Residential Zoning Project

Both activities of the Residential Planning Project are on course.

Neighborhood Planning

Neighborhood Planning Parties will be held all over town starting with neighborhoods that have organizers who identify themselves to the Planning Board as being ready to help plan the event.

The purpose of the party is to give everyone in the neighborhood an opportunity to talk about concerns and desires for the future of the neighborhood. This information will be used to update the Town Master Plan and improve the existing zoning ordinance to better conform to existing neighborhood character and guide land use as the Town grows and changes. The party also gives neighbors an opportunity to talk with each other about their neighborhood and interact with the Planning Board in a less formal way than is usual in the context of development review.

To get people thinking about their neighborhoods, adult residents of each household are asked to complete a Neighborhood Worksheet (PDF). The Worksheets will be collected at the party (or returned to the Town Offices) and compiled to create a description of that neighborhood, its strengths and weaknesses and ideas for its future. Also, provided are a question-and-answer brochure (PDF) about planning and zoning in Hanover and background materials about zoning in the specific neighborhood to help residents complete the Neighborhood Worksheet. A copy of the worksheet and the text of the brochure are provided as links below.

The Planning Board held a Neighborhood Planning Party, on February 10 at the Howe Library for residents in the Ledyard/Hovey/Buell neighborhood (PDF). The second Planning Party for residents and landowners east of Moose Mountain was held on June 25th at the Tunis Schoolhouse on Wolfeboro Road. The October 1st Middle Mink Brook Watershed Neighborhood party and December 3rd Etna Neighborhood party were at Trumbull Hall in Etna. The Lyme Road neighborhood (roundabout to roundabout and over to the Ray School) planning party is scheduled for June 4 at 6:30 pm at the Richmond Middle School. While every meeting of the Planning Board is open to the public, planning parties are designed for the residents of that specific neighborhood. Observers are allowed to attend, but cannot expect to participate in the discussion.

Information gathered from the Planning Party and Worksheets will be compiled by Town staff and the neighborhood organizers and presented to the Planning Board. The summary for the Ledyard/Hovey/Buell neighborhood is provided as a link below. This effort is set within a longer term framework that includes updating the 2003 Master Plan, a new community attitude survey, and future zoning amendments.

The West Wheelock Gateway Neighborhood Party was a two-day event on November 8th and 9th. A team of planning and design professionals have been invited to consider land use, transportation, safety and aesthetic issues along West Wheelock Street, one of the major gateways to downtown Hanover and the Dartmouth Campus. The design team's plans and final report are pasted in the additional links section below.

Zoning Ordinance Technical Review

Our consultant, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, has submitted to a small Planning Board subcommittee a technical review of the Zoning Ordinance to improve its clarity, consistency, and accessibility, making substantive changes only where change is necessitated to serve those goals. The subcommittee is reviewing the suggestions made by the consultant and will report to the Planning Board in Fall 2014.

Hanover Planning and Zoning Q & A

To help sort through some of the most frequently asked questions about planning and zoning, be sure to take time to read through the text of our new brochure. If you still have questions, please let us know.

2014 Neighborhood Planning Parties

• Ledyard/Hovey/Buell: February 10
• East of Moose Mountain: June 25
• Middle Mink Brook Watershed: October 1
• West Wheelock (Plan NH Design Charrette): November 8 and 9
• Etna: December 3
• Lyme Road: June 4

Community Workshop Video

DVD versions of the community antenna TV (CATV) video of the October 13, 2012 Community Workshop for the Residential Zoning Project are available at both the Howe and Etna libraries for your home viewing.

For those of you who could attend our Community Workshop on Saturday, many thanks for your time and thoughtful comments. For those of you who could not attend, we are planning future workshops, but have not yet set any dates.