News
2019-06-10 - 2019 TIP Amendment #1 Proposed
30 Day comment period and public hearing
A 30-day public comment period for Amendment 1 to the 2019 TIP begins Monday, June 10, 2019 and concludes on Tuesday, July 9, 2019. A public hearing to consider the changes and any received comments is scheduled for Wednesday July 10, 2019, beginning at 7:00 PM at the Hampstead Town Hall (11 Main Street, Hampstead). The Planning Commission will met after the public hearing and adopted the changes to the TIP. Amendment #1 considers changes to four statewide projects and programs and full details are found on the TIP Amendments page of the website that is linked below.
[Public Notices][Transportation]
2019-06-01 - CommuteSmart NH Commuter Challenge in June
Why not have more fun getting to work this spring? Throughout June NH employers statewide will be competing to get commuters out of the single occupant vehicle as part of the CommuteSmartNH Commuter Challenge. CommuteSmartNH is an initiative of the nine regional planning commissions, NHDOT and other partners. The big goal is to reduce vehicle trips, thereby reducing traffic congestion and improving air quality. For individual commuters the result is lower commuting costs, a little friendly competition, and maybe a way to fit a workout into a busy schedule.
Is your workplace up to the Challenge? For more information go to www.commutesmartnh.org or email Scott Bogle at sbogle@rpc-nh.org
2019-05-23 - Update on RPC's Electricity Supply Aggregation Program
In 2019, RPC will work with 8 municipalities, libraries, and school districts to form an aggregation to procure electricity from a competitive supplier. The anticipated timeline is to issue a RFP in early August, sign contracts in September, and begin taking supply in November.
The goal of the Rockingham Planning Commission Electricity Supply Aggregation is to purchase electricity as a group from a competitive supplier at a lower rate than each member could receive on its own. By purchasing as an aggregation, municipalities and school districts can offer electricity suppliers a larger demand than if they each tried to purchase electricity individually. The larger demand, in turn, allows suppliers to offer a better rate.
RPC serves as an aggregator to facilitate a bid process among competitive electricity suppliers licensed with the NH Public Utilities Commission. Each aggregation member signs its own contract with the supplier for a fixed electricity supply rate. Rates and contracts are identical for each member within a given electric distribution territory. Questions? Contact Tim Roache, Executive Director at 658-0518.
Additional information is available at: www.rpc-nh.org/aggregation
2019-05-15 - New Hampshire Planners Association 2019 Spring Conference
June 6-7
The conference will start Thursday June 6th in the afternoon with a walking tour led by RPC's Julie LaBranche. Then an ethics session led by Ben Frost before a social networking hour.
On Friday June 7th, the day will include sessions on the NH Healthy Aging Data Report, fresh off the presses, a keynote by Hon. John T. Broderick, Jr. (former Chief Justice of the NH Supreme Court) about changing the conversation on mental health and how to reduce stigma and other topics relating to Health, Outdoor Recreation, Parks, and Coastal Concerns.
For more details and to register by May 24th visit http://nhpa.wildapricot.org/Events
2019-05-14 - RPC Annual Meeting
June 12th, 6-9pm
"Changing the Culture of Mental Illness: It's Way Past Time"
Wednesday, June 12th 2019, 6-9pm
The registration for this event is $35 (covers the cost of your meal)
Please RSVP by June 5, 2019 by clicking here.
The Evening's Events:
6-7pm Hors d'Ouevres/Cash Bar
7-9pm Dinner, Annual Business Meeting & Awards, and Guest Speaker
Learn more about the speaker and topic by clicking here.
As community planners we at RPC strive to empower healthy, connected towns and cities in southeastern New Hampshire. Through strategic and thoughtful planning, communities can provide all citizens with a place to live, access to transportation, and opportunities to reach local services. Concepts like complete streets and mixed-use zoning allow towns and cities to be better connected for travel by foot, bike, or public transit. Well-designed communities support all residents including those who struggle with physical or mental disability and/or substance abuse disorders.
As we work to empower our communities with the tools and resources they need to serve their citizenry we need to keep in mind the real challenges so many of our residents face today. As part of our community planning process, it is incumbent on RPC to help advance the conversation and raise awareness of the mental health crisis in our State. We are honored to host John Broderick, former NH Supreme Court Chief Justice and current Co-chair of the Campaign to Change Direction NH. Justice Broderick will share his family’s deeply personal story of mental illness and the innovative efforts New Hampshire is taking to raise awareness and eliminate stigmas related to mental illness diagnosis and treatment.
2019-04-26 - Notice of Errors - 2018-2019 NH Planning and Land Use Regulation Book
Please note the following production errors in this year’s NH Planning and Land Use Regulation Book (the 2018-2019 Edition with the orange cover).
