New Blog Post

We are shifting over to tumblr for the blog. Today's is on 6 elements of planning. Check it out at: http://dovernhplanning.tumblr.com/post/23542753063/basic-planning-building-blocks or just follow the blog itself at http://dovernhplanning.tumblr.com

LA Impressions Part II

Today was day four in LA. I decided to skip the conference lunch and explore my surroundings on foot. The LA Convention Center is in Downtown LA, which like many downtown areas in spread out cities, is almost a misnomer. I get the impression that LA is a city of neighborhoods, and not a City, in the more traditional sense.

I wanted to see what the downtown area was like, so I used Google Places to find a restaurant that was 2 miles away and plotted a not so direct route to walk there. On the way I passed through quite a few districts or areas, and saw some really great architecture. This conflicted with my initial impressions of LA having the sort've anywhere USA building styles.

As with many cities, the turn of the century to pre WWII buildings have incredible character and are really ornate and interesting to walk by and experience. I really enjoyed the walk and the round about way, while annoying Google Navigation, on my phone, was really a great opportunity to see a consistent and reinforced urban feel.

If you are ever here, I suggest Pershing Square. This park, near the central library, is very different than the normal park or square you experience in say a New York. It is an event center as well as a recreational spot. It is a good mixture of hard scape and land scape and it includes an underground parking facility as well as public transit hubs and while I couldn't do it justice with photos there is a very unique public bathroom here, too. In a way it reminds me of the sculpture garden in Seattle.

I had to laugh quite a few times about signage. Some makes so much sense, I wonder why it isn't more prevalent in other cities. As you move down a street, mid block there are signs to give you a heads up about the cross street you are coming to. This is so simple and an obvious benefit for visitors to your community. The reverse of this is the ever present wall sign. I am not talking the simple business name on the wall, but whole sides of tall buildings, including my hotel. I'll upload a photo when I get back, but for now, check out this image (older but still similar). Walking along today, I saw two crews on different buildings painting these signs.

I can only imagine the sign review process for these signs.

Tomorrow I am finishing the conference with four sessions in the morning, and then a mobile workshop in Orange County. It will be interesting to get out of the City and check it out. I am sure, like everywhere else I have visited here, it will be a unique place with a look and feel all its own.

A comment from yesterday (thanks John), asked if I saw the Cyclivia event on Sunday. This event was amazing and if I hadn't been interested in seeing it, I couldn't have missed it. Basically, it was a seven mile block party promoting safe, car free spaces for people to flow around the city. It was really well done and from a basic premise really worked well to promote streets for all forms of travel.  

Planning = Remodeling

Ms. Dover Planner and I have been trying to figure out how to make our kitchen more functional and useful for us. This weekend we did some investigation - looking at cabinets and light fixtures, thinking about flooring, marveling at costs. In the end I realized that community planning and home remodeling are very similar activities.

How you ask? Well, for one thing with planning you are working with an environment you most likely didn't create. Dover has had many planners before me. I certainly wasn't here in 1623 (birth), 1855 (adolescence), 1973 (post college), nor will I be here in middle age (2123)? That said, others were here and did what they thought was good planning for the community. They reacted to the world around them, trends, ideas, functions, and they made changes to Dover as they saw fit.

My house was born in 1928. It has been lived in ever since, and has grown and evolved beyond the depression era it was constructed. The kitchen has changed somewhat (apparently a lot in the 80s - according to the style of cabinets we have), as flooring styles have come and gone (we have hard wood covered by linoleum, covered by plywood, covered again by linoleum). By pealing back the levels of flooring, paint and wall paper, my wife and I are learning about our house.

This effort of learning about our house is similar to the work I do with the City. I love to peal back the layers and learn about why traffic flows where it does. Why setbacks were developed the way they were and why lot sizes are what they are. These things are like learning about my house. The roadways locations are analogous to where the stairways and halls are in my house. Home improvement show's always talk about the way rooms flow together. The same thing happens in planning discussions. The utilities are obviously the utilities in my house. The setbacks and clearances are analogous to safety requirements in a house. Certainly both home projects and community planning projects have plans.

Just as we need to make changes in Dover from time to time, so do we need to make changes in our homes from time to time. Who hasn't wanted to see the garden in their back yard move or put a workshop in their garage or basement. This is the same as promoting agriculture and industry in the community. We learn from what the previous owner of our house did, just as we learn from the previous stewards of planning have accomplished.

We even have public participation in our home remodeling efforts. Who hasn't talk with friends and family about changes to their house? We run ideas by them, and we seek advice. We ask our children how they want to grow in the house. This is similar to how we seek input from the community in our Master Planning.

We seek experts in both realms as well. I am by no means an expert on economic analysis or traffic generation. So, from time to time I need to contact a consultant to get advice at work. Same thing at home. I understand plumbing, but for many reasons, I'll hire a plumber to relocate pipes. I'll ask an electrician to help with a new ceiling fan. We need these experts to help us make the right improvements to the house (did some say there might be another analogy between home remodeling and the capital improvement's program?).

It was a fun moment to come up with this analogy, because I find that 90 percent of the time people can't relate to city planning as a function. Most people can relate or appreciate what a police function is or what a public works function is, but planning? That seems weird. I like this home remodeling analogy because it helps make planning tangible.

Interactive time: does this analogy make sense to you? If not what's a better analogy? Also, first person to ID the significance, for the City of Dover, of the three years I mentioned above wins a prize.

Dover 2023 Begins! (Began?)

This past Saturday we got lucky here in Dover. I woke up at 5 to see snow falling. After my normal morning routine (gym, sustenance etc), I got ready for the kickoff session of our Dover 2023 exercise. This kickoff meeting took place at the Dover Middle School. We met from 9 am until noon, and had a very creative and constructive discussion about the future of Dover.

We have hired a consultant to walk the community through this process, and he and the principle staff member overseeing this project, the talented and intelligent Tim, were already at the Middle School setting up when I arrived. We had coffee, water, fruit and snacks all set. All we needed were people to attend and share their ideas.

