." The version below contains two modestly sized single-family homes at the front of the site, and a driveway leading back to a cottage court, containing six small single-family homes around a central green. This version is labeled with a large checkmark and "Workforce housing must be allowed in a majority of residential areas."
Workforce Housing Ordinance
An axonometric diagram of two buildings next to each other. One building is four stories with two entrances. On the bottom story there is a sign for "nh hardware." The second building is two stories with three entrances (including a corner entrance), awnings, and cafe tables). The drawing is labeled "Retail, restaurant, and other active uses on ground floor" and "Housing on upper levels."
Mixed-Use Development
A diagram showing an axonometric view of an area with several colorful 1.5 and two-story homes. An area is demarcated on the land and labeled "Designated Housing Opportunity Zone." Below the axonometric drawing is the label "Taxes in Housing Opportunity Zone" with a column chart with two bars. The column on the left is labeled "Before new development" and "Taxed value on property before development." That column is small and shown in green. A larger column on the right is labeled "After new development." The portion of the column equal to the "Before new development" column is also green. The portion above that is gray and hatched and labeled "Untaxed value on new development: savings for up to 10 years."
Housing Opportunity Zones