LYME — The town is seeking public input into a zoning change proposed by a longtime resident who seeks to allow more housing to be constructed in Lyme.
Pat Pippin, who for decades has owned the Lyme Country Store with her husband, Tony, said she was inspired to propose the amendment after hearing from fellow residents — and people who would like to become residents — who have struggled to find places to live in Lyme, which has a population of roughly 1,700 people.
The amendment would expand the number of housing units that can be included in a single structure in the Lyme Center, Lyme Common and Commercial Zoning districts. Those three districts are the only three of Lyme’s eight zoning districts that allow for mixed-use development, which includes businesses and housing.
“(It) has potential to support additional housing in town for seniors, our Lyme workforce and others,” Pippin, 86, said in a phone interview last week. She circulated a petition to get the issue on the ballot. “I like to get things done, so to speak, and I definitely see a need for that.”
Residents will have an opportunity to weigh in on the proposal during a public hearing Thursday evening. The change will come to voters by ballot in March.
Under current zoning regulations, buildings cannot be converted into more than six units.
Pippin’s proposed amendment would change that, in part, to buildings “may be converted into no more than 6 commercial units and any number of residential units that fit into its existing structure.”
Additionally, the amendment would allow the building’s footprint to increase “up to 15% to accommodate changes to the structure to support the conversion.”
In that case, contractors could could push out a wall or make other adjustments “while still protecting the integrity and aesthetics of existing buildings,” said Kristin Kelley, a longtime family friend who helped Pippin craft the technical language for the amendment.
It would apply only to existing buildings that are more than 5 years old and not to new construction, Lyme Planning and Zoning Administrator David Robbins said. The amendment does not specify how to determine how many units can fit into an existing structure.
Separate from the zoning amendment, any converted building would also have to have a water and septic system that has been approved by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. Lyme does not have a municipal water or sewer system.
Through the amendment, Pippin hopes to make it easier for residents to move into smaller homes as they age. In conversations with older members of the community groups she belongs to, residents have expressed a desire to downsize, but they have nowhere to go in town, she said.
“There are a lot of people living by themselves who can’t afford to stay in their own homes now,” Pippin said, citing rising taxes. “They like Lyme and don’t want to have to move out of Lyme.”
Robbins, who has been in Lyme for 15 years, said housing growth has been relatively flat and that new units that have been built tend to be single-family homes. The median sale price of a single-family home in Grafton County was $460,000 in November 2025, according to a New Hampshire Realtors report. That represented a $50,000 increase from the previous year.
Lyme Planning Board Chairman Richard Menge declined to comment on Pippin’s proposed amendment in advance of the hearing, but he noted town officials have engaged on the issue of housing.
In recent years, the Planning Board has met with representatives from the Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission, as well as affordable housing developer Twin Pines to learn more about what it could take to bring more housing to town.
“We just wanted to get a better understanding of why housing is difficult and expensive,” Menge said. “It’s just not an inexpensive place to live when land costs and building costs are as high as they are.”
During the hearing, the Planning Board’s five members will indicate whether or not they support the petitioned amendment.
“It goes on the ballot no matter what,” Robbins said. “It’s more of an advisory vote.”
The amendment is set to go to voters in March during Town Meeting voting.
Thursday’s hearing is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the Lyme Town Offices, located at 1 High St. It can also be streamed online via the town’s website, lymenh.gov.