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- My Granite State Future
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- Outreach Highlights from UVLSRPC
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- Developing a Capital Improvements Program
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- Encouraging Students to Stay, Work, and Play
- Culture Has Measurable Effect on NH’s Economy
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History and Principles
The regional planning commissions (RPCs) were formed by New Hampshire’s legislature in 1969 with a duty to prepare advisory regional plans and provide an opportunity for coordination among municipalities (RSA 36:45-48). Each RPC is tasked with working with local communities and seeking direct input from citizens when developing the regional plan. The intent is to ensure a democratic process and to develop regional plans that reflect local voices. The plans created by each regional planning commission are advisory only, ensuring that local land use decisions remain local.
A Granite State Future is a statewide project among all of the RPCs coordinated by the Nashua Regional Planning Commission and funded through a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
A Granite State Future will reflect the New Hampshire Livability Principles, a set of concepts which will provide a common framework for all nine regional plans. The Livability Principles encompass:
- Traditional Settlement Patterns & Development Design – keep the traditional New Hampshire landscape intact by focusing development in town centers and village areas, while leaving open and rural areas for agriculture, recreation, and other suitable uses.
- Housing Choices – ensure that everyone, no matter what their income level, has convenient and affordable choices in where they live. This includes a variety of housing options and ownership types that appeal to people at any stage of life and is convenient to where they work, shop, and play.
- Transportation Choices – provide a number of options that help people safely and efficiently get where they need to go, whether it is by walking, driving, biking, public transportation, carpooling, or taking a train or plane. Transportation networks should make it easy to get from one place to another, and should also allow the efficient movement of goods to support the economy (commercial freight, rail, and air transport).
- Natural Resource Functions & Quality – make sure that we protect New Hampshire’s beautiful natural landscape, which is home to all of us as well as a wide range of wildlife species. This includes protecting and improving the water we drink, the air we breathe, the forests we love, and the farmland that sustains us.
- Community and Economic Vitality – continue to make New Hampshire a great place in which to do business, raise a family, recreate, visit, and retire. Our neighborhoods and communities offer opportunities for an excellent education, good health, cultural happenings, and social connections.
- Climate Change and Energy Efficiency – identify opportunities to save energy and costs and reduce risks to our communities, businesses and citizens. In recent decades, New Hampshire has seen an increase in extreme storms and flooding coupled with steadily rising fuel and energy prices. How can we reduce dependence on outside sources of energy, construct homes and buildings that are more efficient, and reduce impacts to our communities and infrastructure from extreme storms and flooding?