I'll be honest, I wanted to be forced to call the fire department and get an occupancy load count. We had plans for 200 plus people. We had a smaller turnout, but those that came, came to work. We had a great community minded discussion. The participants broke into small groups with two facilitator's per group who helped the participants through the process. It was great to see how people feed off each other and learned from and collaborated with each other over the course of the two plus hours of small group work.

In the end the three groups reported back to the larger group what they value about Dover and what they see as challenges that lie ahead. What was fascinating is that we had very similar answers for each group. There is a strong appreciation of the community Dover has become. There is a strong appreciation for the family friendly town we are, and an acknowledgement of the value we have placed on education and economic diversity. Regarding challenges, we see that infrastructure, and maintaining the high levels of education and the balance between developed and undeveloped land. Additionally, a challenge is the continued efforts we have to make on transportation efficiency.

Up next are neighborhood meetings. These will build off the community conversation, and delve deeper into the questions about the future of Dover. These neighborhood meetings will be geared towards the next steps. In other words, we will go that next step in and look closer at the results from Saturday and ask the follow up question: What does this mean? People will be encouraged to think about the consequences of the challenges and value that has been articulated. We will also be working in some electronic polling to see how people feel about different aspects of Dover, such as service levels and facilities.

I encourage you to check out www.Dover2023.com, come to a neighborhood meeting (dates/times/locations below), and bring anyone you can think of to attend as well.  All of the meetings take place in the cafeteria of the school.

Tues.   March 13        7-9 pm       Garrison Elementary 

Wed.   March 14        7-9 pm        Woodman Park Elementary       

Thurs. March 22        7-9 pm       Horne Street Elementary 

Also, please take a moment and fill out the survey we have for residents to take. It is located here.Thanks for being part of a Dover that is building a positive and fruitful future.

By the way, now that I re-read all this, maybe the title should have been Dover 2023 has begun.

New EPA Nitrogen Restrictions

On February 9, 2012, the City hosted a public hearing for the US Environmental Protection Agency, regarding the upcoming pollution discharge permit renewal that it will receive for our Waste Water Treatment Facility. This permit is required for the City to operate the facility, which is part of our sanitary sewer system. In basic terms, if we don't have a permit to operate the facility, we will have a major problem.

In general there aren't concerns about the permit being issued. What is a concern is that the EPA wishes to increase the restrictions being placed on the amount of nitrogen allowed in the Great Bay Estuary. Currently, the plant discharges approximately 22 mg/l (milligrams per liter). The EPA has proposed allowing 3 mg/l as the acceptable threshold. The City is requesting that the threshold be 8 mg/l, still a significant adjustment.

Putting aside the direct cost of this difference, one thing that jumps out to me is the impact this can have on Smart Growth based planning. For over a decade, we have been looking to make it easier for growth in Dover to be centered around infrastructure, and away from rural areas. Even before the form based code changes to the downtown area, I think that we were moving in the direction of concentrating our development downtown, building off the successes we have and the strength of our core. 

I believe Dover is very progressive and responsible when it comes to the environment. We have made huge investments in conservation and preservation of open space. The City has expended over 5 million dollars, which has been leveraged with an additional 6 million dollars to protect 792 acres, over the past decade. This property limits the amount of developable land in Dover and has the added benefit of protecting habitats and the waterways that exist in Dover.

In addition to this work, the City has also implemented various aspects of low impact development guidelines, and also made improvements in the way we review site and subdivision plans. These changes and improvements have helped guide us to be more mindful and ultimately respectful of the environment and to consider development in a more holistic fashion. I believe that we are making smart and responsible choices in regards to the impact man has on the land.

So, if we do have this requirement presented and that is the only option is it the end of the world? Not hardly. It is a blow to urbanism, I believe. It appears to double the effective sewer rate in Dover. This makes it hardly a welcoming place to tie into the sewer system. I believe it will encourage people to want to investigate and ultimately utilize a septic system for their sanitary sewer needs. This can lead to sprawl and to other unintended consequences. There is plenty of disheartening information about the havoc that septic systems have raised in the Chesapeake Bay area. Dover has worked very long and hard to protect its natural rsources and will continue to do so in the future.

If you missed the EPA public hearing and want more information, please check the webpage we have set up for it.

Community Character

What does an attractive City look like? It is an interesting question. I suppose, like with any other subjective measure, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What I want in a City might be different than what you want, and what your neighbor wants may be totally different.

I asked the question because I was watching a movie the other night, with Ms Dover Planner, and a comment was made about how the city the movie was set in (Paris) is beautiful in the day and night, and especially in the rain. While I can't comment on any of those opinions, I liked the overall thought. Today it has snowed, and I felt, looking out the window, that it was an attractive snowy day. I am sure that when I leave to go home and the snow has turned that brownish gray color that dirty snow gets I'll reconsider. Is a community's beauty the same?

Do we like it when we are insulated from it (ie a visitor), but see it for the gritty reality it is when we live someplace?

I've probably said before that I always hear from friends of mine that moved here, how great Dover is, and how the people who grew up here don't see it for the place it truly is. We found similar suggestions in 2006 as part of the last Master Plan survey work. People who moved here within 5 years, which was a higher percentage than lifers, had a much more favorable opinion of Dover than the lifers.

Two questions jump to my mind. First, do people that move here feel it is better because they chose to come here, so maybe there is a desire to validate that choice? Second, what are those of us who have lived here for decades missing? What don't we see?

Dover residents were asked to participate in a citizen's survey in the summer of 2011. One of the results of that was that 84% of respondents reported that Dover has an overall quality of life rating of “excellent” or “good”. That is a very high number, in my mind. Respondents noted that they like the look and feel of Dover and that they enjoy the cleanliness of Dover. Interestingly the respondents were asked how long they have been residents and the two highest responding categories are those that have lived here 2 - 5 years and those 20+ years of residency.

