On May 12, Hanover residents will vote on three zoning amendments at the annual town meeting. The town’s planning, zoning and codes department is sponsoring two of the amendments on the ballot: Article 2 refines last year’s “house-scale residential overlay” amendment by limiting the size of new multi-unit developments, while Article 3 updates the town’s accessory dwelling unit rules for secondary residential buildings, such as garage apartments, to ensure ADUs match the original homes. If passed, Article 7 — which was brought by a resident petition and not sponsored by the planning, zoning and codes department — would rescind the zoning reforms passed by the town in 2025 by banning multi-unit buildings in certain residential zones.
Planning, zoning and codes director Jennifer Murray said in an interview with The Dartmouth that the town-proposed ballot items aim to refine three zoning amendments passed last year, which permitted two-, three- and four-unit dwellings and construction of workforce housing provided by non-profits.
“[Articles 2 and 3 are] clean-up amendment[s], working with the same thing that the voters passed in 2025 — just to improve it a little bit, so nothing real significant in terms of changing that,” Murray said.
Supporters of last year’s amendments said these amendments would allow for more housing to be built, bringing down housing prices in the area, according to past reporting by The Dartmouth.
Murray said last year’s reforms intended to expand “missing middle” housing — units between the size of single family homes and large apartment complexes — through zoning tools such as the house-scale residential overlay, which enables multi-unit developments.
She added that this year’s zoning amendments aim to curb overdevelopment under the 2025 measures by keeping new buildings at “house-scale.”
“We’re telling you how big the box can be that you’re putting on the parcel,” Murray said.
Article 7 repeals the zoning amendments passed in 2025, instead encouraging developing housing on properties that currently do not have housing. Hanover resident Randy Mudge launched a petition to repeal the amendments last May, which collected 80 signatures before he submitted it to the town planning, zoning and codes department on Feb. 9, leading to the amendment.
Mudge said denser housing, allowed by 2025 amendments, would fundamentally alter the town’s fabric and neighborhood character by “trying to create” an “urban environment.”
“[The 2025 zoning amendments] introduced something that’s incompatible with the existing neighborhoods and conditions,” Mudge said. “Its existing residential scale and dimensional appearance are not maintained.”
Murray said the Hanover Planning Board recommends that voters vote against Article 7 because the town’s zoning regulations prior to the 2025 revisions were “outdated” relative to housing needs.
“Everyone’s zoning is really outdated,” she said. “It’s still tracking back to the ’60s in a lot of places and favoring the production of single-family homes, which in Hanover are very expensive.”
Before last year’s zoning reforms, building affordable housing was extremely difficult due to regulatory barriers and approvals, Hanover resident Nicolas Macri ’24 told The Dartmouth.
It “was basically impossible to get permission to build,” he said. “It was technically allowed, but required so many hoops.”
Murray said that there has been no notable impact from the 2025 zoning amendments yet, as many housing development projects are still in planning and approval stages and that there has been no progress on non-profit workforce housing construction.
“Nothing has been approved under the [2025] provision yet,” Murray said. “We’re going to review [every application] iteratively over multiple meetings.”
Murray said the zoning changes enacted last year and continued in Articles 2 and 3 will result in a slow rollout of housing projects rather than an immediate construction boom, adding that she believes much of the community’s current anxiety about new developments stems from conceptual plans instead of final projects that have been vetted by the town.
“It’s very preliminary,” Murray said. “Very almost back-of-a-napkin.”
Dartmouth Student Government general senator Trace Ribble ʼ29 said he has been advocating against Article 7 zoning laws in DSG. He warned that Article 7 could impact students’ access to housing in town by making it harder to build new housing.
“We could potentially even see students face housing insecurity,” he said.
At the DSG meeting on April 12, DSG approved Ribble’s proposal to fund shuttles from Baker-Berry Library to the polls on town election day. Ribble said he is working with Dartmouth Votes, a coalition of student organizations, to organize events to inform students about the election.
Mudge wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that “mathematically, there will be fewer potential units to rent” in the new single-resident zone it would create in several residential streets in town, but Article 7 does not change potential rental units in the other residential zones.
“Our proposal promotes the development of existing multi-unit zoned properties on sewer and water which currently provide zero housing units,” he wrote. “That promotion should provide significant rental units for all.”
The town’s debate over housing development comes as Dartmouth pursues its own housing development strategy. College President Sian Leah Beilock pledged in her inaugural address in September 2023 to add 1,000 dormitory beds by 2033, a goal the College says it is on track to complete. Russo Hall — a 290-bed dormitory on West Wheelock Street — and the renovated Fayerweather Hall are slated to open this fall. In February, the College announced that it was opening a 21-unit employee complex in West Lebanon.
Macri said he is facing troubles finding housing as an alumnus living in Hanover because there is “effectively” no housing supply for recent graduates who can no longer live in student housing. He added that he currently rents a room in a single-family home.
“You have to … purchase a single-family home or fight for the little that’s left,” he said.
Zoning amendments are voted on by ballot. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Hanover High School on May 12. Students will be able to obtain a ballot using school-issued IDs, as the state’s recent voting ID law takes effect on June 3.
