What's on the table
at City Council

The Administrative Code currently requires the City Clerk to advertise upcoming board and committee vacancies in the local newspaper. The amendment deletes that requirement and replaces it with a general duty to give reasonable notice to members whose terms are expiring, and reasonable notice to the public of vacancies through the city website or other municipal communication tools.

The City Manager's report presents this as part of a run of ordinance updates removing older processes, citing the procurement ordinance change as a precedent that saved publishing costs and staff time.

The longest ordinance in the packet, running about twenty pages. It strips most off-street parking regulation out of Chapter 10 and points it instead at the Site Plan Review Regulations. Requirements for one- and two-family dwellings stay in zoning; everything else — the use-by-use parking ratio tables, shared parking methodology, parking lot dimensions and design, the Downtown Overlay provisions, bicycle parking, loading — moves.

The Planning Board recommended first reading on August 20. The City Manager's report describes the goal as simplifying the zoning ordinance, creating a clearer separation between zoning standards and site plan review, and giving staff greater administrative flexibility in applying parking requirements.

Small thing: the ordinance is headed "ORDINANCE #0 -26," a number placeholder, and Article 11 is titled "SITE DEVELOPMENT STANDARS."

Today the Historic District boundary along Middle Street runs roughly 150 feet back from the street, which cuts through lots and in some cases through buildings. The amendment replaces that with a boundary that follows parcel lines, so a property is either wholly in or wholly out.

54 parcels come out of the district. Of those, the City Manager's report says 38 contain structures — 20 entirely inside the district today, 18 straddling the line. The other 16 are crossed by the boundary but their buildings already sit outside it.

20 parcels are listed as added, but none of them are new to the district. Each is already partly inside; the amendment brings the whole parcel in. The ordinance's own heading calls them additions, which reads confusingly against the report's line that no new parcels are being added.

For the 38 parcels with buildings coming out, the practical effect is that exterior work would no longer need Historic District Commission review. The report frames the change as a matter of clear and defensible boundaries rather than arbitrary distances.

This is the ordinance that turned up in the August 3 packet without an agenda item. It had first reading on August 17 and is now at second reading.

Abutter notice. Section 10.234.50 currently requires everyone owning property within 300 feet of a Zoning Board appeal to be notified, with an exemption for Character Districts 4 and 5 and the Downtown Overlay District. Both the requirement and the exemption are deleted, and notice would simply follow state law. The report explains that the Legislature redefined "abutter" in RSA 672:3 in 2024, and says relying on the statute reduces the number of notices, staff processing time and applicant mailing costs.

The report adds that the city set up an electronic subscription service in fall 2025 for agendas and packets, and gives current subscriber counts: 78 for City Council, 65 Planning Board, 57 Zoning Board, 60 Conservation Commission, 53 each for the Historic District Commission and the Technical Advisory Committee. Those are opt-in numbers; abutter notice is not.

Conditional use permits. A permit approved alongside a site plan would stay valid as long as the site plan does. A stand-alone permit could get a first one-year extension from the Planning & Sustainability Director rather than the Planning Board, with any further extension requiring a Planning Board public hearing and capped at one year each.

The no-parking ordinance is edited so that the east side of Fleet Street between Congress and Hanover becomes parkable and the west side does not. Eight spaces move across the street.

Staff's reasoning, as set out in the report: with a contra-flow bike lane on the west, parking on the right-hand side means drivers don't cross the bike lane to park, park on the customary side, don't open doors into the lane, and don't back out blind into oncoming bicycle traffic. Moving the spaces also gives a larger turning radius and better alignment with the Hanover Garage ticket gate.

Also deleted: the current provision that lets trucks load or unload in the west-side space nearest Hanover Street. It is struck rather than relocated.

Traffic on Fleet Street would run northbound only, from Congress Street to Hanover Street. The ordinance adds a sentence permitting cyclists to ride the other way within the marked contra-flow lane — which is what makes the lane legal rather than merely painted.

The chain of decisions behind it: utility work required rebuilding the street; the sidewalks did not meet accessibility standards and had to be widened; wider sidewalks, two-way traffic and parking would not all fit. Abutters were surveyed in December 2021 on three options and parking was preferred over two-way traffic. The Fire Department requires 18 feet of clear pavement, which leaves room for a 6-foot bike lane. The one-way flow also stops cars waiting to turn into the Hanover Garage from blocking both lanes.

At first reading, Councilor Bagley said he expected public pushback on the contra-flow lane. Two residents have written in about it since — one questioning whether riding against traffic is even legal, one laying out the design history in support.