This information is fun to play with and interesting to think about. The overall tie into it is that we are in the process of starting the Community Visioning components of the Master Plan. This is an update to work began in 2006. We have a committee in place, a consultant in place and some dates and times we will be holding public hearings. What we need is the public to speak. We will ask questions like, what do you think of your neighborhood, and what do you want to see it evolve to in 20 years. We will have plenty of notice for these sessions, which will begin in March and we hope to have a large turn out.

If you have suggestions of how we can get 200 (out of 30,000) people to attend these sessions, please feel free to comment here, on Facebook, or email me.

PS, I wanted to have a photo to go along with this entry, and when I Googled "Community Character images", most of the things I found were pictures of the TV show Community. There is a connection with this blog entry, somewhere, I am sure of that.

Leadership

A month ago, or so, I applied to take part in a program called Leadership Seacoast. The program looks to broaden the leadership qualities found in the seacoast region of New Hampshire, and is geared to awakening regional awareness and strengthen the skills and development of its participants, especially in the areas of leadership and advocacy (I am sure someone on the LS team can explain it better than I just did).

So, January 4th was the first session. It was a retreat at the Brown Center operated by UNH. This retreat was a good way for us all to meet and learn about ourselves and the other participants. There are 35 people in my class, and we range from all ages (well no one younger than maybe 20, and no one older than say 60). There is a very good mixture of backgrounds and professions, though interestingly professions and last names, aren't dwelt upon for the most part.

The session was interesting and worthwhile. From that point, the remaining 7 sessions will have a specific focus. Sessions occur every 3 weeks or so. The first session was last Wednesday, January 25, and focused on Criminal Justice. The day was held at the Strafford County Complex. This includes the Court House, as well as the correctional facility. The focus of the day, or at least what I took out of the day, was the role that compassion and respect take in working with those deemed to be criminals. On the one hand you have people who have been swept into the arena of drugs and alcohol. There are some very positive and cost effective programs that the County operates to assist those charged with and found quilty of having a drug habit. These programs, I think benefit three stakeholders, the criminal, the victim (including family and friends of the criminal), and the county as a whole.

It was fascinating listening to people talk about the work they do and the measures and methods they use to lower costs (it is about 8 dollars a day to treat someone, vs 87 dollars a day to incarcerate them), and achieve success.

One thing that I had not realized, until sitting with the folks, which I was embarrassed by, is the interaction with housing and transportation that these programs have. I wrote last week about the FastTrans program, and mentioned, I believe, that the County contributes to its funding stream. Well, the highest user of those going to the County facility, are those taking part in the Drug Court program. This program where violator's live at home and have a job, requires frequent drug testing and routine check ins with the Court. Many of these folks have such a restricted income stream that they cannot afford a car, and rely on FastTrans.

This was one of the many "a-ha" moments I had seeing how Planning and our projects are related to a larger wold. Or rather how our projects might go unrecognized but well utilized. I find that Planning tends to have one of those intangible existences. The average citizen can make the connection to police or fire, because they do things you can see and feel (arrests, and rescues). Public works paves roads and plows them, and people take books out of the library, but what thing does planning do? We improve quality of life. That is such an intangible item to list. Part of the beauty of planning is that our activities reach out beyond our office, and beyond our daily conversations and affect many people, most of whom don't realize it. Without good, thoughtful, planning, you cannot have many of the things we take for granted every day.

Still, in the end it is rewarding to see people using our projects and plans to make their lives better, and really what more can you ask than that?

FastTrans Revisions

About ten years ago, I moved from the Community Services Department to the Planning Department. I had just finished my Masters in Planning and Community Development, and was actually looking for a planning job. It was one of my lucky moments, that I finished my degree, was looking for a job, and there was an opening, albeit temporary on the surface of it, within the City.

So, with the agreement that I'd have a job for 2002, but need to find a new job by July 2003 (when the funding for my position ended), I moved over to Planning on tax day 2002. So, one of the first projects that I was immersed in was the creation of a downtown transportation loop. The project was one the City had applied for Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality monies from the Federal Government for. The goal of the project was to offer fast, and economical transportation options in and out of the downtown area, to encourage people to not drive into downtown.

The City's goal in designing these routes was to bring dense residential areas, remote parking lots, and transportation centers, with the core downtown area.We knew that COAST was going to be a partner with the City on this project, after all who else would you work with, outside of a bus operator, on developing a intra city bus line? I am sure most of the readers know, COAST is the regional mass transit provider. COAST operates bus service throughout the seacoast, and has been located in Dover for most, if not all of the last ten years.

Dover FastTrans provides regular, hourly bus service from downtown to homes, businesses, and remote parking in the city. Currently, there are three FastTrans routes, numbered 33, 34, and 35, which run every hour, from about 7AM until 7PM, Monday through Friday. Also as part of the FastTrans project, service on COAST Route 1, which serves downtown as well as the Dover Housing Authority, has been increased to hourly frequency.

There are two phases I remember about the project setup. First, working with residents and stakeholders to identify the design and layout of the routes, and the phasing in of the routes. We knew we couldn't have all the routes online at once, so route 33 can online first, in December of 2008. From there we expanded the options to include connections to Durham Road and Knox Marsh Road, as well as Shaws and the Union Street senior housing.

The second phase was the roll out. We had a VIP ride/tour of Route 33, where elected officials, staff and other stakeholders road the trip from the Transportation Center trough the Sixth Street destinations. It was fun hearing people exclaim that they didn't realize buses can be clean and welcoming. This expression has continued throughout the life of the project. We have seen a continual increase in ridership that the project realized year in and year out. It is a very rewarding project to have worked on.

Flash forward to 2011. As we noted in the fall/winter, due to budget concerns, the City and COAST had to look at revising the project. We treated it like a business would treat a service. We looked at where efficiencies can be made, where cuts are required and where we need to change out focus. These changes come in two bursts. The first was January 9, 2012, and the second will come this summer.

