[0:03] Good evening. It is 7:00. September 23rd, 2006. This is the meeting of the Master Plan Implementation Committee. Uh, calling to order now. Please join me for pledge to the flag.

[0:20] Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[0:34] I'd also like to take a brief moment to acknowledge the passing of one of our members, Bill de Blasio. Uh, used to represent the Hampton Beach Village district. Uh, with us. So if you wouldn't mind just joining me for a moment of silence there.

[0:55] And thank you. And thank you, Bill, for your service.

[1:00] Um. We have no appointments to be heard today. Hi, Molly. Hi, Ryan. Um, but if we could actually. Now that these folks have walked in. Go around the room, um, for attendance purposes. We'll start with John.

[1:12] John Terrell, planning board chairman for district. Tony Chaffey, resident at large.

[1:19] Andrea Novotny, planning office.

[1:21] Randy John Seabrook, Hamptons estuary Alliance.

[1:24] Molly McCoy, Saint Jean Sau 90 school board rep.

[1:27] Alyssa Hampton, Beach Area Commission.

[1:30] Don Bliss Select board.

[1:31] Sean Clancy, resident at large.

[1:33] Patrick Sheridan Budget Committee.

[1:35] Jason Vachon, Town planner.

[1:37] And Ryan Pope, Planning board and chair. Um, seeing no. Uh, well, we can open for public comment, but seeing none, we will close public comment. Um, no appointments to be heard. Uh, which leads us into item four. Old business implementation priorities for 2026. Uh, Don and Jason, I understand you have some updates for us regarding how what we've presented to the select board is, is going so far.

[2:04] Sure. Go ahead.

[4:38] Okay.

[4:39] Great.

[4:40] Terrific. Um, what I wanted to know kind of all in regard to this too was about the CIP. Um, so the Planning Board adopted the 2027 to 2032 CIP on September 16th. So that's now in the hands of the Select board in the Budget Committee. But the reason I bring that up is because the high street parking lot, which is one of those items that was before the select board, um, is in the CIP for 2027 and 28. And I gave you the request form. You all have that in your materials. That was from the CIP. Um, so you can see where that stands in this process. Um, so $50,000 requested for 2027 and that is for, um, some of the fund, the planning and up to 30% of the design of the improvements. And then the other 2000 200,000, I should say in 2028 is to support the final design bid, construction and construction management for the project. Um, this project is really structured around stormwater improvements because that's something that needed to be done. Uh, as far as from DPW perspective, certainly to meet the Ms4 stormwater permit requirements. Um, so, but but they're looking beyond that in terms of things like landscaping, signage, lighting, other streetscape improvements that align with what came out of the charrette. Um, I know that there was some conversation at the planning board making sure that, um, any work that is proposed in these two years and gets constructed doesn't conflict with potential future plans for that property. And I understand that Selectman Gripp will talk with the select board about, about that. Um, but I just wanted to fill you in on that item actually being in the CIP in the short term. So that is good news. Um, I don't know if you wanted to jump in on that. The chairman of the committee here.

[6:30] It's.

[6:30] A yeah.

[6:31] It's a good example of, uh, you know, how we're going to need to work together with the select board with the DPW because, um, you know, this is needed much needed what they submitted from DPW perspective, but it doesn't really talk about some of the ideas that were tossed around in the charrette about putting in a green space down the middle, perhaps, or different concepts to improve the visibility of the municipal parking lot.

[7:05] And the thing, too, is that we talked about, too, is these things could come out in the design. I mean, once, once they start work, you know, doing the design for this, I mean, they do talk about certain things that, you know, create that, that environment there. So, you know, the specifics probably would come out in the design, hopefully, but we do need to keep tabs on that, I would say.

[7:22] Would there be like a public informational meeting if there was like a preliminary design for people to comment on it?

[7:29] I think there could be. I mean.

[7:31] There would.

[7:31] Be.

[7:32] Quite a process of getting public input, certainly budget review, project designs, all those things. And I think the nice thing for this is even though it pushes it out a year, gives the the engineers time to design the stormwater improvements. We always have to make sure we take care of the unseen infrastructure before we start making things look nice on the top side. So they are going in the right order on this. And I do like the fact that it does say the intent to include landscaping, signage, lighting and other street streetscape improvements to support thriving downtown environment, which I take it to mean a focus on the things that we've been talking about. So that would be the second year of this.

[8:17] That gives us a year to do the things that we talked about earlier about.

[8:21] They could combine stormwater and landscaping.

[8:24] That's the.

[8:24] Idea. Yeah. The low impact design. So you use the landscaping to treat the water? Yeah. All that type of stuff.

[8:44] Yeah, I think that could be arranged once we get further down the line and see where things are going to have this group chime in. Certainly when we get there, I could talk with the town manager about it and others and see what the availability is to do that.

[8:57] Okay.

[8:58] Yeah, that would be great. And just to be clear, and this will probably come up in the follow up select board conversation. Now the capital improvement plan has been endorsed by Planning Board. Correct. Um, but that really just want to drive home the point that whatever work we're doing now doesn't preclude, um, future work on this site as well. And I'm thinking specifically of the ethereal dream of a downtown parking garage at some point. Um, I would just hate for work that we're doing now to prevent us logistically from being able to even explore that ten years down the road.

[9:30] Right. Understood. And I think that was one of the things that Selectman Grip will be really.

[9:40] Thanks for doing this. It's great.

[9:55] Um, I do want to talk about hop unless you're still.

[9:57] Yeah, no, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't, I wasn't skipping too far ahead before we get down to hop.

[10:02] Yeah.

[10:03] Um, so the other thing discussed at planning board recently, um, well, last week, uh, was the, uh, housing opportunity planning grant that we currently have running with Rockingham Planning Commission. Um, they've been great to work with. They're coming up with a bunch of ideas, again, in alignment with the master plan, specifically around housing. Um, and some recommendations, uh, that we intend to bring forward for, um, warrant article and then some changes that we are considering for, uh, site plan subdivision regulations as well. Um, so on site plan subdivision piece, I just wanted to call out and this is in your book as well.

[10:47] Um, yeah, I have it up on the screen too. Oh, perfect.

[10:50] Thank you. Uh, so one of the big pieces we wanted to tackle, uh, and this is kind of the first kind of a dip the toe kind of scenario. Uh, but the state of New Hampshire has a workforce housing statute that very clearly defines workforce housing as affordable to households of a certain size, um, at a certain income level. And there's a table included in here that really gets into the weeds of what that means in practice, um, for all communities have to, um, have to comply with the workforce housing statute and where communities have gotten in trouble is if a developer comes forward and says, I would like to do workforce housing, um, they kind of get to drive the conversation if a community hasn't adopted definitions of its own. Uh, so part of this process that we have undertaken with Rockingham Planning Commission is really leveraging that table that's published by New Hampshire Housing every year, identifying what those workforce purchase and rent limits are and just saying, if you're going to say you're going to do workforce housing. The rent has to be X, um, in the Portsmouth, Rochester, um, Metro Metropolitan fair market statistical area, uh, in which we fall, uh, which is $1,900 per month, regardless of unit size. It's just how the statute is written. Um, so if someone says they want to do workforce rent, they're going to be capped at $1,900, um, for the unit. Uh, and if they're going to say that they're going to do for purchase, um, then it will be, did we say, did we settle on 80?

[12:26] I thought it was, yeah. Was it the.

[12:28] 80 or.

[12:29] 188.

[12:30] 80. It was perfect. I have it here. Yeah. 8367 I think.

[14:04] I guess the best way to describe it is a stepping stone. So basically, we've been building over the years and through the Hop grant, our ordinances to include workforce and affordable housing to get closer and closer to the state requirements, to be consistent with that. It's not an easy task. There's a lot involved.

