Like many Strafford County taxpayers, we first learned through newspaper reporting that the County Commissioners were considering an \u201caffordable housing\u201d development on publicly owned County Farm property in Dover. Foster\u2019s Daily Democrat published three articles discussing the proposal, including an early look at the project on September 1, 2026. The public discussion ultimately described a concept of approximately 150 housing units on County Farm land near the House of Corrections and the new warming center.<\/p>\n
Because this involves publicly owned land, potential public resources, and decisions that require involvement of the Strafford County Delegation, six Republican members of the Delegation\u2019s Executive Committee sent a letter to the Commissioners asking basic questions about the County\u2019s legal authority, the proposed financial and real-estate arrangement, the use of taxpayer resources, and what approvals would be required before the project could move forward. Our concern was not whether affordable or workforce housing is a worthwhile public- policy goal. As we stated in our first letter, the issue is whether the County is acting within its lawful authority, whether the appropriate elected bodies are involved, and whether taxpayers are receiving complete information before county land or resources are committed.<\/p>\n
For transparency, we are publishing the complete correspondence below so Strafford County residents can read it and reach their own conclusions. Letter 1 is our August 26 response after learning about the proposal through the newspaper and public reporting. Letter 2 is the County Commissioners\u2019 September 4 response, in which they cited the new Partners in Housing legislation and stated that some of our questions were premature because the proposal was still evolving. Letter 3 is our September 11 response explaining why we believe those questions are not premature and requesting the legal, financial, appraisal, feasibility, infrastructure, and taxpayer-impact information that should be available before publicly owned land is sold, leased, conveyed, or otherwise committed to a specific development.<\/p>\n
The Correspondence<\/strong><\/p>\n Letter 1 \u2014 August 26, 2026:<\/strong> Strafford County Delegation Executive Committee Republicans to the Strafford County Commissioners<\/a><\/p>\n Letter 2 \u2014 September 4, 2026:<\/strong> Strafford County Commissioners\u2019 Response to the Delegation<\/a><\/p>\n Letter 3 \u2014 September 11, 2026:<\/strong> Our Response to the Commissioners and Request for Due Diligence Before Moving Forward<\/a><\/p>\n Strafford County Delegation Executive Committee Republicans:<\/strong><\/p>\n Representative Glenn Bailey Background Foster\u2019s Daily Democrat articles:<\/strong><\/p>\n Fosters Daily Democrat – Strafford County Leaders Eye Land in Dover for Affordable Housing<\/a> [PDF<\/a>]<\/p>\n Fosters Daily Democrat – 150 Affordable Housing Units Proposed on Strafford County Land Near Jail<\/a> [PDF<\/a>]<\/p>\n Fosters Daily Democrat – Early Look at Strafford County’s 150-unit Affordable Housing Plan in Dover<\/a> [PDF<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Like many Strafford County taxpayers, we first learned through newspaper reporting that the County Commissioners were considering an \u201caffordable housing\u201d development on publicly owned County Farm property in Dover. Foster\u2019s Daily Democrat published three articles discussing the proposal, including an early look at the project on September 1, 2026. The public discussion ultimately described a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/straffordcountyrepublicans.org\/scrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/straffordcountyrepublicans.org\/scrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/straffordcountyrepublicans.org\/scrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/straffordcountyrepublicans.org\/scrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/straffordcountyrepublicans.org\/scrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1215"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/straffordcountyrepublicans.org\/scrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1229,"href":"https:\/\/straffordcountyrepublicans.org\/scrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions\/1229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/straffordcountyrepublicans.org\/scrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/straffordcountyrepublicans.org\/scrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/straffordcountyrepublicans.org\/scrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRepresentative Claudine R. Burnham
\nRepresentative Susan G. DeRoy
\nRepresentative Michael Harrington
\nRepresentative Thomas L. Kaczynski, Jr.
\nRepresentative Kelley L. Potenza<\/p>\n