Beginning January 9, the hours for the service were trimmed and the schedule was adjusted. You can see the slightly modified schedule, and review the full adjustments by reading the flyer COAST put out prior to January 9th, 2012.

Basically, though the changes are being made to the after-6PM timeframe when ridership is extremely low on each route.

• Route 33: service will end at 6:22pm. There will be no 6:36pm or 7:26pm runs. Also the schedule between 4pm and 6:22pm has been adjusted significantly.
• Route 34: the 6:30pm run will become outbound only. The 7:30pm outbound run will continue.
• Route 35: service will end at 6:38pm. There will be no 6:45pm run.

Why did we cut something that is successful? I think there are two answers, the first, is to that FastTrans was started with CMAQ grant-funding. We knew it was funded for 3 years, and hoped that there would be monies to continue the grant funding, but that is not the case. The grant will be running out in Spring of 2012, and in order to stretch it as far as possible, we have to adjust the services now to ensure we can run as long as possible on the grant funding.

The second reason we cut something that was successful, is that you have to make tough decisions to continue success. We all know the adage what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, well this is a similar situation. We stepped back and looked at the areas of the program that were not thriving and looked to reduce the impact they might have on dragging back the rest of the service. In this light we see that people are not using the service as much after 6 pm, as they are at 4 pm. Also, we see that routes 34 and 35 are not as heavily traveled as 33 is. We are choosing to put our focus on route 33 and help it thrive.

I've said the program is successful. How so, you might ask. Well, below is a chart from September of 2011, analyzing the Dover COAST routes. It compares August 2010 and 2011.

You can see that there has been an increase among most of the routes in double digits. The Community Routes are a bus route that focuses on the high school, so we won't focus on that. But overall mass transit is a popular service in Dover. That said, we know there is a cost.

The cost for the three routes is close to $600,000 a year. The City pays approximately $140,000 of that cost, as part of the matching requirements for the grant.We raise $10 - 15,0000 in fare box revenue and some committed stakeholders, such as Strafford County, pay a portion to help ensure service. Finally, as you might have guessed, we receive the bulk of the funding from the CMAQ grant. When 80% of your funding is removed, no matter what the total cost is, you have to review the options for the program. In this case, we could not justify asking the City to increase funding tri-fold.

So what happens in July? Well, presuming that the Federal government doesn't reverse itself and continues to cut transportation dollars, we will have to dig deeper and adjust the program further. Most likely we will look at eliminating route 35 and 34 if we have to so that a modified route 33 can survive. We will be looking for ways to increase stakeholder investment as well, sot that the City funds can be leveraged further.

So, why do you care? I hope you care, because like me you see the value in developing the community in a thoughtful and sustainable way. We hope you  understand that mass transit isn't for the poor, that it is smart and sensible for all ranges of income. It is an alternative that has value when you consider 4 dollar gas and when you consider the environment and when you consider the long term health benefits.

This is a topic I want to return to more in 2012, so get ready to read about the joys and value of mass transit, in Dover and the world (insert evil laugh).

CDBG Grant Funds Applications Available

The City of Dover Department of Planning and Community Development is accepting applications from Public Service Agencies, qualified individuals or eligible organizations for grants from the FFY12 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. This grant from the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is intended to meet the needs of low and moderate income persons in a variety of ways.

Eligible activities include: acquisition of property, public facilities and improvements, clearance or demolition, public services, water & sewer lines, historic preservation and special economic development activities.

Each activity planned by the City must meet one of HUD's three national objectives:

1. Benefit to low and moderate income people.

2. Elimination of slums and blight.

3. Urgent needs.

For more information about project eligibility or to learn more about Dover’s Community Development Block Grant program, go to http://www.dover.nh.gov/plancomdev.htm

The City of Dover has been a CDBG entitlement community for over twenty years. The HUD program provides annual grants on a formula basis to entitled cities and counties to develop viable urban communities by providing decent housing and a suitable living environment, and by expanding economic opportunities, principally for low and moderate income persons. HUD awards grants to entitlement community grantees to carry out a wide range of community development activities directed toward revitalizing neighborhoods, economic development, and providing improved community facilities and services. Entitlement communities develop their own programs and funding priorities. The entitlement grant is expected to be available July 1st, 2012. The amount to be received by the City of Dover has yet to be determined by Congress.

Groups wishing to receive funds, anyone with question, or groups needing technical assistance with an application should contact Rick Jones, 516-6034 between 7 AM and 5 PM Monday through Thursday. Applications are also available on the City of Dover website. All applications for funding requests are due back in the Dover Planning Office no later than February 9, 2012 at 5:30 PM.

Community Service

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Right's Day. It is a day in honor of a man who did a great deal of community service in his life, and there has been a movement in recent years to have a day of caring and serving be the focus of the day.

A few years ago, my son and I signed up for, and assisted with, service in Rochester. We went to a shelter and assisted the humanitarians who run the shelter with a day of cleaning and purging through the accumulated articles that had found their way to the shelter. Some of the articles had been left behind when people moved on, some had been donations that the shelter could not use, and others were things that had broken or tore, or what have you, that had just become unusable.

I really enjoyed this day. Theo and I had a strong experience together and with those we chose to serve.

On Friday, I received a copy of the magazine that the college I attended sends to alumni. Not surprisingly the magazine is primarily a ad for the school's alumni giving program. They want to show you the value of the school's name and how others who have felt that value have given back (especially financially). One way they accomplish this, is by focusing on current events at the school. This being January, and being delivered close to MLK day, a focus was on service programs and academics.

When I was a freshman, all those incoming students into the Liberal Arts college had to partake in a day of service the first day of school. I suppose, more accurately, it was the day before the first day of school. We all arrived a day or so early and after unpacking and getting to know our roommates, we were loaded into the school's gymnasium, er athletic center, and it was impressed upon us how we needed to give back to the community around us. Well, that and we all learned the school's fight song, so we could sing along during basketball games (I proudly only went to one - a girls homecoming game).