[14:21] With.

[14:21] It. So it's not something you do in just 1 or 2 shots. You just it takes some time. So getting that into the ordinance and having it be there to exist, there is, is a major step. So as we see how that works and how it works in real life, people use it or not, we can determine how we want to go forward. Do we include density bonuses, things like that. In the future? We can explore that, but at least it'll be there putting us that much closer to to what the state is looking for.

[14:57] It might be worth mentioning that in Monday's select board meeting, there will be discussion around the 79 e RSA 79 E Community Revitalization Incentive Program, which is a tax abatement program which can include affordable housing as part of that, for a limited tax abatement purposes. So that's that's also connected to this. So there's really several prongs to this approach the town is taking.

[15:22] Yeah, absolutely. So while this definition doesn't isn't specifically associated with any density or height or setback or other site plan, um, kind of considerations within the ordinance or other incentive. Um, what it can be tied to is 79 E and that is a tax abatement program. It's the name of the RSA 79 E. Um, and basically it allows a municipality to um kind of lock in the tax assessed value prior to, um, work being completed, uh, on the project. So obviously if you have a dilapidated place that goes from one sad unit into 30 really nice units, uh, the tax assessment would be based on the, the initial sad unit. Um, and then for a period of time, um, they would pay based on that assessed value. Um, and it gives them time to kind of ramp up, lease up, um, and makes it a little more financially feasible to kind of get up and over the hump. Uh, there are provisions within the 79 e statute that allow for the relief period, the tax relief period to be extended, um, in certain circumstances, one of which is if they produce affordable housing. Um, so the there we have 79 E it exists on the books in Hampton, um in its traditional form in a coastal resilience, um incentive form, uh, and in a residential commercial zone form that we had adopted over the past several years. Um, we had adopted it based on kind of the language of the base statute and a group of us from planning and select board have been working together to really dig into that and figure out are the benefits that we are asking of developers sufficient for, um, the benefit that would be provided to those projects. Uh, so the committee will be presenting at select board this coming Monday with the findings of that group. And Don, I know you're the chair of that group if you have anything to add to that.

[17:26] I'd rather not, since that's going to be reporting to the board.

[17:29] Exactly.

[17:32] Thanks.

[17:34] But it was an article in the newspaper, the Union, about Portsmouth, and they had some challenges with some of their advantage attacks or workforce housing, you know, you know, publications or, you know, publicizing and contractor incentives.

[18:32] Um, Jason, did you want to take the other items out of.

[18:35] I will, I'll take those. Um, so let me scroll to the next one here. Although you have this in front of you, my screen is not working for me today.

[18:45] I think I ran into this last time too, where I'm scrolling through and it's not pulling up, but you have it in front of you.

[18:50] Do you want to pull the link up on the website?

[18:53] Oh yeah. We have the grant document up there too. You're right Andrea. Um, let me let me do that.

[19:12] It's all the way down at the bottom.

[19:13] All right. Oh, yeah. With the way bottom. All right.

[19:25] I'm going to scroll ahead to the actual language. Um, I said although you have it in front of you.

[24:53] And High Street is going to be added to that.

[24:55] High street, it's going to be added to that. That's right. That was mentioned at the Planning Board meeting.

[24:58] So what's what's the five by eight area?

[25:03] Yeah.

[25:03] So that's intended for or.

[25:05] It's a reserved area. So if you're looking at a site plan, for example, the site plan will just show this area five by eight area. I'll say reserve for potential a public transit stop or something like that. It would just show it there on the plan. So there's opportunity. It's in an area that it's not used for any real.

[25:24] Okay. I'm just wondering if it's public transit. Would it need to be bigger or it's not really.

[25:30] Well.

[25:30] I was going to come, but you need.

[25:34] This would be more for like a bus shelter or a bench or something along those lines.

[25:37] That's what we mean. Public.

[25:41] Or bike racks or or something. Or more.

[25:43] No, it's more.

[25:44] Just a shelter.

[25:50] So but this was. I'm sorry.

[25:54] Well you go. I have two questions, but you can finish up or. So my first question was, um, are you envisioning maybe including a map for that half mile distance from the rail trail? Like, how are you?

[26:07] We could. I mean, to show what that area is. That's potentially something we.

[26:11] I'm just wondering, like if it just barely nicks a lot, like, do they fall in or like you'll deal with that on a case by case basis. But yes, a map might help you at least foresee if that might be the. Might come up as an issue. Right. Um, and then the other thought that I had with regards to section ten. And this could maybe be like a future iteration of it is to take a look at the RPC, the planning commission's, uh, vulnerability transportation. There's a longer title, but the transportation corridor vulnerability assessment, um, because that may be a situation where some of the kind of secondary roads might become more primary roads. And you might want to allow, give yourself that flexibility to maybe have some of these, um, sites for public transportation on those roads as well.

[27:02] Right. That makes a lot of sense. Um, what I was going to say too about this one of the three, I'd say this one is the least refined as of right now because Jen Hale did have some comments here. She has some concerns about like, if it's in the right of way, who's going to maintain it? Is it the town? The town doesn't want to maintain this. You know, things like that. So we have to work out some things with DPW. Um, and perhaps even the select board before, you know anything really were to move forward. So. Okay. Um that's those conversations still need to happen. So there's a lot of refining to do there. But this, by putting this in place, this gives us the framework to work with to bring something forward and meets our hop grant requirements. Um, so yeah. Anybody else have any comments on this one?

[27:55] Okay. Now the one that's a little more timely right now for us to be. I just passed the, the new language is the, uh, flexible sized dwelling units. Um, so this, um, we talked about this a little bit under different names that this was in the works under the hot grant. Um, but this is something that's viewed as a potential opportunity for this group to maybe do some outreach and education on ahead of zoning, uh, going forward to ballot in March. Um, so basically what this is intended to do is encourage diversity in housing types and sizes as identified in the community as a community goal within the master plan. And it allows flexibility in residential development design that encourages smaller, more compact units without increasing the size of developments. That's the important thing to remember here. You get smaller units, you get more units, but you're not increasing the size of the development. And that also is something that increases, you know, obviously increases housing overall, but limits the the demand on municipal services and costs associated with that. Um, this is something that would be permitted in all zones where housing is allowed except for the R a and RAA zones. Those are your single family zoning districts. So other zones where housing is allowed would be allowed to utilize this section. Um, but in a nutshell, how this works and I have this on the screen, this part of the screen here. So if you have a dwelling unit with not more than one bedroom, uh, and it's not more than 750ft² in size, it counts as half a dwelling unit for the purpose of the calculation. Um, you have a dwelling unit with not more than two bedrooms and not more than 1250ft². It counts as three quarters of a dwelling unit, uh, for purpose of the calculation. Or if it's a dwelling unit with three or more bedrooms and more than 1250ft², it's one dwelling unit as it would be counted today. Um, so you see, what that does is if, say you had the density limited to a maximum of eight units, and you were incorporating some one bedroom and two bedroom units. Maybe you'd get 12 units, for example. I'm just throwing a number out there rather than the eight. Yet the impact is the same, but you're providing more housing too, so it has an advantage there. A great advantage actually to provide more dwelling units, but provides less impact than, you know, without providing without additional impact, I should say. So that is the premise behind this. I think it's it's something that it's easy to follow once you, you know, get used to it. It was at first it was kind of confusing, but it's, but it's something that once you adapt to it and realize what it does. And we tried to structure it using the main example, I had like 0.66 and some other things like that. So we just use either half, three quarters or one. It just makes it easier for everybody to interpret. And you know, I think, I think it's, it's a great thing. And something the Planning Board I know is very interested in putting forward for the ballot in March. But, you know, we see an opportunity here for this group to help with with some of that public outreach and education, because for the voter or resident first looking at it for the first time, it's going to seem very confusing. But I think that, you know, once they read into it, it's, oh, yeah, I think it really starts to click. And I think that here's a actual a sheet, an information sheet to that was part of this that really shows that. So Jen from the RPC had included this. It shows how a traditional scenario works. And then if you do the flexible scenario, like I said, in this, in this calculation, you get 11 homes instead of the eight that you would under the traditional zoning. Um, and you see how they can look different, they can make the development look more interesting to actually that, that is an advantage as well. Um, so I'd say this is a sheet that we would want to use going forward the next few months to hand out to people have available for their information to look at and have them reach out to the planning office to with any questions they have. But in the meantime, we think that maybe there is an outreach opportunity here. Um, any questions on this one?

