Some of the most important work shaping our communities doesn’t happen overnight – and it doesn’t always come with a ribbon cutting.
The RPC often works quietly in the background: coordinating agencies, aligning funding, navigating regulations, and bringing communities together around a shared vision. Years later, that work becomes visible in the form of safer roads, protected natural resources, stronger local economies, and places people love to use.
The New Hampshire Seacoast Greenway is a perfect example.
What people experience today as a connected, multi-use trail for is the result of years of regional coordination and planning. Long before the first section was built, RPC worked alongside municipalities, state agencies, and regional partners to help align plans, secure funding and keep the project moving forward.
That behind-the-scenes work helped transform an abandoned rail corridor into a growing regional asset – one that supports recreation, transportation, tourism, and quality of life across multiple communities.
RPC’s role is to support communities – providing the planning expertise, data, and coordination needed to turn long-term ideas into real world results. By working regionally, communities can take on projects that would be difficult or impossible to achieve alone.
Good planning may be invisible at first – but its impact is lasting.
The RPC Regional Master Plan brings towns together around a shared vision for the future, helping communities think beyond their borders and work collaboratively on challenges and opportunities they share. From transportation corridors and housing needs to environmental protection and economic vitality, the plan helps connect local priorities to a broader regional context.
Rather than prescribing solutions, the Regional Master Plan serves as a guide – offering data, perspective, and coordination to support local decision-making and encourage partnerships that strengthen the region as a whole.
Adopted in 2015, the plan continues to inform conversations, investments, and planning efforts.
Under New Hampshire law, a Development of Regional Impact is a project reviewed by a local land use board that could reasonably affect neighboring communities.
Factors that may trigger a regional impact determination include:
RPC Review Process
When a local board determines that a project may have regional impacts, the RPC follows a formal review process that involves the Regional Impact Development Committee.
For more information about making declarations of regional impacts of project, the RPC has developed a guidance document.
The Regional Impact Committee supports the RPC in fulfilling the statutory requirements under the NH Developments of Regional Impact laws.
Specifically, the committee’s role is to:
The Regional Impact Committee meets as needed, based on the receipt of a notice of regional impact from a municipality.
(5 Members; 3 Alternates)
No meeting documents are currently available.
Housing has become one of the most pressing challenges facing communities across the region. Fewer homes are being built, household sizes are declining, and populations are growing older – all while demand continues to rise. The result is a housing shortage that affects people across income levels, ages, and communities.
The 2023 Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) and Fair Housing Equity Assessment (FHEA) provides current regional and local data on housing needs as required by New Hampshire state law and the American Rescue Plan funding and fulfills the recommendation of the Council on Housing Stability 2021-2024 Strategic Plan.
This data provides a clear picture of housing supply, demand, and demographic trends, helping communities understand what is needed today and what is coming next.
Most importantly, the RHNA is designed to spark conversation and collaboration. Housing challenges do not stop at town lines, and lasting solutions will require communities working together – using shared data and coordinated action to generate regional housing solutions.
Accessory Dwelling Units – sometimes called accessory or in-law apartments – are small, independent living spaces located within or alongside a single-family home, or in an accessory structure such as a garage or barn.
ADUs offer a flexible housing option that can support young workers, students, older adults, and multigenerational households.
New Hampshire law requires municipalities to allow ADUs under certain conditions. RPC provides guidance, model ordinances, and resources to help communities understand the law, update local regulations, and thoughtfully incorporate ADUs into their housing strategies.
Resources
Clean water, open spaces, healthy soils, and thriving wildlife are part of what makes this region a great place to live and work. These natural resources support everyday life – and they also support healthy growth.
As communities change and develop, protecting these shared resources becomes more complex. Balancing growth, property rights, and long-term environmental health is one of the region’s most important challenges.
The RPC works with communities to help navigate those challenges. By working regionally and locally, RPC supports planning efforts that protect natural resources and guide development in ways that respect both the land and the people who depend on it.
Climate change is already affecting communities across New Hampshire – from heavier rainfall and flooding to rising temperatures and coastal impacts. These changes are shaping how and where communities plan, build, and protect critical resources.
While some impacts are already underway, many future outcomes will depend on choices made today about land use, infrastructure, transportation, and energy. Communities have both the opportunity and responsibility to plan ahead.
The RPC is leading efforts to raise awareness and develop technical tools and guidance in addressing climate change in the region.
Climate-Related Challenges and Impacts
Planning for Resilience
Preparing for a changing climate requires:
RPC helps communities take practical steps toward resilience by providing data, coordination, and planning support at both the local and regional level.
RPC’s Role in the Region
RPC has worked with municipalities and partners on climate-related planning efforts that include:
Coastal Communities
Coastal municipalities face heightened risks from flooding, storm surge, erosion, and sea-level rise. These challenges are intensified by development patterns and aging infrastructure. Planning now can help protect homes, businesses, natural habitats, and public investments.