So after the group discussion and sing along, we were escorted to buses and driven to Southeast Washington, DC. My group patrolled the Anacostia River looking for garbage, and drug paraphernalia. This being 1993 there was a lot of both. Actually, there wasn't too much garbage, just syringes and the like. Anyway, we performed this clean up for about 6 hours. It was very rewarding. In retrospect, I look at this adventure as one of the highlights of my college years. It really was a great experience to be in the nation's capital (in itself very different than Dover), and reaching out to a community.

Last night, we had the kickoff meeting for the Master Plan Steering committee. We had met once before to go over logistics, when we'll meet, elect a chair etc, but this was the first meeting with the consultant. The seven folks who have volunteered to assist us are performing a similar community service. I don't mean they are picking up drug paraphernalia, but they are reaching out and venturing into an unknown place, offering to help us.

These are people who could join a committee or board with a clear function, say the rec advisory board, instead they have placed their lot with a committee which is charting the future. Charting the unknown, as it were. It is a great group of community minded folks who are interested in giving back and shaping the community. One major difference between my formative service day in 1993 and last night is that the group last night wants to work with the community, and not for it. We didn't have any residents (as far as I know) from Southeast DC with us that day, but the group last night will have residents of Dover working with us for the next 6 months.

I am proud of the group selected by the Planning Board to assist me in developing the community vision for Dover. I know many of the members, and so will you. We have long term volunteers, a councilor, a planning board member, some new faces and some you will hear a lot more about in the coming months and years. The group is energetic, interested, and boosters of the community around them. They care, and they are invested in Dover.

The best part is that you are also going to do some community service along with the group. You wont' have to attend monthly meetings, but we will ask you to contribute in other ways. We'll have three community wide meetings, as well as three regional meetings in smaller settings. We will have surveys and dialog in written and online methods, as well as in person dialog. We will start the outreach portion of the Community Visioning in the coming weeks, if not days, and there will be a role for us all.

So, congratulations, and welcome aboard, because whether you know it or not, you've been drafted to help develop a community vision.

Winter Sign Sweep

The Dover Department of Planning and Community Development announces that it will be conducting a clean-up of illegal and unpermitted temporary advertising signs throughout the City of Dover during the week of January 9th as part of a review of zoning compliances around the community.  Illegal and unpermitted signs include those on utility poles, or in the right of way. This clean up will be the fourth one conducted by planning staff in the past year.

The illegal sign removal action is warranted because the placement of these temporary signs in public right-of-ways and medians of streets, on utility poles and attached to trees is not permitted by the Dover Sign Ordinance and may cause a safety hazard for traveling motorists or create a visual blight that is unsightly for residents.  These signs detract from legitimate business signs that have gone through the proper permitting process.

 “I am confident that we will continue to see less signs than we have in the past,” Christopher Parker, Director of Planning and Community Development said. “I am always happy to see that the sweeps take less and less time to complete as we have more and more compliance from business and property owners. We have seen dramatic reductions in these illegal signs. I hope that this trend continues and we have only a handful of illegal signs at the end of the day.”

Parker continued to explain that the goal of the sweep is to reward those business owners that have properly placed and permitted their signs. “We hope to both remove the safety hazard, improve aesthetics and also ensure that those that follow the rules the community has established for signs are followed.”

This will be the first sign sweep conducted with the City’s recently hired Zoning Administrator, Tim Corwin. Corwin joins the City staff on January 3, and will be learning the nuances of Dover’s code. “This sweep is a good way for Tim to see how seriously we take zoning and code violations in Dover.” Parker explained.

Business owners that have placed these signs are advised to remove the illegal signs in advance of this clean-up effort.  Any sign that is confiscated will only be held for thirty days prior to being recycled or destroyed, unless the sign is claimed by the owner after paying a reclamation fee based on the actual cost of man-hours and equipment use.  Repeat offenders may be subject to prosecution and fines. 

The Planning Department has a facebook fan page in which residents can learn more about projects and applications. Additionally, the Department has a twitter feed @DoverNHPlanning.

For more information please call the Planning Department at 516-6008.

Citizen Planner

Have you done something for twenty years? Something you love? Something you didn't get paid for? Well, lucky for the City of Dover, Ron Cole has.

Ron stepped down last night as a member of the Dover Planning Board. For me, Ron was the Planning Board. He served long and well, accomplishing many goals and expressing many thoughts about the good, thoughtful planning that he wanted to see in Dover, and has been proud to be a part of. An accomplishment he should be proud of is that he was the chair of the Board for 17 years (1994 - 2010), and vice chair for one year (1993).

In Ron's time there have been multiple master plan updates, and three Planning Directors. He outlasted everyone who was on the board when he joined (November 12, 1991) and when he assented to the Chairmanship (January 11, 1994), and as near as I can tell he has served more than any other member of the Planning Board. Add to that, that he was named Citizen Planner of the Year, and you have a very accomplished citizen planner.

I am going to miss two things. First Ron is an incredibly well spoken cheerleader for Dover. He always is positive about the community and the benefits he receives from living here. He sees the very big picture and is able to translate it between the planning jargon/technical side into a clean laymen's terms sense. Add to that he is thoughtful and has been interested in trendsetting, pushing planning in Dover to different and new areas.

I'll also miss his constructive criticism. Ron was a big supporter of mine as I was developing through the staff here. I remember talking with him when I came to Dover in 1997, and working closer to him in 2002, as part of the then re-zoning work. In 2007 he was a great asset as I looked to become the Planning Director. He has such a skill with people that he knows how to say "you're wrong" and not make you feel wrong. He helped me numerous times not only see a better path, but take it. Even after working with him for 14 years now, he continues to overwhelm me with his knowledge and understanding that we need to be ever present in today, as we learn from the past and perfect the future.

