Preserving the Open Space and Rural Character of New Hampshire
Communities:
What's Going On Around the State?
Are you frustrated with the way your town is growing, losing its fields and forestland?
According to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, New Hampshire is losing 12,000 to 15,000 acres of open land each year to development. Some towns are slowing that trend by voting land conservation bonds at their town meetings, buying up open space through public taxpayer dollars.
Last spring, voters in 29 communities across the state considered proposals for bond issues to finance land conservation projects. According to the Center for Land Conservation Assistance, 13 envisioned borrowing at least $1 million to preserve undeveloped parcels of land.
A UNH survey conducted in 12 of those 29 communities examined why voters supported or opposed local open space preservation initiatives. The towns surveyed included Auburn, Brentwood, East Kingston, Exeter, Hollis, Newington, Barrington, Durham, Errol, Greenland, Hopkinton and Rye, whose preservation bond proposals ranged from $500,000 in Newington to $5 million each in Hollis, Hopkinton and Rye.
Out of the nearly 500 respondents, the number one reason people voted for the conservation bonds was because of town growth and the need for preserving more open space. Other reasons included preserving the rural character of the town, saving forest land and keeping property taxes down. Those who voted against the bond cited its high cost and the fact that taxes were already too high.
When asked to name the biggest issue or problem facing their town, 41 percent overwhelming cited growth/sprawl/lack of open space highest. Taxes came in second, with 30 and 25 percent of respondents citing schools/quality of education.
UNH Cooperative Extension teamed with the Center for Integrative Regional Problem Solving (CIRPS) to help New Hampshire’s rapidly growing communities. With information from community decision-makers and active citizens across the state, the team compiled a list of the top 10 issues facing rapidly growing communities in New Hampshire:
- Determining economic impacts of land use choices, including cost/access to services, taxation and financing education.
- Preserving New England character, including a sense of community.
- Exploring growth management strategies and model ordinances for natural resource protection: what works, what does not.
- Conserving the best open space through non-regulatory options.
- Sustaining the economic base without losing the quality of life.
- Creating affordable housing with developer incentives.
- Creating adequate transportation services and systems.
- Ensuring surface and groundwater protection.
- Encouraging collaboration within communities and within the region.
- Providing leadership training to community decision-makers.
The CIRPS/Extension team is developing an online clearinghouse to provide resources to New Hampshire residents and community leaders with an eventual goal of making it a regional clearinghouse, including southern Maine and northern Massachusetts.
The site will include links to organizations that provide materials and support to communities, links to New Hampshire communities that have developed innovative ways of dealing with rapid growth, and a wide range of academic and scientific research papers on the topics.
UNH Cooperative Extension offers many programs that help citizens and local officials try to deal with the costs of increasing sprawl and growth. These include the Community Profile, a process which brings citizens together to envision and plan the future of their community, and the Community Conservation Assistance Program, which pulls together groups of citizens to work on special land and water conservation projects.
UNH Cooperative Extension also provides support and technical help in many areas, including programs that provide education about land conservation, developing trail systems, determining the cost and protection of open space, water quality monitoring and protection, managing community forests and using geographic information systems (GIS).
For more information about what UNH Cooperative Extension is doing to support New Hampshire’s communities, visit Extension’s website at http://ceinfo.unh.edu or one of these specific program links:
By Michele Gagne, Program Coordinator, Strengthening NH Communities Initiative UNH Cooperative Extension