- First, it appears that the publisher shipped the incorrect CD with many, if not all, of the book/CD combos. Rather than a copy of NH land use statutes, a disk of Washington DC criminal code was included instead. If you purchased a book/CD combo through your Regional Planning Commission and received the incorrect CD, please contact that RPC as replacement CDs have been shipped there for local distribution. If you purchased the book/CD combo from Lexis, please contact your Lexis representative directly.
- Second, the text of RSA 91-A:2, II-b was omitted from this year’s books. See page 99. The missing text states:
II-b. (a) If a public body maintains an Internet website or contracts with a third party to maintain an Internet website on its behalf, it shall either post its approved minutes in a consistent and reasonably accessible location on the website or post and maintain a notice on the website stating where the minutes may be reviewed and copies requested.
(b) If a public body chooses to post meeting notices on the body's Internet website, it shall do so in a consistent and reasonably accessible location on the website. If it does not post notices on the website, it shall post and maintain a notice on the website stating where meeting notices are posted.
The full section of RSA 91-A:2 is available here from the General Court’s website.
Corrected text, as issued by the publisher, is included on the second page of NH OSI's notice here. The page can be printed and inserted into your books to mitigate this omission. Rockingham Planning Commission is in the process of sending copies of corrected text to all municipalities who ordered NH Planning and Land Use Regulation Books (2018-2019).
Please contact Michael Klass at NH Office of Strategic Initiatives (603-271-6651, Michael.klass@osi.nh.gov) for any questions.
2019-03-26 - Plan NH 2019 Municipal Technical Assistance Grant (MTAG) to Increase Housing Options Now Available
Applications are due May 6, 2019
Plan NH has announced their 2019 Municipal Technical Assistance Grant (MTAG) Program to assist municipalities who are looking to increase housing opportunities but may need to modify zoning regulations to do so. For example, a community may want places to live in the town center, but current zoning does not allow it. Or, people may be looking for denser neighborhoods of smaller homes, but current zoning does not allow it.
Grants range from a minimum of $5,000 to a maximum of $20,000. A cash match of 25% is required. Community outreach and engagement is required. Funds are available to for hiring a consultant to:
- Assist in identifying the community’s housing needs.
- Review current zoning and related regulations related to housing.
- Rewrite regulations to permit a wider range of choices in home location, design, and/or price-point.
- Write new zoning regulations to support a wider range of choices of where people can live according to their wants and needs.
Applications are due on May 6, 2019.
Additional details, including full applications, are available at: http://plannh.org/nh-municipal-technical-assistance-grant-program
Rockingham Planning Commission (RPC) is available to assist interested municipalities in developing project scopes and applications, provide technical assistance with updating or changing zoning regulations, and/or facilitating community outreach and engagement activities.
If your community is interested in understanding its housing wants and needs, and how to achieve them we are here to help. Please feel free to contact Tim Roache (troache@rpc-nh.org; 778-0885), RPC Executive Director, with any questions.
2019-03-15 - 2019 Town Meeting Zoning Ordinance Round-Up
The majority of municipalities in the RPC region voted on zoning ordinance changes on Tuesday, March 2019. The following is a summary of the zoning ordinances proposed in the RPC region .
The quick synopsis is that all zoning proposals passed where proposed, with exception of zoning related citizen petitions.
2019-03-08 - Updated Transportation Project Viewer 2019-2045
RPC has released an updated Transportation Project Viewer to accompany the 2045 Long Range Transportation Plan update. The Viewer and Plan are now updated to address the current Transportation Improvement Program (2019-2022) and full list of Long Range Projects allowed by the later horizon year.
2019-03-06 - How GIS is Transforming Data into Actionable Solutions - NHARPC
New Hampshire Town and City, March/April 2019
New Hampshire Town and City, March/April 2019
New Hampshire’s nine regional planning commissions (RPCs) focus on developing and implementing innovative planning strategies such as regional master plans, environmental plans, data collection and analysis, and other activities. Established by state law (RSA 36:45-58), RPCs are federally designated entities also responsible for providing regional transportation planning services such as developing and updating transportation plans and organizing transportation outreach, projects, and grant submissions. We also serve and advise communities not only by providing requested technical assistance, but also by helping to address various regional planning issues raised by our member communities each year.
In order for us to guide and support planning efforts, we rely heavily on spatial and temporal information that is robust, nuanced, and constantly updated, and on the problem-solving skills to use that information in making decisions. This reliance has made geographic information systems (GIS) an invaluable tool for all of us who support these efforts. RPCs extensively use GIS to develop and deliver effective projects, and we use spatial thinking to transform data into actionable insights and solutions.