Luckily for me he isn't leaving Dover or anything that drastic, he is still around to chat with and grab for a committee here and there, when we need his perspective. Ron has been a great asset to Dover, and he should be thanked and congratulated for the immense time and dedication he has given to the Planning Board. There aren't many people like Ron Cole, and the entire Dover planning community should be proud that he chose to volunteer with us for so long.

Thanks, Ron.

Why I Shop Local

We all know that the benefits of shopping local are numerous.One that hits me all the time is customer service. Working in government I believe we are in the customer service sector. I am always looking for great examples of customer service to share with my staff.

This weekend I had one. I purchased Christmas gifts for my wife at a local store, which has a  fantastic, eclectic mix of hand crafted items and the owner is energetic and helpful. She remembers you and is interested in selling items to you, but not interested in harassing you.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, my wife and I were in the store, and she picked up an item and said she'd love it. It could be Thanksgiving centric, and I mentioned that I had bought it for her and forgotten to give it to her the day before. Oops. When I got home I dug the gift out and noticed another box in the tote. Another gift? I couldn't recall.

Recently, I went into the store and the owner and I joked about the oops moment. I mentioned the rogue gift and how it would be a surprise to me as well. She did that little customer service step we all need to be aware of (long story short right?). She went through her receipts and found the one from the day in October that I purchased the gifts and sent me an email detailing the items. How cool is that? Nothing fancy, nothing over taxing, but over the top and really appreciated.

It is like going into your favorite coffee shop and having the clerk know you like a certain mug, or splenda not sugar. These are the little touches that an online shop can't help but not provide. I know the cigar store around the corner knows the brand I like and will give me advice. I am sure that a place online can use an algorithm to do the same thing, but it isn't the same. The guy down the street has a conversation behind his recommendation, and a personal taste, the web site has a check list of characteristics that have been digitally added. Big difference.

A colleague from another community recommended a book to me, entitled "We Don't Make Widgets" about how government can learn from private businesses on certain elements, but the bottom line is that we don't create products. I think there is a lot of truth to that and I am looking forward to that book, when I get a chance to read it. In this case though, the customer interaction case, we need to learn from small business to thrive. We're the government and "we are here to help" should be an honest and true reality. It shouldn't be a joke and we should be doing what we can to create a product that is a quality community you want to live in.

Any who, this experience made me smile, reassured that I was shopping in the correct store, and rubbed off on me. I know others have had a similar experience and believe I will be the recipient of better customer service because of it when I shop local.

Were You There?

Saturday, December 10th, saw the launch of the gundalow Piscataqua in Portsmouth. This was an historic event, and I was happy to participate. For those readers, who aren't aware, I am on the Board of Director's for the Gundalow Company. The company has a mission of preserving and enhancing the maritime history and environment of the Piscataqua region.

The Piscataqua (gundalow, not river or region), was born out the hard work of many people. I joined the Board in 2009, and remember the first meeting I attended was spent looking at a the drawings and blueprints for the new boat, which at the time was still a desire, and not a reality. The Board had been working on this dream for some time already, and looking back it is impressive to see the Piscataqua in the Piscataqua.

Countless hours have been put into the creation and fundraising of and for this vessel. It is amazing to have been a small part of it, and there are many people who are due a great deal of thanks for their efforts and resources. 

I have enjoyed being on the Board, as it really allows myself the opportunity to interact in different ways with different people in the Seacoast. It also allows me to be a part of the launch of something that hasn't been launched since the 1980s, and really hasn't been common since the 1880s. I am taking some liberties here, but really, two centuries ago gundalows were common transportation features, today only two working ones exists, and they are located down the road here in New Hampshire.

In the industrial revolution gundalows were common. They were riding up and down the Cochoecho, the Piscataqua and most other rivers in the new world. These vessels are flat bottomed and convey goods from port to port and offered a similar function to the tractor trailer trucks might today. The transportation of these goods has evolved, or in some cases devolved.

One reason I love being on the Board is the sense that we are educating people to this alternative mode of transit. Anyone that has read this blog will know that I am a supporter of the idea that we are ruining out of oil, and I believe we need to reawaken ourselves to the reality of other modes of transit. Modes other than automobiles. I think, beyond the awareness we are building about the fragility of the Piscarqua River's ecosystem, we are also going to be building awareness of the value of wind powered transit.

Overall for me the best part of Saturday's launch was not the pleasure of riding the Piscataqua on her first tour, nor was it the thrill of being with 1,000 people celebrating the launch. The best part was sharing it with my 13 year old son. He fussed about going, and he flittered about the cold when we got to Pierce Island. That said, when we saw the Piscataqua sitting in its cradle and poised for launch he started to change When we were able to join the crew and other board members onboard he really got excited.

It is great to see a child get excited about a wooden boat. A vessel that is built for education and not for excitement or thrill riding. That was pretty cool. I can't wait to see school kids riding, and learning aboard the Piscataqua . It will be a very good addition to the region.

When you get a chance to visit the Piscataqua at Prescott Park, enjoy her majesty and celebrate her mission.

Summertime Goings On

So, here we are deep into Summer 2011. If we were in elementary or secondary school we might argue it just began, but I think for adults more and more the lines of summertime blur and extend. So, in my mind we are deep in the summer. It is the All Star Break for the baseball season, so it must be the middle of summer.

I was thinking last night about summer projects. One I really want to tackle this summer is scanning documents and cleaning up some files and paperwork in the office. I know this has been on the back burner for what feels like eons. It is an ongoing battle to review and reduce the amount of paper we have in the office. Even better if we can weed out extraneous stuff and then scan it and make it available to the public via the internet and save us all time.

Another project is the Capital Improvements Program. There are two elements to this, one regrouping and redefining the 2013-2018 plan for presentation to the Planning Board and City Council in the fall. The second element is using the web to track progress on the FY 2012 projects as they get underway this year. I need to pin down some specifics on how we will do this.