A three-year agreement running August 1, 2026, to July 31, 2029, so it is retroactive by six weeks. Base salary $130,000, plus an annual stipend of 5% of base contingent on holding a valid paramedic license. Cost-of-living increases in 2027 and 2028 are set at the ten-year rolling average of regional CPI-U, floored at 2% and capped at 5%.

Also included: a city vehicle, which may be used personally given on-call status; a $600 annual clothing allowance; tuition coverage for approved coursework, repayable if not passed; and severance of six months' base salary or the balance of the contract, whichever is less, if terminated without cause. Other benefits track the Professional Management Association unit.

The agreement requires Egan to keep a domicile within fifteen miles of Portsmouth for the term, with failure to do so grounds for termination for cause at the Fire Commission's option.

The collective bargaining agreement covering Portsmouth School District paraeducators expired June 30, 2026. The Board of Education and the union have been negotiating a successor but have not reached one, which the memo attributes to the complexity of possible changes to the health and dental benefit. Negotiations are expected to resume at the start of the school year.

Rather than leave pay flat, the agreement extends the existing contract until the earlier of June 30, 2027 or a successor agreement, and applies a 3.03% cost-of-living increase to the salary schedule and longevity benefit, retroactive to July 1, 2026. Everything else, including the insurance plan and provider, stays as is and remains on the bargaining table.

Both the Board and the union have approved it. A costing analysis by the Deputy City Manager for Finance is referenced as attached.

Twenty-three regular meetings and seven work sessions. Four meetings shift to Tuesdays around holidays — January 19, February 16, and September 7. July has a single meeting.

Dates worth putting in a diary now: the budget public hearing opens May 24 and continues to adoption on June 7; the capital plan kickoff is August 16; the joint capital plan public hearing with the Planning Board is November 15; capital plan adoption is December 6.

• New Castle 10K, Sunday, April 25, 2027. Starts and finishes at Great Island Common; about 1.7 miles of the course runs through Portsmouth on Sagamore Avenue, South Street and New Castle Avenue.
• Halloween Costume Paddle, Sunday, October 25, 2026, 11 am to 1 pm at the Peirce Island boat ramp. Twenty to thirty paddlers; a fundraiser for the Halloween Parade, with a park cleanup alongside it.
• Pro Portsmouth's 2027 season in a single request: First Night on December 31, 2026, with fireworks over South Mill Pond and Parrott Avenue lot closures; Children's Day May 2; the 50th Market Square Day on June 12 with downtown closures from 5 am; and six Summer in the Street evenings.
• Active encumbrance permits — three current permits: masonry repointing at 1 Harbour Place, tree removal on Langdon Street, and staging for facade repairs at 222 Court Street.

Regan Electric owns 98 Cornwall Street and is asking Council to release the city's interest in 2,340 square feet of Cornwall Street that crosses its property and dead-ends at the railroad.

The history in the petition: the street was dedicated when an 1815 subdivision plan was recorded in 1845, and served houses on the site into the 1930s. Portsmouth Ice and Coal then bought the lots, removed the houses and blocked the street. A coal shed sat across its full width until it was taken down in the late 1970s, leaving a concrete pad and retaining wall. Sanborn fire maps from 1949 onward show the street stopping at the property line, and the city's tax and GIS maps show the same thing today.

The legal argument is that although Cornwall Street is a Class V road, the city has not maintained this portion for more than five consecutive years, which under RSA 229:5 makes it Class VI — and that under RSA 231:43 Council can vote to discontinue it. The petition notes no lots need it for access and it would lead nowhere if built. Regan Electric proposes keeping a 20-foot easement so the city can reach an existing sewer line running through the area.

Tonight is a referral, not a decision. The proposed motion sends it to the Planning Board and sets a public hearing to coincide with the report back.

Note: the City Manager's report does not comment on this item. Its sections skip from item 11 to grants and donations.

Catalogued in full in the correspondence section below. Seven of the ten are about parking.

• Resignation: Anna Howard from the Economic Development Commission, effective October 1.
• Considered: John Bohenko to the Public Art Review Committee — the city's retired City Manager, listing 29 years' residency. Richard Samdperil to the Library Board of Trustees. Jason Goodrich to the Economic Development Commission as a regular member, moving up from the alternate seat he has held for five months to fill the seat Anna Howard is vacating. Thomas Watson, Andrew Ward and Anne Weidman are reappointments to the same commission — sitting members continuing.
• Voted: John (Jack) Holzman to the Board of Adjustment. This appointment has been carried since July, when it was held after a seat unexpectedly opened.
• Verbal: appointment of Council members to the capital plan citizen request subcommittee, and a status report on the former recreation area under the I-95 bridge.

