Bits and Pieces: A Weekly Update from the Strafford Region

BITS AND PIECES

A Weekly Update from the Strafford Region

Planning

On Wednesday, May 24, Executive Director Jen Czysz, Senior Regional Planner Angela Cleveland and Office Coordinator Megan Taylor-Fetter attended the annual convening of the RPC commissioners in Concord. This was the first such gathering of this group since 2019. The executive directors of all nine Regional Planning Commissions presented the Regional Housing Needs Assessments cooperatively produced for the whole state throughout 2022. Many Commissioners are familiar with the housing crisis within their respective regions, but this proved an opportunity to discuss barriers and opportunities of the shortage of nearly 90,000 homes across the Granite State. Thank you to all of the Commissioners from the region that attended on Wednesday! We appreciate your commitment to creating affordable, accessible, quality housing.

STAFF CONTACTS

Jen Czysz

PIECES OF INTEREST: HOUSING TOOLBOX EDITION

The NH Housing Toolbox is a collection of twenty planning and zoning strategies for housing production in New Hampshire communities. Join us for a series of virtual training sessions, where we’ll discus the toolbox overall and do a deep-dive on specific tools. These sessions will feature planners who have implemented these tools and can provide insights for implementation elsewhere.

ALL webinars will be held on Thursdays in June 2023 from 12 to 1 PM.

June 1 – Housing Toolbox Overview

Get an overview of the NH Housing Toolbox, each of the tools involved, and how to find the tools that are right for you.

June 8 – Housing in Nature: Open Space/Cluster Housing Ordinances

Cluster housing is a tool that groups housing in a development while preserving the rest of the land as open space. Learn how to update this classic zoning tool to meet today’s needs and to see cluster housing developments actually get built.

June 15 – shifting Housing Potential: Transfer of Development Rights

With Transfer of Development Rights, you can direct new housing to areas that better support development while preserving areas with high conservation value. Learn how to pull off this complex strategy at the local level.

June 22 – Tax Relief for Housing: RSA 79-E

New Hampshire’s RSA 79-E enables local tax incentives for development and redevelopment of housing. Also known as the Community Revitalization Tax Relief, RSA 79-E also contains the new affordable housing focused Housing Opportunity Zone tool. Learn where these tools can be appropriated and how to use them effectively.

June 22 – Inclusive Zoning for Housing: Form Based Codes

Form-based codes start with a community’s desired building types and create rules to enable that kind of development. Learn where it can work and how to get started.

You can register by clicking on the webinar name above or at NH Housing Toolbox Trainings

You will receive a confirmation email from Microsoft Teams, which will include an attached calendar meeting that can be saved to your calendar (you may need to check your spam folder).

Can’t make it? These webinars will be recorded and posted to the NH Office of Planning and Development YouTube Page. Information including links to previous webinar slides, recordings, handouts and resources can be found on the NH OPD PLAN Webinar page.

For assistance or if you have any questions, please e-mail planning@livefree.nh.gov.

Transportation

This week marked the region’s first traffic counts of the season. Planning Technician Stephen Geis and new intern Troy ventured to Wakefield to lay counts. NHDOT maintains a three-year cycle of counts statewide that are dispersed across the nine planning regions of the state. In the Strafford Region, this is a little over 110 counts per year. SRPC municipalities can also request counts at specific locations, known as “supplementals.” SPRC and Rockingham Planning Commission also estimate where additional counts would useful in contributing toward the travel demand model that is run for the two regions.

On Wednesday and Thursday, May 24 and 25, staff Mark Davie, Colin Lentz, and Stephen Geis attended a bicycle and pedestrian safety workshop presented by Keith Sinclair and Brooke Struve of the Federal Highway Administration hosted by NHDOT. The presentations were largely oriented toward design and engineering, with heavy emphasis on how transportation authorities can subtly change driver behaviors to create safe biking and walking environments without relying strictly on large infrastructure projects that are frequently costly. SRPC will resume drafting its Active Transportation Plan this summer.

STAFF CONTACTS

Mark Davie | Colin Lentz

PIECES OF INTEREST

ROW Smart Monitoring for Wildfire Mitigation Webinar

Trail Adopter Orientation

Economic Development

New Hampshire is poised to experience a rapid increase in Electric Vehicles (EV) over the next 10-15 years. Tourism is the 3rd largest industry in the state, bringing EVs from other states to our downtowns, state parks and other popular destinations. EV adoption is much higher in neighboring states (especially Massachusetts) and they are driving up to NH. Where will they charge?

Charging infrastructure, and its fee structures, can drive behavior. As EV owners plan their trips (whether it’s daily or a vacation), they will look to charging infrastructure to determine where to get groceries, shop, eat dinner, or vacation. EV owners are likely to spend more time and more money at retail locations with chargers than their ICEV counterparts.[1] In addition to the increased time and money per visit, EVSE creates customer loyalty, encouraging them to return to that location. Deploying EVSE downtown will draw EV owners to the amenities located near public charging infrastructure.

Although deployment of EV Charging Stations has been slow in New Hampshire, electric vehicles are becoming more affordable and available. EV adoption is highly market-driven and no longer a small consumer niche. Municipalities have an important role to play in not only installing the infrastructure but incentivizing and streamlining installation around the community in convenient locations. This includes multi-family housing, shopping malls and plazas and other high traffic areas. SRPC is creating a guide to help municipalities navigate the steps necessary to increase deployment of EV Charging infrastructure. It is being developed through research of existing toolkits and websites, and is not the be-all-end-all, but we hope it serves as a helpful clearinghouse of resources available to remove barriers to increasing EV Charging Stations in your community and region. We hope to release something in early FY2024.

In the meantime, check out The State of New Hampshire’s Plan for Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment, which includes priority routes and communities for potential future EV stations.

STAFF CONTACTS

Angela Cleveland | Colin Lentz

PIECES OF INTEREST

Job Opportunity: NOFA-NH Transition to Organic Partnership Program CoordinatorAt What Point Managed Retreat? Habitability and Mobility in an Era of Climate Change

Strafford Regional Planning Commission | 603-994-3500 | srpc@strafford.org| www.strafford.org

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May 26, 2023