A third project is the ever present review of zoning and land use regulations. A month ago we had a meeting with consultants from the Environmental Protection Agency, and their consultants who were retained to perform an audit of our regulations. They suggested areas we can look to make changes to encourage sustainability. I will be looking over these recommendations and bring them forward to the Planning Board towards the end of the summer.

Catching up is another "always on the list" task. In this case I need to catch up on some reading of journals and trends. Additionally, we need to review some procedures for the CDBG program and for the way we investigate code complaints.

A summer project is to determine where some of the sustainability programs we started in the winter will go now that we no longer have a Sustainability Coordinator. As I mentioned last month, we did not have funding in the, now, current budget to keep that position in play. I will be reviewing the tasks and programming started and evaluating how we can maintain some if not all of them.

So, that's my summer to be. Oh, that and one more project. To use this blog to answer some questions about why areas are zoned, and to also update people on existing programs, such as the Fast Trans, and Pay N Display parking program. For that last item, I will be bringing Bill Simmons from the Police Department in for an interview, as Bill is the Parking Manager for the City.

Imprints

I have said, before, that I started out as an intern with the City. Since then I morphed into other roles, as a paid employee. Over the years I have seen my fair share of interns come and go. I always compare them to my perception of how I did (perfect, of course).

This week is the last week (hopefully for now), of employment with the City for our Sustainability Coordinator, Michele Alexander. Michele is a bright, enthusiastic, smart person who honestly wants to serve the public interest. Michele is leaving because the funding for her position runs out on June 30th. We haven't been able to secure funding through grants, and the general fund could not sustain the position when comparing it with others that we have within the municipal corporation.

Michele started out as an intern. She came to me while finishing her Master's in Public Administration at UNH. One thing early on that stood out with Michele was her intelligence and maturity. She is older than many of our past interns, so comparing maturity is not fair, but really is life? Michele brought the ability to reason, and to question with logic. She has been willing to pitch in and grow in the organization and truly has accomplished both.

Michele's first task was to work with staff to document tasks we have and how we complete them. I am a systems thinker and I like the idea of developing standard operating procedures. Michele took that bull and ran with it. She interviewed the employees and sat down and came up with bullet point based project/task steps. These will continue to be useful in the future as they help define what is expected when we process a development application or draft a letter.

The next project Michele worked on was to develop a work plan template. This project encouraged the department to think about projects before they get beyond the proposal stage. In other words, with the work plan template, when a project gets suggested, we can use the model and fill in questions regarding funding needs, and availability, also we can look for connections to the Master Plan and decide what key resources are required. In the end myself and others can then review the project request and decide if we have the time and other resources to complete the project in the best manner possible.

Finally, as an intern, Michele worked to rehab the Community Trail. She saw the need to champion that project and pulled various resources together last summer to develop the work plan for the trail and then gather outside resources to conduct clean up events, organize the grand opening and perform other tasks that helped move that project on.

So, that's that. Her intern career in a nutshell. From September to November Michele hung around as a volunteer. In November, I found some money to fund a sustainability coordinator position and she jumped at the chance to hang around more, much to our luck.

As an intern and as an employee she has stood out. She will go further than the rest of us, if she wants to. I have said a few times to her, that I expect one day to open up a planning journal or magazine and read about something she is doing or perfecting. I can't wait for that time.

I can fill the rest of this blog entry with useless skills and meandering that interns have brought to us, or I could talk about how I had to fire one once (it is a good story, so I'll save it for another blog entry). Instead I'll leave you with this: at the start I said that I have judged interns by my perception if how I did. No longer, now I can judge them by Michele's imprint.

That is pretty cool.

A Year In

I was thinking about the use of social media and planning, or government for that matter. Have I found value in it? I've been doing a Facebook page, this blog and our twitter account for a year or so, I'm not counting.

Are they valuable? I am not sure. I enjoy the opportunity to get information out, and to have a venue, where I can hope to pass information along, and hopefully engage the public to participate more in planning in Dover. Does that happen? I am sure that some study exists to tell me yes, and another to tell me no.

Locally, I know that the twitter and Facebook followers are up. Here in Dover, the Library is the only other department with a Facebook page. They also blog and have a twitter account. We use the tools very differently. I tend to use them more as here's some info, digest it and use it as you will. The Library tends to be a bit more interactive. Their blog site seeks input on books and book reviews. They also use it to pass information (hours, programs etc) to the reading public (figuratively and literally, I suppose).

I am amazed that more Planning offices don't use this tool. It is not overly complicated, and as long as you budget time for it, and stay on it, I think that it doesn't add any more time to my day or week.

I take a systematic approach to it and plan the entries out, as much as I can. I think that like going to gym or eating healthy (both things I am working on), you have to make, and not find, the time to pursue social media. In some ways this is similar to traditional media.

Beginning in January, I told my staff that on average we were going to produce one press release a week. This could be a success we had, or it could be a project or program we are planning. Everyone has to take part in this and help move the ball forward.

I use these press releases to help create posts for the Dover Download, video and email, as well as social media topics. This way we don't lose site of traditional media as we work to use social media outlets.

My wife asked me two questions about twitter the other day, she asked how I compare it to email and how it compares to Facebook.

Regarding email, it seems to me they should be similar, but I find email is much more prevalent. I think that people like the length and like the privacy of sending an email directly, I think people aren't convinced they can say enough in 140 characters. One thing I find is that if I get a question emailed to me, that has an answer which many people should know the answer to, I will use twitter to send a general answer out.

Regarding Facebook, I think twitter is the more appropriate avenue for non-personal updates. Facebook has the fan pages and the like, but it seems that more people follow me on twitter, and more people interact with our information on twitter. Maybe I don't do a good job using twitter to drive folks to the Facebook page.

Anyway, it's an evolution. It is also a comfort level. Just like everything else, there are things we are comfortable with, and the traditional is always more comfortable than the new and unknown. It is good to challenge ourselves and push to try things. Which is why I am going to try and find ways to be more interactive on the social media outlets.