[32:28] I like the fact sheet.

[32:29] Yeah. It's it's very, it helps make it very simple.

[32:34] I did that.

[32:35] With the outreach opportunity. Obviously developers would. I mean, they're probably stuck in their traditional ways. And you know, we'd want to or the town want to would want to try to promote this new scenario. Is that what.

[32:50] Well, it's optional. They don't they don't have they could build the traditional way. But but the way density is is counted. If they're doing single dwelling single bedrooms, they can go ahead.

[33:02] I think it's very important that we get this across to the voters, but also to be reaching out to the developers so that they know this is here. And also, it might be a good time to, if they're not aware of last year's Cottage Court ordinance, to be reaching out to them to make sure they're aware that that's an ordinance and a new project option available to them as well.

[33:30] Yep.

[33:33] Yeah. I think from honestly, from a supply side angle and just a general acknowledgment that a one bedroom unit does not contribute or demand the same public service as a three bedroom unit. Um, it's a great step for us to be taking. It's also really creative. I'm not aware of any communities in New Hampshire that are taking this route, and I am aware of folks watching us to see how this goes in a good way.

[34:02] We're talking about, Jason.

[34:03] Is outreach.

[34:04] To the.

[34:04] Voters so we can get it passed.

[34:06] Yes, absolutely. We want the voters to understand what this means.

[34:10] So they have to pass the zoning ordinance in March before it's.

[34:13] Yeah. This one. Yeah. This one does require a warrant article and some explanation to kind of get out there. Yeah. Um, which I think does that segue nicely into the, um, do we want to bring this up yet?

[34:27] Public engagement. We could, we could jump to that.

[34:29] All right.

[34:30] So before we'll go ahead if you want to jump to that. Yeah, we can do that.

[34:34] Um, so as part of your handouts, um it was just after the c I, the CIP page about the parking lot, you'll see kind of a blue sheet with some red wording on it. Uh, so this was another point of conversation at the planning board last week that would also require, uh, voter action and really the intent of this document. And I'll just explain it really quick. Just look at the things that are in red. Everything else kind of struck out is, um, from an earlier conversation. But the thought process here was considering the town center districts, the historic, the North and the South, and looking at the uses that are currently permitted there. Um, we envision at some point there being a much more robust overhaul of that district in particular. Um, there's some expense associated with that. And we want to make sure that we do that right with the right amount of kind of public engagement behind it. In the meantime, um, as we were reviewing those districts, we found some uses and wanted to highlight them that, um, are either incongruous with the vision of the master plan. Um, that we feel is incongruous with the vision of the master plan. Uh, or um, are permitted in kind of part of the town center, but not other parts of the town center. Uh, so this sheet kind of goes through what some recommended changes, um, to those districts that we could bring forward to voters. This, um, well, next year, this season, um, and this and the flexible unit, um, conversation, um, we were really hoping to kind of form the basis of our initial public outreach process and the vision for that. And I'm open to other ideas as well. Uh, is trying to get in front of people where they generally congregate. Um, soon, ideally before, uh, mid-October when we really have to know, like what is moving ahead to the warrant article process to get feedback on these items and just some general feedback on the flexible unit sizing unit calculation piece. Um, there's a bunch of ways to do that. I personally, I like like dot board voting where you have a big poster board and with these things, you could say, do you want more of auto dealers in the town center or not more of and let people put a sticker in any of those columns. Take that feedback back to Planning Board and select board prior to that process. But it also opens up an opportunity to talk about the work of this group and the master plan in general, and the eye that this group, the Planning Board and the select Board have for kind of the future and the vibrancy of our community. Um, so to do this effectively, we have to, I can't do it by myself, so I will do it. But, um, I just want to gauge this room for folks who might be interested in joining me in that effort and maybe spend a few minutes talking through what groups we think we can get in front of in that relatively short time frame. Um, and what locations would be important to kind of capture any questions on that or Jason, anything to kind of jump in from your perspective?

[37:53] Yeah, I think, I think it's an important exercise to do to get that feedback. Initially, I think because I think there's even when we talk about a planning board, there's some questions on whether or not this is the time, but I think that hearing from the public might answer that question for us. And I think that, um, you know, it makes a lot of sense to do that. I like your idea of the dot exercises where it's, you know, yes or no. Make it pretty simple.

[38:17] Exactly.

[38:17] And it's yes, yes or no. Don't have to give them all this detail. Yeah. Just yeah.

[38:38] Yeah, I think that has to be very clear. If it exists today and it continues existing. So that's that's been made crystal clear, I think, in this process. So yeah, I think we.

[38:48] Want to do this. The sooner the better. Yes. Preferably in October.

[38:52] Yep. Like early October. Um, and I will say like, I go to Blue Harbor all the time. I've already talked to the owner about the availability of me to set up a poster board and do something like this, or us to do something like that. So I have one location locked down. Um, but if folks have other connections to other places, if there are other rooms that we need to be in, if we have connections to rotary or chamber or things like that, again, in a relatively tight timeline, just to kind of preface this flex sizing and the potential uses in the town center.

[39:27] Library might be a good spot, especially if they have an event or some kind of thing going on. So you plop yourself in a library in the lobby and just query people as they go in and out.

[39:37] Can I post up in the well? Can we can we post up upstairs in the middle of the day at some point?

[39:44] Yeah, I could ask the town manager, but I don't think that would be a problem.

[39:48] I was having a similar thought. If you could do it kind of as a somewhat of a passive exercise, like have those poster boards set up and then as people are coming through town hall, Maybe they could. If they had time, they could stop.

[39:59] And if you aim towards the end of the month, that is when it's the busiest in the town hall.

[40:05] Yep.

[40:07] It's coming right up. That's next week.

[40:10] Recreation center to.

[40:12] Register their car.

[40:13] Extremely last minute. But a Hampton Academy is having an open house tomorrow. So I know a lot of parents and families could be there if we can pull it together with the poster board. Um, I can talk to Lois, the school and see if it's possible.

[40:28] Yeah, that would that would be great. What time is that?

[40:30] Um, I was just pulling it up. It's at 5 p.m.

[40:44] Um, as far as the poster board. Yeah. Um, I'm just envisioning something pretty simple. Um, like just a header. What? We can, we can use the new logo.

[40:57] Auto dealers. Yes or no? Exactly. Yes or no? Art galleries. Yes. Exactly.

[41:15] Context as to why.

[41:16] Exactly.

[41:17] That's just, you know, yeah, not to get rid of what's there.

[41:31] So you said it would be the ones in red I guess.

[41:34] Yeah. So the ones in red are the ones that have at least been broached at the Planning board as options to consider. And as this group, we can talk through this document right now to see like how people feel here about the proposals that are coming forward.

