BITS AND PIECES

A Weekly Update from the Strafford Region

Planning

On Thursday, Sept. 22, SRPC held its quarterly Commission meeting, which also served as a Regional Housing Needs Assessment Workshop (RHNA).  

SRPC staff engaged Commissioners with three activities, the first of which addressed housing needs and barriers written down on smaller post its and stuck to large flip chart pages with corresponding prompts. 

Then Commissioners were encouraged to participate in a facilitated discussion on how those needs and barriers can be or have been responded to on a local or regional level. A Commissioner from the Town of Lee shared how in response to the housing crisis, the Town formed a housing committee and is completing one of its first goals in updating its ADU ordinance. 

Lastly, Commissioners were split into groups and asked to complete a budget exercise to allocate a $1 million dollar grant with a focus on improving housing and quality of life in Anytown, USA. Some of the areas where investments were made included funding for model ordinances and tax incentive financing that would help with housing in the long run, water and sewer upgrades and extension, and transportation services. This conversation highlighted the number of moving pieces related to increasing and improving housing.  

SRPC will be drafting its RHNA with this input for the end of the 2022 calendar year. 

Transportation

On Friday, Sept. 23 SRPC released its Fiscal Year 2022 Annual Report. This document details the work of the Commission, MPO, and EDD over the past fiscal year (July 1, 2021–June 30, 2022), highlighting important projects and processes; new staff members, measurable outcomes, and the FY 2023 budget. 

Strafford MPO features in the report include an update on the Active Transportation Plan public survey, information on various meetings that SRPC staff presented at, and data updates for the 2022 traffic count season.

Read the full report on the SRPC website.  

Economic Development

This week Governor and Council approved funding for the Seacoast Economic Development Stakeholders (SEDS) through the statewide Collaborative Economic Development Region (CEDR) program. SRPC, in its capacity as the Strafford Economic Development District, will administer the grant on behalf of the group. The grant will support operations of the SEDS, efforts to promote workforce development programs and strategies, and a micro grant program. 

The operations funding will support facilitation of the bi-weekly SEDS meetings and planning or implementation projects for key topics such as housing, workforce development, infrastructure, and quality of life. The grant includes sub-awards to Rockingham Planning Commission and the Regional Economic Development Center (REDC) to assist with supporting the SEDS in these efforts. The SEDS identified possible target areas through a visioning process in winter 2021-2022. 

Workforce Development work is intended to support the attraction, development, and retention of employees by developing a combination of digital resources and a market strategy for distributing them to Seacoast businesses. These resources are intended to educate employers about the value of investing in and retaining current employees and to identify best practices to support employer efforts.  

The micro-grant program will support the Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce’s Student Career Pathway program, which is designed to help develop skills through career training opportunities, among other projects that to enhance valuable skills through training opportunities to support current and future needs of the region’s employers. 

The SEDS meet every other Tuesday at 9:00 AM via zoom. The group will discuss their next steps with this grant funding at its meeting on October 4. 

September 23, 2022