First challenge, is to readers. Is there a planning topic, I should cover or you are interested in? Let me know. Feel free to tweet it, post to our Facebook page, or email it to me (c.parker@dover.nh.gov).

A Diverse Week of Planning Activities

Last week was a great week to work for the Planning Department. We tend to have our fingers in more than a few activities going on in the community, whether we are overt or covert about it is another thing.

Last week was one of those weeks, when I'd say to my sweet wife, I'm doing this today, or today I met with X and she'd say really how is that Planning? I get that a lot. People don't always see the connections, which I think is cool, because when you point them out they tend to make a lot of things clearer.

The diversity of my position and department is one of the strong appeals to me. It keeps things light and keeps the stress level constant (high, but constant). I've got a great group of people working for me and one reason they are great is that they are always looking for things to do, and projects to benefit the residents.

Last week those projects included a permaculture class, green commute week, with free breakfast on Friday and the Cochecho River Field Day/Clean up Day. Also we participated in Commute Green Week with a local project. These are atop regular meet with residents/property owners etc that we do daily, and atop zoning administration and enforcement.

The Permaculture class was interesting, informative and out of a comfort zone that I think many of us appreciate. The idea behind permaculture is that we should think about development (whether your backyard, your neighborhood, or your community) as it incorporates into nature, and not as a replacement for the environment around it. The class was 12 people and was a good and interesting bunch of people. It reminded me of graduate school where you are focused on a topic and it can be more investing than undergraduate classes were (just saying for me at least).

The Commute Green week was an outgrowth of an event designed to encourage people to travel by bike. The goal of the week is to inform the public about the benefits of carpooling, walking, biking, or taking transit. We had great partners for the week, including Adelle's coffee shop, C & J, COAST, Holey Rosary Credit Union, and New Hampshire Coffee Roasters. According to http://commutegreennh.org, over 48,000 vehicle miles were saved last week in NH, by commuting.

We saw almost 50 people stop into the transportation center on Chestnut Street between 6 am and 10 am. I got to pretend I was a barista (or barrister as auto spell check suggests), and serve coffee (not very well, I forgot sugar - we got some, and stir sticks. It was great to chat with the people who commute everyday. The pastries were a success and the interactions with the Station Hosts were the best part.

The Station Hosts are a great group of individuals who volunteer their time to come and meet the train when it is in Dover. The hosts open the transportation center a half hour prior to the arrival of the train and help people with the quick track ticket machine. While they might be there for the train, they are also quite aware and educated about the COAST, Wildcat and FastTrans systems in place as well. Their service really benefits the community as a whole.

Saturday was the clean up day. This event is great. It allows three areas we are working on to come together. The Community Trail, conservation efforts, and sustainability efforts, all come together with the assistance of Great Bay Trout Unlimited, the City and Measured Progress.

Trout Unlimited and Measured Progress have been tremendous partners and community members. Their assistance, leadership and efforts have made Dover a better community, and made it easier for many projects to get completed along the rural portion of the community trail. If you haven't been down to that end, please check the trail, starting at Watson Rd. Speaking of Watson Rd, starting in June work will commence on the trailhead/parking lot off Watson Road. This will make it easier to visit the trail. Not only easier, but I should add, safer.

One last item, I began week four of walking to work. Its been successful and enjoyable. If you can try it, I encourage you to do so. Its worth the time and effort.

OK, one more last item, if you listen to podcasts, check out How to do Everything, a whimsical cast about doing very odd and different tasks (how to catch a fish with your hand etc...).

Activated Planning

What... two blog posts in one week? Wow, something must be up!

That's right folks, I've been inspired. Yesterday (Tuesday), was a day of active planning. Not to imply that regular day to day activities don't include planning, nor to imply that the day to day activities aren't important, but we all get bogged down in the day to day, and when something out of the ordinary comes along, you can get inspired by it.

Yesterday was one of those days. On the face of it, a day of 4 meetings, and some administrative work, might seem day to day. Bonus was the two main meetings. The first was a session with residents, business owners, transit providers and civic leaders to discuss ways to improve our wayfinding in downtown Dover.

What is wayfinding? It can be signage, but it is a much larger concept. Think about the tools we use to get around town. It isn't just signs - in the literal sense. We use clues such as activity and street furniture and lighting styles to be aware that we are in the downtown area.

The meeting was a great kick off to what I see as a project to highlight Dover's assets, our waterfall, our river, our shops and restaurants, and our museums. The meeting was geared to generate excitement among the stakeholders, and I think it did just that. It was fun to discuss Dover as a resident and as a tourist trying to get around.

The second meeting of note was a workshop the Sustainable Dover program hosted on permaculture. What the heck is permaculture? It is designing development with nature in mind. It is the idea that we are part of nature and need to design our homes, neighborhoods and communities to be part of nature and not fight nature.

Steve Whitman, a planner from Plymouth, who in my estimation is one of the most visionary and proactive planners in New Hampshire, came and taught 12 of us the basic philosophy and framework of this concept. It is not new, and Steve isn't the innovator, but it is new to many peoples conscious, and Steve has immersed himself and family into the idea. He has developed a sideshow that demonstrates the philosophy and framework using examples from his home and life.

I am not going to try and summarize the 12 points involved, or even try to explain the overall concept more than I have. Instead I am going to dwell on it, and review my own activities and make lifestyle changes to embrace the philosophy and I hope to continue to be inspired by the workshop, and its companion workshop in 2 weeks.It was great to see a concept that is complicated, but makes so much sense, and is obtainable with some minor changes to your life (composting etc).

I went home at 9:30 last night and didn't mind a bit that I had last stepped foot in the house 15 hours earlier. I didn't mind, because I was so jazzed about the great work we had completed during the day. It was rewarding to be encouraged by the stakeholders involved with the wayfinding project, and then to be inspired by learning something new and adoptable, was that much more energizing.

So, how do we replicate that energy today? We'll see and I'll let you know.