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Regional Planner Stefanie Casella sets a pedestrian counter on the Dover Community Trail. ( SRPC Photo)
Planning

On Thursday, Apr. 23 principal regional planner Kyle Pimental participated in the second virtual meeting of the Coastal Municipal Users Group (name likely to change soon). This group, which is facilitated by several CAW members, was established to provide municipal partners with the opportunity to talk together, informally, and learn from each other’s successes, as well as discuss the challenges decision makers are experiencing with responding to a changing climate.
 
During the meeting, attendees were given a brief overview on the new state wetlands rules. Stefanie Giallongo, a wetland specialist with the NHDES Wetlands Bureau, focused most of her presentation on rule changes pertaining to coastal lands and tidal waters. Highlights included: general criteria, project type and design standards, living shoreline options, components of a vulnerability assessment, and existing GIS data and resources to help navigate through the process. The next users group meeting is scheduled for the end of June. 

For more information, or if you’re interested in learning more about this group, please contact  Kyle Pimental .

Pieces of Interest


Transportation
On Tuesday, Apr. 21 regional planner Stefanie Casella, with assistance from communications and outreach planner, Shayna Sylvia, set a pedestrian counter on the Dover Community Trail near the Silver Street tunnel. This is the second time that Strafford Metropolitan Planning Organization has set a pedestrian counter on the trail, the first being last August.  

Data from the first collection round at the Silver Street Tunnel location from August 6 - 20, 2019 showed: 

  • The trail was used least on Thursdays. 
  • 67% more users frequented the trail on Sundays than on Thursdays. 
  • The most popular use days were Saturday and Sunday. 
  • On weekdays people used the trail most around 9:00 a.m. and then again at 6 p.m., varying slightly on Fridays which got busier slightly earlier than 6:00 p.m. with pretty consistent use between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. 
  • On weekends peak times were 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. 

In total, 2,888 pedestrians were registered (keep in mind that people may have walked by the counter twice on one walk). 

The data collected during the next few weeks will also be analyzed to get an understanding of trail use during self-quarantine periods and see if there are different patterns that arise. 

For more information on this data collection effort contact  Stefanie Casella . 

Pieces of Interest


Economic Development
Strafford Economic Development District (EDD) and Strafford Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) staff have been meeting weekly over the last month to coordinate efforts to update guiding documents. For the EDD that document is the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, and for the MPO its the Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP). As much regional data informs both documents, staffers are taking a joint approach to ensure that data collection and analysis efforts are streamlined and not duplicated.  

The meetings have also allowed staffers to identify common themes and find ways in which to link the two documents. In this process changes are being made to the previous ways these documents were created. This iteration of these core plans will be shorter, have more narrowed data, and will include fact sheets or overview summaries to present findings in a more digestible manner. 

To learn more about the MTP visit the  plan page on our website , or contact senior transportation planner  Colin Lentz . To learn more about the CEDS visit the  plan page on our website  or contact senior regional planner  James Burdin . 


Pieces of Interest


Strafford Regional Planning Commission | 603-994-3500 | srpc@strafford.org | www.strafford.org
April 24, 2020
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