[41:54] I'm sorry if I missed this, but what does n slash s mean?

[41:58] North and south.

[41:59] North and south.

[41:59] Yeah. H historic.

[42:03] Thank you. Yeah. I didn't know what North south meant.

[42:07] That'd be pretty simple.

[42:10] Yeah.

[42:11] I mean exactly. Yeah. The intention is to make it as easy as possible and make sure that we're on the right track.

[42:16] Like quasi generic. Right? Yeah. It's got to be like, you know, um, like just these title, like, you know, retail or hospitality.

[42:29] Yeah. Like I see cultural. It just says art galleries. But the one below that said theaters performance space.

[42:36] Yeah. So art galleries are currently permitted in the town center historic district. They are not currently permitted in the north and south. The recommendation here would be, would we like to also allow art galleries in the North and south Districts of the town center.

[42:53] What about the performance space or cinema? Is that decided that it's.

[43:00] No. So anything that's not in red. Um, is kind of off the table right now. That'll that's that's tomorrow's that's tomorrow's work.

[43:07] You're just going to focus on.

[43:09] Yeah, yeah. Just the items kind of highlighted in red.

[43:11] Yeah. I think you can only grab the core ones right now or else it's going to get way overwhelming.

[43:15] Exactly.

[43:16] Yeah.

[43:16] Again you can't make a very complex.

[43:17] Yes.

[43:23] Although art gallery seems really specific.

[43:28] Like the kind of Tony's point, like it feels like it could be a little broader and like.

[43:34] It's almost a good idea to bring back a little performance space in Hampton. It used to have, you know, the playhouse and the movie theater. Now there's nothing.

[43:42] I mean, stuff like art galleries. It's almost like housekeeping. It's like, why would why would it not be allowed? Yeah, elsewhere. But if it's not enumerated, it's prohibited.

[43:50] Someone wrote the ordinance that way.

[43:51] It wasn't.

[43:52] Exactly.

[43:54] Yeah.

[43:54] And that's but but that's that would be hard to put on your board. I mean, it's like no one knows. Those are levels of detail.

[44:02] Exactly.

[44:02] Those are like.

[44:03] Yeah. And really like this was born mostly out of the auto related components of things. So, um, do we want new gas stations in the north, south or town center districts? Uh, do we want restaurant drive more restaurant drive thrus in that area? Do we want an auto dealer to pop up in one of these places as well? Like currently those are permitted in some way, shape or form in, in these places. Um, and we just want to see if that should continue to be the case and pull the residents. Um, yeah, to get to get their feel.

[44:40] If someone wanted to open an art gallery somewhere other than the historic district.

[44:45] It would require a variance.

[44:47] It would require a variance.

[44:48] Which is silly actually. I'll be honest.

[44:54] Those are commonly downtown in a lot of towns.

[44:57] Yeah.

[44:57] I feel like that is something very revitalization of our downtown. You might want to encourage the arts.

[45:05] Yeah. So like, some of these things may not even warrant being on the on a dart board, like the art gallery conversation. Like, is that, can that be a housekeeping item? Is that worth making people vote on? Probably not.

[45:17] Um, it's not controversial.

[45:19] It's not it's not controversial, but it exists in some way, shape or form in the ordinance right now, likely for some reason. And we just.

[45:26] Want to change. It does have to go to ballot.

[45:28] Exactly.

[45:29] So we might still want to ask that.

[45:30] Yeah.

[45:30] Yeah. Anything in red you should probably put on your board. Yep.

[45:40] Well can you I mean can you merge some of these into one for the purpose. I think yeah.

[45:44] I would just.

[45:44] I would.

[45:44] Encourage.

[45:45] Auto uses.

[45:52] It's probably a good idea.

[45:54] I mean, most people aren't in the weeds of zoning things and zoning board things and stuff.

[46:00] Right, right.

[46:01] And while you may know that an art gallery is not allowed. No one probably knows that, right? That's true. So I think sometimes people get lost in details versus the ten zero zero zero foot view. Right. So it's just like if someone's going to do something because I hate doing these things.

[46:17] Dot voting.

[46:19] I hate doing anything anyone's asking me.

[46:21] Right.

[46:22] Like, even if it's just to pick one star or five stars, right? I hate doing it right.

[46:27] That's fair, that's fair.

[46:28] Um, and I think I'm probably more 80% than 20% on that. So, um, I think you have to make it simple, right? Really like, and with no level of detail, there can't be lots of detail. Right? Right. So it'd be like cultural, auto, hospitality, housing, farm animals, retail.

[46:54] You're going to find out how many people don't realize there are three zones.

[46:59] Yeah, I think that's another. That'll be another interesting point of feedback.

[47:04] That is.

[47:04] Interesting.

[47:06] So when do you know there are three zones.

[47:08] With the questions? Are we trying to get into that detail of historic and north and south for feedback?

[47:14] Um.

[47:16] We're just like.

[47:17] Mostly it's mostly a consideration of the downtown holistically because I know well.

[47:23] Which is the historic part and which is.

[47:25] Not, which is the historic, but it also encompasses.

[47:28] Which.

[47:28] Part is the, oh, it's from, um, it's from that intersection to that intersection. Yeah. Um, sorry.

[47:36] South is where.

[47:37] Yeah.

[47:38] Uh, South is from, um, the intersection down to kind of the overpass there. And then north is from the route 27 intersection up to the border.

[47:51] Although Dana's is in the south, it's actually not right at Winnacunnet. The oh is just above.

[47:55] Just above Dana's.

[47:57] So that's it's not right with the street.

[48:00] From right at the right, the old Rite Aid entrance.

[48:02] Yes, north from that point. South. Yes. Um, but I know when we were talking at the Planning board, I mean the auto oriented uses that you could kind of maybe dissect those a little bit because the drive through question came up and I'll mention that that, you know, I got locked out on it, but I'm, I have reservations about, you know, the north and the South changing right now from that perspective, because you do have a lot of drive thrus there that function internally. They don't really block the roadway. They don't block the sidewalk. You're we're talking about pedestrian issues here, and they don't really conflict with those. The way that the queuing and the site goes through McDonald's or the Walgreens, which is a pharmacy that has a drive thru, banks have farmers have drive thrus for their pharmacies. I mean, there might be pharmacies do, I should say like CVS. Um, so I just think that's one to be careful about. I think it's important to get the public's feedback on it, but I would hate to make a mistake there and find out later that maybe it shouldn't have happened yet. And that being the key word that, you know, I know that there's a look maybe toward form based zoning after that. And this is kind of help set the table for that. But I would just be careful on that one. Yeah. But I think we should get feedback for sure. Absolutely shouldn't write it off yet. Yeah. Just something I wanted to note from the conversation with the Planning Board.

[49:21] So in very short order, Andrea, um, might you have any availability tomorrow to help me think through what a board could look like? Um, and then Molly, if you could, you said it's at five.

[49:39] Yeah. And it looks like it's pretty organized, like they're gonna have like intros. So if we had something in the front office where most people enter for them to look at on their way in by like, and I can confirm this with Lois, but I'm thinking like. 43445 that would make sense. Or we could even put it in the auditorium because it looks like that's where they might be meeting.

[49:59] All right. Yeah, maybe. Andrea, if you and I can kind of touch base on whether or not that's even a possibility.

[50:10] I, I could last I checked, I'll check it again. Yeah. We should be able to make that work.

[50:15] Now, I'll keep this in mind for any other gatherings happening at the schools because there should be more coming up.

[50:22] Yeah, that would be, that would be great. Um, and then as far as other thoughts around the room, where else we think we can get to before the middle of October, um.

[50:33] Maybe a business after hours with the chamber.