Efforts by the Nashua Regional Planning Commission (NRPC) to help member communities plan for parks and playgrounds provide a good example of how RPCs are integrating GIS technology. NRPC mapped all the parks and playgrounds in the communities and integrated data to perform an in-depth analysis of locations, materials, equipment, and maintenance and to develop case studies of successful playgrounds. NRPC also developed different decision-support tools, including an infographic that helps identifying access to parks and playgrounds in the region and a story map for the general public that shows the location and access points of all recreation areas supplemented by photographs and descriptions.
The Strafford Regional Planning Commission was recently awarded funds for a similar project in which GIS will be used to analyze access to recreation in the Strafford region. Knowing where there is and is not access will help municipal planners and decision makers prioritize funding for projects that will increase the ability of families to be active. We also aim in this project to increase awareness about obesity in children up to age 5 in the Strafford region and to build capacity for local policies and practices to promote recreation.
GIS is particularly useful for developing thematic maps to help determine the suitability of areas for conservation, recreation, or development. The Rockingham Planning Commission has been working with several communities on a build-out analysis that integrates GIS to determine current conditions, land use regulations, and growth trends and constraints to create a variety of growth scenarios. Build-out analysis is a planning tool best used for a large study area, such as a community, to help determine inappropriate development, to project maximum residential and commercial development, and to explore the impact of development on the local tax base, traffic, school enrollment, natural and historic resources, and quality of life.
The Rockingham Planning Commission build-out analysis uses spatial data related to such factors as conservation lands, water bodies, wetlands, and steep slopes, and it integrates growth factors that add sensitivity to the analysis. Future build-out scenarios can help community decision makers assess the potential long-term impacts of current land use regulations. For example, if a community were projected to grow by 150 percent in the next 25 years, the number of school-aged children might exceed the capacity of the elementary school or the phosphorus run-off from new homes and yards could affect impaired waterbodies nearby.
Rapid development and growth are among the issues local transportation planners are ready to evaluate with the help of GIS. The Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission and other RPCs have worked with municipalities to tackle one of these issues by implementing bike-sharing systems. The main goal of these efforts is to increase the options for people to travel by bike, but since different communities have different needs, the programs differ somewhat from one community to the next. This work requires planning, organization, and a set of geospatial tools to give planners and designers a snapshot of current programs, track their ridership, and monitor ever-evolving mobility trends. GIS technology can help officials and decision makers prepare local transportation development scenario options for the future or for other communities that want to join the effort. To learn more, see “Bike Share in New Hampshire: Pedal-Powered Progress is Afoot” in the January/February 2019 issue of New Hampshire Town and City (https://www.nhmunicipal.org/TownAndCity/Article/821).
RPCs are constantly helping their communities?integrate and manipulate geospatial data, develop modeling tools, and generate materials such as maps that identify priority action areas, assess natural resource conditions, monitor infrastructure, help prioritize investments, and inform decision makers and the public. Some of the challenges we face are the availability, accuracy, and quality of geospatial data, but an even more challenging task is the integration of data analyses from multiple sources into one coherent planning process. Technological advancements such as cloud technology, real-time data, the Internet of Things, 3D GIS, mobile GIS, and UAVs are expected to grow, and they are also becoming key to smart planning.
The only way for the state’s RPCs to keep up with the ongoing changes in New Hampshire’s communities is to increase our GIS capabilities and develop strategies for better data generation, management and accessibility. One of our long-term goals is to make geospatial data a systematic and preferred source of information for all phases of urban, economic, transportation, and sustainable?development projects. But we cannot do this without the active participation and close collaboration of our local organizations and communities, and without raising awareness about the significant potential geospatial information has for planning.
The RPCs will continue using GIS and related visualization techniques to support communities in transferring and applying knowledge in ways that work best for them. We can help provide access to data, maps, and applications, and we can help cities and towns implement GIS projects. Such collaborations involving GIS mean we all have?an asset?in spatial modeling, decision making, and monitoring that can improve our decisions to take us toward more sustainable and smart communities.
By By Marcia Moreno-Baez, Rachel Dewey, Robert Pruyne, Sara Siskavich, and Zachary Swick
Original article link - https://www.nhmunicipal.org/TownAndCity/Article/83...
Marcia Moreno-Baez (mmorenobaez@strafford.org) GIS Planner, and Rachel Dewey, Data Analyst, (rdewey@strafford.org) are with Strafford Regional Planning Commission and can be reached at 603.994.3500; Robert Pruyne (rpruyne@rpc-nh.org), GIS Manager, is with the Rockingham Planning Commission and can be reached at 603.658.0520; Sara Siskavich, Assistant Director-GIS/IT Program (saras@nashuarpc.org) can be reached at 424.2240 x21; and Zachary Swick (zswick@snhpc.org), is GIS Analyst with the Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission and can be reach at 603.669.4664.
Showing posts 91 to 100 of 154
