BITS AND PIECES

A Weekly Update from the Strafford Region

Planning

Somersworth Land Use Regulation Audit Presentation

On Wednesday, July 17, Senior Planner Mark Davie presented the final draft of the Land Use Regulation Audit (or Zoning Audit) to the Somersworth Planning Board. The audit, with guidance from the strategies set out in the housing chapter of the city’s master plan earlier this year, is intended to be a thorough review of the city’s zoning ordinance and map. With help from city staff, city boards, and local developers, SRPC identified opportunities for “missing middle” housing, gaps in language, and redundancies in the city’s zoning map. This marks the completion of one of several HOP projects happening at SRPC this summer. Many thanks to the team at Somersworth! SRPC looks forward to getting a new round of HOP projects off the ground for our communities this fall. You will be able to view the full audit on our website in the near future.

Abigail Lyon, Kirsten Howard, and Alyson Eberhardt presenting at this year’s Climate Summit.

Climate Resiliency in New Hampshire’s Coastal Communities

On Thursday, July 18^th, SRPC’s newest staff member, Mike Polizzotti, attended the biennial Coastal Adaptation Workgroup (CAW) Climate Summit, held at Strawberry Banke in Portsmouth, NH. CAW is a collaborative group of organizations that works to plan for, and address, the increasing climate impacts experienced in communities across New Hampshire’s coast. This event brought together over 90 researchers, practitioners, and advocates from backgrounds representing municipalities, non-profits, academia, and more. The summit included nearly a dozen presentations highlighting ongoing and recent projects, and included critical collaboration and partnership building time.

SRPC has led and collaborated on several projects with CAW members in the past, including The Great Bay Living Shoreline Project, analyzing Social Equity and Resilience and Urban Trees and Stormwater in Dover, mapping Durham’s Groundwater Rise, and assisting Durham develop a Coastal Adaptation Chapter to their master plan.

Climate resiliency is a key component that must be considered throughout coastal New Hampshire communities, and SRPC’s work will continue to highlight this important piece of regional land use, transportation, and economic development planning. More of our Climate Adaptation and Resilience work can be explored here.  

Transportation

GIS Intern and Data Collection team member Brian Notinger installs a traffic count at Wagon Hill Farm

Field Data Update

The data collection team wrapped up the week at Wagon Hill Farm in Durham. At the request of the town, they installed a traffic count at the entrance to Wagon Hill Farm to better understand the use of the recreation area. Since this is the first time the team has installed tubes at the entrance of a property, they supplemented with a radar counter which will validate the accuracy of the tube counts. For more information about data collection requests, email Stephen Geis at sgeis@strafford.org.

PIECES OF INTEREST

NHDES New Hampshire Clean Diesel Grant Program Funding Opportunity: Round 2 of the Request For Proposals is OPEN!

Amtrak Agrees to Better Bicycle Access

Amtrak to install automatic braking system on Downeaster

Economic Development

Businesses Sought for UNH Entrepreneurship Internship Fall 2024 Program

Looking for innovative and entrepreneurial minded business students to help grow your business? The Entrepreneurial Studies program at UNH is recruiting companies to take part in their Fall 2024 Internship program. This program places area businesses (and non-profits) who are interested in working with senior undergraduate entrepreneurship students, providing them with the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills they learn in the classroom to the real world. Students are interested in gaining experience in areas including marketing, financial analysis, project management, business development and operations, and in all different types of industries.

Program highlights:

• Students will intern for 8-10 hours per week. Companies may offer additional hours to students, for pay, but cannot require additional hours.
• Internship duration will be September - December (13 weeks).
• Internships can be in-person (company must be located within an hour’s drive from the Durham campus), remote, or hybrid.
• The internships are unpaid, but the company does pay an $850 fee to participate in the program (a portion of which is awarded to student after successful completion of internship).

If you are interested in applying or learning more about the program, please contact Laura Hill at laura.hill@unh.edu. The deadline to apply is August 11, 2024.

PIECES OF INTEREST

Seacoast Eat Local Summer Farmers’ Markets are halfway through the season! Visit the Seacoast Eat Local website for a list of events.

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

July 19, 2024