Worth watching: only one Economic Development Commission seat actually changes hands tonight. Anna Howard's resignation opens a regular seat, Goodrich steps up from alternate to fill it, and the other three names are incumbents continuing. The consequence is the seat Goodrich leaves behind: the commission's alternate seat becomes vacant, and it appears nowhere on tonight's agenda.

On August 17 this motion was defeated. Assistant Mayor Kelley and Councilors Cook, Blalock and Flynn joined Mayor McEachern against it; Councilors Bagley, Hopkins and Moreau were in favour. Assistant Mayor Kelley then moved to reconsider tonight, which passed 6–2.

The substance is unchanged: on-street and lot parking would go from $2 an hour for the first three hours and $5 after, to $3 and $6. What has changed is that the reasons given for holding off — that Council wanted data from the parking work session, clearer signage, assurance workforce parking would not be hurt, and a better plan for what the revenue does — are now partly answered by the report back at item 17.C, and by the other motions on tonight's agenda.

What the numbers now say. The parking fund ran an estimated gap of about $1.82 million in FY26, covered by drawing down reserves. Staff say the July garage increases alone are expected to close it and leave roughly $430,000 over. The on-street change would add about $1.70 million in FY27 if adopted in October, since only about nine months of the year would be captured; a full year would be about $2.27 million.

This is the response to what downtown workers and business owners said at the August work session. Four amendments to the resident parking policy:

• Drop the 35-cent transaction fee on Parrott Avenue for workforce parkers. That fee is charged once per session, not per hour, and goes to the app vendor rather than the city.
• Raise Foundry Garage stickers from 10 hours to 12. A resident asked for 14 at the work session.
• Raise the monthly sticker limit from 20 to 26.
• Define who qualifies: small business owners and employees of restaurant, hospitality, retail and personal service businesses located downtown.

Take-up so far. Foundry workforce use rose from about 130 to 160 parkers a day in July, up 23%. 703 downtown workers are enrolled. On Parrott Avenue, workforce visits grew from 100 in July to 130 in August, with an average stay of about 6.6 hours, and 53 workers have registered there.

Registered residents currently pay $1.25 an hour for the first three hours and $2.25 after, when using the app. This motion holds those rates for FY2027.

It is the companion to 15.A. Taken together they would leave residents paying less than half what visitors pay for the same curb: at a four-hour stay, about $6 against $15.

Councilor Tabor asks Council to request a plan for solar on city land and buildings, combining near-term small high-return projects with a 1.7-megawatt array at the closed Jones Avenue landfill, carried in the capital plan at $4.1 million, with a report back on October 13. The Energy Advisory Committee voted unanimously on September 2 to make the request.

The case as put. The memo cites committee minutes for a combined single-system array being cash-flow positive from year one at about $167,000 in net savings, rising past $200,000 a year, and over $500,000 a year once the bond is paid; a net benefit of $3.894 million in present value over 25 years; and reductions of 11% in the city's carbon emissions and 36% in its electricity emissions.

Also referenced: a separate study identified possible rooftop solar at the Public Works building, City Hall and Fire Station 2, and behind-the-meter options at the Madbury water treatment plant and the Pease wastewater plant. Public Works has recommended prioritising those smaller, higher-return projects in the near term.

Councilors Cook and Flynn would limit the 183-space Parrott Avenue lot to registered residents and downtown workforce parkers, holding a small number of spaces for District Court defendants.

The survey behind it. Staff logged plates on five weekday mornings in August. Registered residents were 9.9% of vehicles and downtown workforce 2.0%. Portsmouth vehicles not registered in any program were 5.9%. Out-of-state plates were 30.4%, two-thirds of them Massachusetts or Maine. The largest share, 51.8%, were New Hampshire plates the city could not match to any program. Of those unidentified vehicles, 61 plates appeared on four or five of the five mornings.

Staff read that as a free lot serving mostly non-residents and commuters enrolled in nothing, and suggest low workforce participation may simply reflect the lot being full by the time workers arrive.

Conflicts with 15.F, which would remove Parrott Avenue from the policy altogether.

A single-line motion from Councilor Blalock removing Parrott Avenue from the policy. No supporting memo is attached.

Parrott Avenue is the only street in the program zone open to downtown workforce parkers, and the workforce rate of 30 cents an hour exists there. Removing it would end that arrangement along with the resident provisions.

