With a unique take on the “cluster development,” a Dover couple hopes to provide housing for young people in the same situation as many of their employees: forced to live far away from their jobs thanks to a lack of affordable housing. Image courtesy of GSD Studios

Dover planning officials have given the go-ahead to the owners of a local assisted living facility seeking to build an unusual multifamily rental project: a cluster of 44 “micro-unit” cottages.

Architect Margaret Randolph and her husband, developer John Randolph, own Harmony Homes Assisted Living Center in Durham and conceived of the project as a way to cheaply build housing affordable to most younger workers in the area, drawing inspiration from “pocket” neighborhoods in the West.

“We asked our staff what they needed and over the next year, we gave out 21 percent pay raises and better benefits, but it was still hard to attract people,” John Randolph told The Registry Review in late 2020. “The real problem was people had to live more than an hour away from the Seacoast because there was no affordable housing available.”

Randolph said at the time that financing for the project was already in place.

Foster’s Daily Democrat reports the Dover Planning Board unanimously approved the project on March 9, subject to a few changes, including the addition of 14 parking spots, for a total of 75. Construction could begin as early as April.