[50:35] Okay.

[50:39] When is the next one of those? Do you know.

[50:42] Before the middle of October? For sure. It's usually the second week of the month on a Wednesday, so I'll double check that.

[50:48] Okay.

[50:49] Um.

[50:55] Do you think the rotary would be.

[50:56] If you want a board, I will just exit. She is extremely good at drawing these things up, and it would be like on a cardboard type board as opposed to print out. And she can, like, artsy it up for you. All right.

[51:30] Tomorrow to get one.

[51:32] Yeah.

[51:32] Rapidly. Um, and then we do have the stands, we have tons of stands.

[51:47] That would be great. I am artistically challenged.

[51:51] Me too. She is not.

[51:54] That's good. Um, any other thoughts? Like places of business that we might be able to kind of ping as well, or groups that you think we can get in front of or locations that like again, I only talked to Blue Harbor, which I think is a good spot, but there are other places that people go as well.

[52:15] Um, I mean, is Hannaford an option? Does everyone go to.

[52:20] Everyone goes to Hannaford.

[52:22] Yeah. Yeah. You got wide eyes. You got people that set up tables all the time for different different nonprofit events or.

[52:29] For the board. You know, maybe a map of the zoning. Um, downtown zoning where north south is.

[52:38] Yeah, I think we have.

[52:39] Right above the table or something.

[52:41] Yeah.

[52:42] Um, just a point that sometimes confuses people because we call it the town center historic district. Uh, people have lived other places. We don't really have a historic district. And some places have a historic district commission. And you legitimately have a historic district, which is set up by an RSA and such that throws people off.

[53:03] We just have a historic zone.

[53:05] So you don't have.

[53:06] It's just the town center. Town center.

[53:09] Center board. They're not interested in all it is is in in in the town center. Poor choice of.

[53:15] Words when that was.

[53:17] Yeah. I can't tell you how many times people have asked me. So where's your historic district commission? I have to go to do something here. No, no.

[53:24] You don't have to go through a historic district because they're changing the siding on their house. Right? Just the way it is called.

[53:30] Yeah. Awesome. All right, well, I'll follow up with Blue Harbor and Hannaford in the short term. Molly. If you can follow up with the chamber and the school.

[53:40] Yeah, I found the date. Um, October 21st is the next business after hours at the old salt. So a little bit late.

[53:47] Is that too late?

[53:49] No.

[53:49] We can get feedback. We'll have some feedback.

[53:51] That's like that's like toward the end. Yeah. That's actually a planning board meeting.

[53:55] It's usually a big turnout for business after hours.

[53:58] So our because I'll be at planning board that night, will someone else from this room be able to attend?

[54:05] Probably make it work as long as I'm.

[54:07] Okay.

[54:09] Because Tiffany's on the chamber.

[54:11] I mean, we could still. Certain amendments so we could start bringing forward late November, December. But, you know, we'll have to bring them all for the first meeting.

[54:19] Yeah.

[54:20] I think I can.

[54:20] Bring it forward. All right.

[54:23] Thanks.

[54:24] Does the, uh, does Parks and Rec have anything going on in their auxiliary building? I think that could be a good one.

[54:31] Yeah.

[54:36] Is there a process for setting up shop in any of those places? Jason.

[54:40] We would have to check with the rec department about the use of their room.

[54:44] Okay. Um, is that something that you might be able to follow up on for rec library and town hall?

[54:58] And I can follow up with Blue Harbor and Hannaford to figure out if we can get some dates on the calendar, and then I can share those back out with this group clandestinely outside of a meeting, and see if anyone would like to join me.

[55:11] Thanks. Go to the registry. So just let me know when you're coming tomorrow and I will.

[55:16] Yeah. Do you want to? I can come after noon. If that works better, then you can do that in the morning. All right.

[55:42] So this is going to be focused on this this.

[55:47] And the flex units.

[55:48] And the flex units. Okay. That was my.

[55:50] Question and also is a nice opportunity to talk about the like that this group exists. What we do, we have the other poster boards that we've kind of showcased at the farmers markets and things like that, that we can kind of bring in tow and talk more generally about things. But really the, the urgency is for warrant article season. Um, and I'm thinking it'll probably set up a nice cadence for us. We can kind of feel out how that process works. Um, and then segue that into, um, kind of more generalized outreach for next year as we start considering 2027 priorities to explore.

[56:28] So if we have an easel board at school, or would it make sense to have someone, someone on this group stand on the board and explain it and try to get people, hey. Come here.

[56:40] Yeah, definitely. Like if there's going to be one tomorrow, I don't think we'll have language prepared to like guide someone through that process. So we would need someone kind of there explaining what it is, what feedback we're looking for. Um, and.

[56:53] I'll put a sticker here or there.

[56:54] Exactly. Yeah. But if they have questions about context or anything, or if they really want to know if we have a historic district or commission, we can answer those questions as well.

[57:04] What the flex units we have that cut sheet.

[57:07] Exactly.

[57:07] I was going to say.

[57:08] Yeah, that's ready.

[57:08] To go. I wrote that down. We're going to have copies of that for you.

[57:18] Yeah. I guess I was just going to say too, if you're all set with yeah, for now, I did give you a list, a list of the zoning amendments that we're talking about bringing forward this year just so that you're all in the know about what we're talking about. Um, so we have, um, as a, our audit, you know, was adopted in March and we've been starting to talk about implementing recommendations from that. And one of the early things that we have to do is kind of almost like an extension of the reorganization that happened in the first phase, where those were non-substantive issues, some of the moving standards out of definitions and harmonizing the list of uses and restructuring by topic. Some of those involve some text changes that are not. They're more substantive. So that's why that's listed there, um, for the ballot. So basically that will finish off the total reorganization that we talked about from the beginning. That'll be one amendment. Um, the flexible size dwelling units we talked about compensatory flood storage is still on the list. Uh, Ben Read, our coastal resilience coordinator went to the planning board back on September 2nd. And there were some comments that came out of that. I've been meeting with him about that. I believe he's coming to the Planning Board meeting October 7th to talk again with about a revised version of that amendment. So that is making some traction and hopefully making it a little clearer, because that is pretty complex too. Um, but, but working with Ben and that's been helpful, um, tiny homes and tiny homes on wheels. So that's something that is in the scissors now in the rsas as a may not a shell, but we found out that it was this close to being a shell. And my assumption will be next year it probably will be a shell. Um, I know the planning board had a conversation about this one, maybe a month and a half, two months ago. I want to play with it a little bit and take what I heard and maybe come back with some sort of a revised version. I think we should do something here on this. Um, but we'll see. We'll gauge the board's feedback on that and see what they're comfortable with. Uh, Brianna Hagan, our conservation coordinator, has been working on amendments related to impervious surface, and a clarification about the replacement and repair of existing structures. Um, and the Planning Board added to that latter one, wanting to change the wetland permit time frame from two years to five years. Um, so those are two conservation commission oriented amendments that are likely to move forward with that. We're still tightening some things up on, uh, we talked about the youth center items that you're going to all be doing the exercise on. There is a clarification amendment from the building inspector, probably long overdue one, I think, on how to measure frontage at corner lots. So the ordinance never says, oh boy, you know, is it both sides? Is it one side? You know, so, so clarifying that interpretation, the ordinance it's one side. It's the address of the house on one side. So we want to put that in the ordinance to be very clear about how that is supposed to be. Um and then the rest of them and there are several Here are changes required to align with the new state laws. New RSA that are in place. There are a couple of them related to multi-family dwellings and commercial districts, which I need to start getting into. Wrapping my head around a little more and getting an amendment for the board to take a look at in draft form. But essentially, a lot of our multifamily requirements are going to go away because you can't require anything different than you would require for the commercial use in a nutshell. So it's going to change several sections of our ordinance on that. Commercial childcare is another one that I believe that if it's 30 or less children in the commercial childcare, that you can't require site plan approval, I think it has to be just by right. Um, charter schools are now considered to have the same rights as public schools, and they're considered a governmental land use. So we just have to add charter schools in the section of our use table regarding the pertains to public schools. That's again, that was passed and signed by the governor. So we don't have an option there. Um, some updates to the definitions and some of the standards regarding ADUs. I think that's pretty minor in general, but we have to make some changes to, to what we adopted last year to be consistent with that. And then I have to talk to the building inspector about um, some things about um, maybe reference changes in the own or in the zoning ordinance related to building and fire codes, um, where there might be cross-references with the building code that are referenced in the zoning ordinance to make sure everything is consistent. But we have to talk about where exactly those are. Um, with the planning Board brought up at the last meeting, it was kind of interesting. And usually when we have these, they're their own warrant article. We've always done it that way. They wondered if they can be wrapped in one because we don't have a choice, basically because by the, you know, it's hard to explain to the voters sometimes that whether or not you vote for it, we have to do it because the state says you do. But if it's wrapped into one article that says this is to address changes at the state level, that might make it doesn't make our job in preparing it in the draft. It. But it makes it easier for the voters to understand why it's on the ballot, much like you have. I think it's different. But the warrant articles about like the the charity stuff, I think that the different, um, businesses and so forth, the nonprofits, um, those, you know, maybe that sort of structure is how we do this. Um, but I need to talk with our town attorney about that still. I told the planning board that I would do that. So I'll check with her on that. But we're seeing how that's going to look on the ballot. I think that might it makes the distinction between what we're required to do and what we're. The Planning Board is interested in bringing forward.