Resources
The RPC region is rich in water resources – rivers, lakes, wetlands, aquifers, and coastal waters. Additionally, the region includes New Hampshire’s only ocean coastline and the important estuarine systems of Great Bay and the Hampton-Seabrook Estuary.
Water Resources at a Glance
As the region has grown, changing land use patterns have placed increasing pressure on these resources. Those changes have resulted in both positive and negative impacts on the health of water resources that RPC communities rely on.
Since water does not follow municipal boundaries, protecting source water requires coordination among local, regional, and state partners – as well as individual property owners.
The RPC works on a variety of water resource protection efforts including:
Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) are products that contain corrosive, flammable, toxic, or reactive ingredients. When HHW
is improperly disposed of it can pollute water, threaten human health, and harm wildlife. RPC organizes an annual HHW collection
event for communities in the Exeter area to help ensure proper disposal.
EXETER AREA HHW COLLECTION
Date—Saturday October 3, 2026
Time—8:00AM-1:00PM
Location—Exeter Public Works Garage, 13 Newfields Road
Participating Towns—East Kingston, Epping, Exeter, Greenland, Newfields, Seabrook, South Hampton, Stratham
Cost—$15 per vehicle
Pre-registration is Required—visit https://publicinput.com/exeterhhw2026
For more information, contact Jill Longval, [email protected].
Accepted Items:
Proper Disposal of Prohibited Items
Most residents in the region have limited opportunities to safely dispose of household hazardous waste – often just one collection event per year, and only during certain seasons. This makes safe disposal difficult.
The RPC is studying ways to make household hazardous waste disposal more frequent and convenient. The HHW Feasibility Study is exploring options such as additional collection events, a permanent drop off facility, and curbside collection programs.
Work on the study began in 2024 and is ongoing.
There are no current projects to report at this time.
Adapting to Climate Change and Coastal Hazards
The Resilient Land Use Guide for NH provides model land use regulations to help municipalities prepare for climate change and coastal hazards using best practices and the most current data.
Communities can choose regulations based on their geographic characteristics, community goals, or local issues. The Guide is user-friendly and allows for future expansion as needs are identified and knowledge changes.
Resources
Case Studies
What does it take for a community to be a great place to grow older, stay connected, active, and supported?
The RPC in collaboration with the Rockingham Nutrition Meals on Wheels Program (RNMOW) are leading a regional Age Friendly Communities Initiative to help communities plan for an aging population by creating places where residents can thrive at every age and every stage of life.
This initiative follows a nationally recognized AARP framework that considers eight dimensions of age-friendly communities:
Age friendly communities are places where people can thrive at every age and state of life.
How the Initiative Works
What the Assessment Includes
Inclusive by Design
The process actively seeks input from a wide range of voices, including:
People impacted by disabilities
Contact:
Maddie Dilonno, RPC
Eric Abney, Fremont Public Library
Contact:
Scott Bogle, RPC
Al Davis, Planning Board
Joe Guthrie, Selectmen
Contact:
Scott Bogle, RPC
Jason Banchand, Hampton Town Planner
Contact:
Jill Longval, RPC
Brinn Sullivan, Portsmouth Senior Services Director
Contact:
Maddie Dilonno, RPC
Mark Connors, Hampton Town Planner
Contact:
Jill Longval, RPC
David Tovey, Exeter Recreation Department
Assessing Vulnerability of Municipal Assets and Resources to Climate Change (project concluded 2017)
Purpose
Provide Great Bay municipalities with maps and assessments of flood impacts to road and transportation assets, critical facilities and infrastructure, and natural resources associated with projected increases in storm surge, sea level and precipitation.
Municipalities
RPC Region: Newfields, Exeter, Stratham, Greenland and Newington
Strafford Region: Rollinsford, Dover, Madbury, Durham, Newmarket
Project Components
Resources
Purpose
Identify flood adaptation and resilience actions, including installing high water markers in each participating municipality.
Municipalities
Portsmouth
Seabrook
Hampton
Rye
Project Goals
Resources
Case Studies
Purpose
Municipalities
Newton
Greenland
Stratham
Exeter
Resources
Preparing New Hampshire for Projected Storm Surge, Sea Level Rise, and Extreme Participation (2016)
Assessing risk and vulnerability to sea level rise and storm surge:
A vulnerability assessment of coastal New Hampshire
(project concluded 2015)
Purpose
Municipalities
Portsmouth
New Castle
Rye
North Hampton
Hampton
Hampton Falls
Seabrook
Resources
From Tides to Storms: Preparing for New Hampshire’s Future Coast
Purpose
(project concluded March 2022)
Purpose
Resources
Purpose
Resources
Learn More
