‘Boots on the ground’ possible at planners conference

Andrew McKeever

GNAT-TV News Project

MANCHESTER — The Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association hopes to hold its annual conference in Manchester next year, and offer some boots on the ground input as well.

The conference is tentatively being scheduled for 2-3 days in early September, 2017, at the Taconic Hotel. Along with the meetings and break-out sessions that would take place, the planners are also interested in using Manchester to develop a theoretical master plan for the downtown area. The plan could be used and incorporated into future town plans, or not, said Janet Hurley, the town’s zoning administrator, who told the Select Board about the event during their meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 30.

If they were interested, the Select Board would be asked to pony up about $3,000 to match funds being advanced by the Vermont Planners Association and the Northern New England chapter of the American Planners Association towards a possible financial grant, which would be used to help fund the master plan project, known as a “charette.”

Within architectural and planning circles, a charette is known as an intensive interactive community planning workshop, which in this case would draw in the services and brainpower of an estimated 150-200 professional planners expected to attend the annual conference, which this year will be held in Portsmouth, N.H. next week.

The charette would be a vehicle to get public input with planners and consultants over a short period of time to come up with solutions to issues with public buy-in, Hurley added.

“Hopefully, you’d get some people with new ideas that would be ‘actionable’,” she said.

The proposed charette would touch on areas such as feasible opportunities for downtown redevelopment by addressing the need for safe biking and walking routes to the Manchester Elementary Middle School and improvements to the pickup and drop off areas; developing an implementation strategy for relocating the electric sub-station at the corner of Center Hill and Depot Street; considering the potential for in-fill development on underused sites, particularly with regard to boosting the town’s stock of workforce and affordable housing and diversifying the downtown economy beyond retail.

Other areas the planners might study include assessing the amount of land devoted to vehicle parking areas and exploring ways to develop more green space. Another area might be exploring how to enhance the downtown to make it more attractive to younger residents and visitors.

This exercise would be different from the Manchester 2020 project that took place three years ago, Hurley said in response to a question from one of the select board members.

That had been more of a community brainstorming process which was turned over to volunteers to lead and direct, she said.

“This,” she said, referring to the proposed charette, “would establish a master plan that would be a town document such as our town plan that we would refer to as we proceed with public improvements.”

Brandy Saxton, a planning consultant who is working with Hurley and the town’s Planning Commission on an overhaul of the town’s zoning districts is also the Vermont state representative to the Northern New England chapter of the association.

Town plans, Hurley noted, now need to be revised every eight years, instead of the former five, under a recent change in state law, she added.

John O’Keefe, the town manager, said he thought it provide the town with a lot of brainpower for a relatively modest cost, terming it a “great opportunity.”

Steve Nichols, a select board member, and one well-known to cast a discerning eye over proposals that involve spending local public money, was also in favor.

“I think it would be well worth it,” he said, noting the town would likely make most if not all of the $3,000 back in rooms and meals taxes with a hotel full of guests.

The select board unanimously endorsed the idea of the charette and of providing $3,000 in matching funds for any grant funding secured.

“A proposal and budget for the charrette has yet to be worked up. We just needed endorsement of the ideas by the selectboard to move forward with developing a grant proposal,” Hurley stated later in an email to GNAT.