[1:03:31] So yeah, I think it was also the residential child care for a couple years ago that brought a lot of attention. There was a lot of attention that people were like, well, this is going to be in a residential zone. No. Well, yeah, we don't have a choice whether you vote for it or not. It is.

[1:03:44] So I like that approach. I hope that we can that you're able to change the way we do that. Because I feel like at Town at Deliberative every year, it just becomes I feel like people who aren't super involved, who just happen to be at deliberative or don't really totally understand what's going on with these zoning changes at the state level feel a little bit like disempowered. So I think.

[1:04:05] Oh, and.

[1:04:05] I get it.

[1:04:06] If we can knock it all out at once and just be clear of like, this is seen changes.

[1:04:10] Yeah.

[1:04:11] I love that.

[1:04:12] Yeah. Well, we'll see if that's a possibility. I think, I think it's a great idea actually. The more I thought about it. And I will take a look at it. Um, so that's what we're working on there.

[1:04:42] For the next couple of weeks.

[1:04:43] See how that pans out and some of this other stuff that we're thinking of may fall into place based on how those go, is what I'm thinking. Yeah. Um what else?

[1:04:56] Yeah. Plan Hampton branding is being finalized. I think we decided on the one, the logo, but it's, it's the one with the zoning map and a couple of arrows. But the reason being is it's going to be the easiest to reproduce. If you did, you know, not only on banners, but if you did like t shirts or anything like that, the photos are not going to reproduce. We don't have rights to the photos because there's a lot and there's a lot of things that could come into play there that that I think Andrea and I talked about that and it seemed to be the best approach. So we'll have to finalize the photos.

[1:05:27] We just someone may not like the fact that their property is okay.

[1:05:35] Okay. What Andrea said my.

[1:05:40] So anyway, but so that's being finalized. Um, I guess I am doing my sort of outreach on my end as well. Just for the record, for everybody, I'd be speaking in front of a Winnacunnet cultural geography class next week to talk about town planning in general municipal planning, and I'll kind of just do an overview or ask for their thoughts on what it is, and then we'll lead into some of the specifics that we've been working on related to the master plan related to zoning and things like that. Show them a couple examples of a site plan and subdivision, and maybe how to read those and get some input from them. So I think that's pretty cool for the students because remember, they're the ones who are going to be coming along next.

[1:06:19] You can have them do the sticky dot exercise.

[1:06:21] Yeah, they can do the sticky dot exercise. They love the sticky.

[1:06:26] I think I only have 45 minutes though, and I already have a 20 minute presentation.

[1:06:31] I'm just saying, make.

[1:06:32] Sure.

[1:06:32] Please invite them to these meetings as well. Let them know that they're welcome to participate in this conversation. And I will that we are doing sticky dot voting exercises. So if they see us around, that would be great. I can when is when is when are you doing that?

[1:06:44] I believe it's on Thursday. Next Thursday. I'll have to check the calendar. I think it's next Thursday morning.

[1:06:49] Yep.

[1:06:52] That's awesome.

[1:06:53] So I just thought I'd note that. Um, now I think we can go on implementation priorities for 27.

[1:07:00] All right. So we've had I think some pretty solid progress on the 2026 priorities at least getting in queue. And we're seeing some, some movement there. Um, the public outreach piece we've obviously discussed and kind of concurrent with that, wanted to have a discussion with everyone about next year and what priorities we would like to bring forward. Again, through the process that we've created this year and what areas of focus we want to look at. So like, as a refresher, 2026, we were looking at town center priorities and resilience priorities, resilience, priorities. I, I personally feel should be perennial priorities that we're always kind of addressing that and staying on top of it. As far as areas of focus within the town, I feel like that can change and we can kind of have 2 or 3 areas of focus that we're looking at. Um, and the thought that, um, Jason and I have discussed is thinking about like maybe at this meeting, thinking about what those areas are or if we're not ready, making sure that we do so at our next meeting in November. Um, but really breaking this group into small groups focused on whatever those three priority groups are. Um, to kind of identify what those recommendations coming from this group will be next year. Um, and that'll kind of be the cadence that we have on a go forward. Um, so does that make sense? Any kind of room for conversation or comment on there?

[1:08:30] Yeah, I think it worked well the last time we did priorities.

[1:08:37] Um, so different priorities, obviously within what was laid out in the master plan, you know, because like you said, focused on downtown, but there's other areas.

[1:09:08] It could be something like, um, you know, sports fields.

[1:09:34] Um, any general thoughts as of right now, like resilience is one, but are there 1 or 2 other.

[1:09:41] I personally think that housing and workforce are at the top of mind for a lot of people. Um, so if we could focus on areas that would address that, I think that would be that would be my preference.

[1:09:52] That's a great suggestion.

[1:09:54] Any thinking like as far as.

[1:09:56] Like how we get more housing and how we make, I mean, it's all cyclical, right? So it all feeds into each other. But how, um, our zoning and our master plan aligns with Fostering a stronger workforce and keeping that at top of mind.

[1:10:11] Yeah, I do like the idea of sports fields.

[1:10:14] Yeah.

[1:10:15] Hampton needs more sports fields, you know. Is there land somewhere?

[1:10:20] Yeah. So hearing housing, recreation, resilience, any other topics.

[1:10:26] Attracting business.

[1:10:27] Attract economic development.

[1:10:30] Manufacturing and like real business, like restaurants.

[1:10:35] Excuse me. Restaurants are real.

[1:10:39] I purposely said.

[1:10:44] Oh.

[1:10:44] Here we go.

[1:10:47] Um, do we have.

[1:10:48] People complain about the tax rate? Right? Yeah. Everyone wants everyone else to do something about their tax rate. But the way you get residential tax rate down is by having a good business base, right? Yeah. That the business base pays a higher tax rate. Right. Or a different tax rate.