Interacts with two other motions: 15.E would tighten Parrott Avenue rather than remove it, and 15.B's first bullet drops a transaction fee that applies only there.

Councilor Bagley's motion would hold the hourly rate at the High-Hanover garage at or below on-street rates, citing the city's parking principle that long-term parkers should be steered toward off-street facilities by price while curb space stays available for short errands.

The inversion is real. Since the July 1 garage increase, a four-hour stay at Hanover costs $12 against $11 on the street. That is the same problem staff cited in May when they first recommended raising on-street rates — but the remedy runs the other way.

If 15.A passes, on-street at four hours goes to $15 and the ladder rights itself without touching the garage. If 15.A fails and 15.G passes, the garage rate would have to come down instead, which would cut into the roughly $2.25 million the garage increases are projected to bring in.

Councilor Flynn asks staff, working with the Portsmouth Housing Authority, to report to Council on where the Sherburne School project stands — progress, timelines, milestones, and any recent developments or challenges affecting next steps.

A verbal item with no attachments and no date attached to the report back.

Councilor Hopkins proposes a time-limited working group to serve as the transit task force called for in the 2026–2027 Council goals, reporting back by January 29, 2027 with either a pilot scope or a consultant-ready design scope.

What the memo says has already happened. A parking shuttle pilot was recommended in 2013. A microtransit request for qualifications went out in 2019. A free shuttle ran from a church lot to the Hanover Garage until June 2020, discontinued for low use — months after $3 employee parking opened at Foundry Place and during early COVID, with no published evaluation of why ridership was low. The 2025 strategic parking plan identified a remote parking reservoir with transit downtown as one answer to projected shortfalls.

The memo's framing is that the city has plenty of studies and no shared starting point, and that defining scope locally first means any future consultant begins from a grounded brief.

Three pressures cited: downtown workers describing the cumulative cost of parking, COAST adjusting service as federal funding declines, and a workday population of roughly 42,000 against roughly 22,000 residents, most of those workers living outside the city.

Membership would run to at least 13 — Council, five city departments, four city committees, and regional partners including the Rockingham Planning Commission, COAST and C&J. No new appropriation is requested; the capital plan already carries a $100,000 transit feasibility study.

Point of Graves cemetery wall. The wall is in substantial disrepair. Plans developed with a landscape architect would rebuild it in stone masonry with granite caps and restore the existing wrought-iron turnstile. The current estimate is about $480,000 and the city has roughly $240,000 available for design, permitting and construction. A South End resident has offered to match up to $240,000 to close the gap and let work start in early 2027. Eighteen further donations, listed individually, total about $6,300, ranging from $50 to $3,000. Friends of the South End have been fundraising too and are recognised separately at item 8.B.

Senior Activity Center — $500 from a member and Portsmouth resident for the senior luncheon fund, given in gratitude for access to the centre and its programming.

Granite bench. A memorial bench for a family with long ties to the South End. The donors asked for Haven Park; Public Works reviewed it and designated Four Tree Island instead, which is where the motion places it.

The parking report back (17.C) is the substantive one and the only item here with attached materials. Ten slides answering what Council asked for on August 17. Beyond the rate and fund figures covered above:

• Free parking inventory. More than 500 free spaces in city lots open to anyone — Parrott Avenue 183, Pierce Island 115, South Mill Pond 90, the leased Masonic lot 75, and 100-plus in the City Hall lower lot off-hours. Plus 221 street spaces adjacent to downtown, 232 in resident zones, and 78 at the library.
• What the resident pilot did. Midday availability on pilot streets up 23.6%, evening up 19.9%. Residents are 88% of transactions there; paid non-residents 7%. Nearby non-pilot streets saw small drops — 8.1% afternoon, 4.8% evening — which staff are monitoring for spillover.
• A volunteer parking pilot. After meeting with the Music Hall about volunteers staffing evening and weekend events, staff propose opening the back of the Middle School lot to registered volunteers during off-hours. Next steps are confirming it with the School Department and setting up registration.
• The 35-cent fee explained. It is the app vendor's per-session charge, not per hour, and does not reach the city. Registered residents do not pay it. Card processing costs are absorbed by the city and never shown to drivers. A monthly membership at about $3.99 breaks even at roughly 12 sessions a month.

Also: a verbal update on the August 18 Pease Development Authority board meeting; a Mechanic Street pump station feasibility study public input meeting on September 21 at 6:30 pm in Conference Room A; and a new Public Art Review Committee exhibit, "Light Falls," opening in the Portsmouth Room on September 22 with a reception before the September 28 meeting.