[1:11:06] So No same tax rate. You. So you need to.

[1:11:09] Attract business if you want to.

[1:11:11] Same same tax rate just different valuation.

[1:11:13] Yeah.

[1:11:15] I think the workforce is really related to housing. You just can't separate it.

[1:11:19] Absolutely.

[1:11:20] So however that comes into a group.

[1:11:22] So I'm hearing some pretty solid consensus on housing and workforce as a definite priority. I don't think I don't think anyone is opposed to maintaining resilience as well.

[1:11:34] The timing for that might be very good too, depending on what comes out of the remaining funds from the Hoppe grant. Remember, we submitted that application for the Housing and Economic Development Summit? Yeah, in the spring with the developers. I've not heard on that yet. But, you know, whether we get that or not, we can we can determine if that is something we still want to do. But but I think that what I'm saying is the timing of that lines up well with with what you're suggesting.

[1:12:07] I personally would like to see more economic development off the beach. Um, I think that's a big priority for people who live, work and play in Hampton. Um, but I mean, I don't want to see us ignore the beach at all by any means. Just a bigger emphasis. I don't want to say the downtown again, but a bigger emphasis on off the beach. Yeah. Developing spaces that are continuously turning over and just not improving and not keeping up with the character of the town that we want to see.

[1:12:35] Yeah. And I think there are like, there are broad categories under economic development that do impact every kind of area of focus. Um, but maybe if we start making very specific or localized recommendations, those are more town center focused.

[1:12:50] Yeah, yeah.

[1:12:54] I'll bring up the Hampton Hub community Center. You know, that is a large project. It was part of the Advisory Capital Improvement Plan. Last year it was in for $20 million, roughly in 2027. This year in the capital plan, it's in for 10,000,000 in 2028. And the sheet that was submitted, the capital improvement sheet is the library trustees had taken the lead on that, and they want to raise half the funds.

[1:13:33] Through the community and approach the town in 2028 or thereabouts for the other half, the other 10 million. So that's.

[1:13:46] Hard.

[1:13:46] But that's the library. Trustees had taken the lead on that. I believe.

[1:13:52] That's my understanding.

[1:13:54] That it's something we should be aware about. It's been kicking around a long time.

[1:13:58] That's that plan. Does it do a bunch of turnarounds? And at the end of.

[1:14:04] That's where it stands right now.

[1:14:08] So that like, that recommendation is already pretty fully baked at this point. Um, so it might not be a recommendation coming from this group, but I can totally see kind of incorporating that into the outreach that we're doing around everything else going on in the town. Um, and then have kind of the areas of focus be resilience, housing, workforce, economic development. And then as part of our overall kind of engagement strategy fold in recreation and the hub, um, as pieces that we're speaking to for the future of the town, especially if we're looking for donations, I guess.

[1:14:53] Broken down by these very topics.

[1:15:09] Nice.

[1:15:10] You can pull those all together.

[1:15:12] I think that sounds great. So in between now and the next meeting, now that we've identified kind of what these are, um, Andrea, would you be able to kind of share that document out with the group.

[1:15:24] On the website?

[1:15:25] It has already been emailed to all.

[1:15:26] Oh, perfect.

[1:15:28] And it would tie together directly with the fact that the select board is considering the idea of an economic development committee.

[1:15:40] You got together worked on that idea.

[1:15:44] How how much time do we have for that? Is that indefinite? I'm busy the next 2 or 3 weeks doing other engagement.

[1:15:53] Committee isn't bound by town meeting actions. So it can happen anytime. Um, and I know Sharon Mullen is also helping to lead that effort as well.

[1:16:02] And that was part of the meeting between the Planning Board and the Select Board. And it was included in the report done by the outside facilitator.

[1:16:13] All right.

[1:16:15] What a lovely time to gel.

[1:16:17] Yes. Um, so at this point we kind of have two options. The group can either review that document and mull over what um, pieces of that they would like to like what 1 or 2 recommendations from each of those categories we should consider bringing forward next year. Um, I think that's a good exercise for everyone to be doing anyway between now and November. Uh, but in the meantime, now that we have kind of three categories highlighted, um, do we want to self-select into those small groups now or save that conversation for November? Also.

[1:16:52] You're missing some members though, tonight.

[1:16:54] I am missing a lot of members.

[1:16:56] Maybe, maybe.

[1:16:56] So maybe we save that for later.

[1:16:58] Maybe if you look at those action items, certainly pick out the ones that match best the topics you are most passionate about individually.

[1:17:08] And then bring that back to us.

[1:17:10] Perfect.

[1:17:11] Yep.

[1:17:13] Mr. chairman, if I might add. Thank you, Andrea, for reminding us of the what was discussed at the goal setting with the Planning Board, but it was agreed that there would be an economic development summit in the summer of 2027 to bring together business development communities with a focus on housing and economic development town wide. So that would happen irregardless of whether a economic development committee was established. That's one of the things that was agreed to between the two boards.

[1:17:42] That was the application that we submitted for the remaining funds that, you know, we're waiting to hear on. But I think that regardless of how that turns out, there's still interest in doing it is.

[1:17:56] All right. This was an enormously productive meeting, everyone. Thank you very much. Um, so resilience, housing and workforce development and economic development, um, will be the huh.

[1:18:09] Was the recreation.

[1:18:11] Yes. So recreation is going to be part of the overall, um, like we'll discuss it specifically around the hub, um component of that. Um, but if there are kind of topics in there, um, under recreation within the master plan other than the hub that we should be considering that align with these other pieces. Um, totally bring it forward and we'll talk it through in November.

[1:18:34] Because that's something that's outside of town, outside of the hub. It's yeah, just a general town youth, you know, sports. Yeah. Just thought I'd mention it because it's important.

[1:18:52] Yeah. You know, for the middle school and junior high academy. The kids have to go to North Hampton or Seabrook because we don't have enough fields in Hampton.

[1:19:02] Action item 2.13.

[1:19:03] Okay.

[1:19:06] I know I coached, you know, was all around the kids and Hampton doesn't have enough fields, you know, um, tech field. You see it on Saturday. They're all jam packed. There's nowhere else to go. But I mean, and I know there was talk of using a school owned property out. Um, uh, I don't know. I can't think of where it is now, but it's out past Bachelor Day Pond and they have a there's actually a design for sports fields there. I have it because I worked with Diana Martin a little bit way back when and, um, just because that's where I think that's where they proposed. There was an alternative to put the Academy. When they did the Academy, there was two options, one off site and that was rebuilding the new one. And and they chose to rebuild the new one. But there is some land around town that could have sports fields, and it would be a big benefit for the town. Yeah. So I just thought I'd mention it.

[1:20:02] We did a study in 2020 for Parks and Recreation needs assessment for Hampton.

[1:20:11] Oh, that was okay. Until you remember.

[1:20:14] That. Yeah. It's a need in Hampton. You know the junior high school. The academy doesn't have really a soccer field or a sports field. So thank you for letting me say that.

[1:20:28] Yeah, absolutely. I think that's easy enough to incorporate into into any of this as well. Leave it kind of on the docket. Uh, Molly, were you.

[1:20:37] No.

[1:20:38] Okay. Um. All right. So I think knowing that that is a very specific item within as item 2.13, um, barring any objection, we can kind of leave that on the list of priorities that we can talk through over the next year. Um, and then in the meantime, focusing on the resilience housing workforce and economic development as broad categories to kind of select within, um, because Tony's is specific and already already incorporated.

[1:21:08] Thanks.

[1:21:09] Chair. If we do break out into subcommittees, it might be helpful to review the process we used the last time where we identified priorities by category, by workgroup, and then identified the responsible party potential time frame, so forth. So that that might be helpful to explain, to walk through it the next next meeting.

[1:21:29] Absolutely. Thank you very much. We'll make sure that's on the agenda.

[1:21:36] All right. Any other discussion on 2027 priorities between now and November, everyone will take a peek at the neatly arranged priority items per category.

[1:21:49] On the.

[1:21:49] Page.

[1:21:54] Um. All right. Uh, so now for member reports, um, I feel like you've heard enough from planning tonight, so we'll I'll skip mine.

[1:22:07] We've heard from select. Um, any other organizations want to fill us in on, on the goings on?

[1:22:15] Well, I, uh, I talked a little bit about capital improvement Committee met twice in August. The first time for almost three hours. Went into depth on all the projects, fire department, police schools. ET cetera. DPW, um, some of the large a couple of the large projects are worth mentioning. You know, it's an advisory document, but the DPW facility is in for 15 million and.

[1:22:49] 2028, I believe.

[1:23:17] Is the public works one, the sewer upgrades treatment plant that's going on and something going on now.

[1:23:24] Inflow and infiltration. Yeah, this, this, you know, DPW has, uh, 15 projects, at least varying sizes. But, uh, this is all on the, on the site. Uh, it's going to the select board next.

[1:23:40] It's already been provided to them.

[1:23:44] Um, schools we have, we just started the school year off to a strong start. We have some new leadership that is doing wonderful. Um, we're redoing our roofs slowly. Uh, we've presented this all in our last budget. Um, and as we move into this budget season, um, just updates and some of the things I shared before the, we were able to keep our retainage, which is wonderful. Uh, we are going to have a question on the ballot, uh, unless legal proceedings continue, um, about tax caps for the schools. So our tax, our budget season is looking very confusing and vague right now because the language is not quite clear. And there's a lot of questions around what these things mean for the schools. Um, so as we as the school, as the Soar goes into our budget season, it's going to be a big learning process for everybody as we navigate these new, this new legislation that came out. But just something to be aware of. Um, as we talk about the future of the town.

[1:24:45] All right. Awesome. So, Kipp, school board.

[1:24:51] Budget committee. Yeah. I guess there's a lot of.

[1:24:55] Legal.

[1:24:56] Money season.

[1:24:56] Oh, yeah.

[1:24:57] A lot of well, not only that, there's a lot of legal changes that happened, uh, at the state level that affect how the town operates and how budgets get created and things. So it's going to be and not everything is settled yet. Um, so it'll be, you know, and not everything may be settled by the time budgets are put together and things like that. So it'll be a, there's a lot of work to do. Yeah. I'm like most, I mean, most users work, but there's a lot of confusion, I guess more so than other options that are going to have to be drawn up.

[1:25:54] The minutes.

[1:26:08] Mr. bliss moved to adopt the or approve the minutes of June.

[1:26:12] Perfect. Do I have a second? Thank you. All in favor? Nice. All right. Um, that one goes. And as far as July.

[1:26:21] Mister bliss chair, move to approve the July minutes.

[1:26:24] Thank you. Thank you. All in favor? All right. There we go. Minutes adopted. Thank you. Uh, so reminder that we have moved to on every other meeting cadence. We can call additional ones as we see fit. But as of right now, there's no need to do that. Any time before November 12th is when we will meet again. So again, that's a little off our normal cadence, but there's a lot going on in November and December. Um, to also kind of work around. Um, and then one other item that we just wanted to raise here. Uh, so Mr. Saunders, who represents the ZBA here has, um, I'm not sure how many.

[1:27:07] But yeah.

[1:27:08] He is.

[1:27:08] Here. Yeah. This would be the fourth meeting in a row that we haven't had a representative here. So I think obviously based on our administrative procedure that talks about having that commission or committee being considered to have been vacating their seat by not showing for more than or missing more than two meetings in a row. We hadn't been informed of not being able to attend either. So what I will do is I will reach out to the chair of the ZBA, let him know that, um, that we have not had attendance in, in and for meetings and that that seat is considered vacated. But with the understanding that we would like to have somebody from the ZBA represented here, whether that's Mr. Saunders or anybody else, but just following our administrative procedure to make sure that we're, you know, keeping up with it.

[1:27:58] Perfect. And to clarify, vacated helps with the quorum. That was that was the point. That was perfect.

[1:28:04] That was the point when it was drafted. So right now, as of right now, we are 14 member committee as of this moment. Until somebody that doesn't really change the quorum, it's still eight. But but it does kind of it could ultimately affect it if that happened with another position. Yeah. I mean, just a suggestion.

[1:28:22] You know, for the next meeting being in November. I mean, you know, I'm not really one for a lot of meetings, but for October, could we review then the, the bullet or the board surveys and some other things. I know, just a thought.

[1:28:37] Yeah. I think we can probably.

[1:28:39] We need.

[1:28:39] To. We probably wouldn't coordinate an entire meeting, but what we can do is do a share out of how that how that went in some kind of email form.

[1:28:49] That was to get it done by the end of October.

[1:28:52] Yeah. Um, is to kind of get all of that work done to by mid late October so that we can kind of have.

[1:28:59] That done outside.

[1:29:00] Of the meeting. Yeah, exactly.

[1:29:02] Yeah.

[1:29:02] Yeah. I think that's a good, that's a good idea. Yeah. We can, I can share that out with, with the group to kind of give folks an update as to how, how things are going. Uh yes, sir.

[1:29:10] Just a reminder.

[1:29:11] To the.

[1:29:11] Board. Exactly. Pictures of me with the board or Molly with the.

[1:29:14] Board.

[1:29:16] If you want. Like, like I said, for the chamber meeting, I could stand with the easel that I'll probably be going.

[1:29:24] Just a reminder that those kind of notifications will come to you as a blind carbon copy, because we're not allowed to have any discussion or debate via email, because that signifies a meeting would violate the right to know law. Um, so that that would be a problem. So you won't be able to have discussions. Correct. Via email amongst the board members. But you can certainly have the information shared to you and you can respond to the chair or to the planner.

[1:29:48] It could be shared with the planning office, and we can share it out to everybody else as a blind copy, that'd be the best way to do it.

[1:29:53] You can't have contemporaneous communication.

[1:29:58] So as you.

[1:29:59] Yeah.

[1:30:00] So after you hold all your exercises, send the results, the feedback on that to the planning office, we will share it out to everybody.

[1:30:06] Put it on your Facebook page and everyone can see it.

[1:30:08] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1:30:10] Can you.

[1:30:11] Just don't comment.

[1:30:12] If.

[1:30:12] You don't.

[1:30:15] Then lawyers get involved.

[1:30:17] If there are like instructions.

[1:30:19] If you don't want.

[1:30:20] To have actions, can you like, let us know that this is not for discussion or just for visual.

[1:30:26] Blind copy? So you don't know who we're sending it to, right? Okay. That's how we do it.

[1:30:30] You don't want to.

[1:30:31] Have a.

[1:30:31] Message that you'll see my emails have a little message that say, this is being shared with all members of the committee. That way, you know it's gone to everybody, but you can't reply to everybody.

[1:30:42] You can't accidentally.

[1:30:44] You.

[1:30:44] Don't ever want to go through the agony of having a right to know request where you have to give up your emails.

[1:30:59] Don't.

[1:31:00] Know, angry.

[1:31:02] No, no.

[1:31:06] Well, we have.

[1:31:06] A meeting.

[1:31:08] And make it easier.

[1:31:10] Um. All right. So barring additional conversation, there is one final item here. I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

[1:31:19] So moved, Mr.

[1:31:27] Good.

MasterPlanImplementation_9-23-2026

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