Master plan steering committee to present analysis of current conditions in January

LACONIA — The city’s master planning process is off to a quick start, with a draft analysis of existing conditions expected in January. 

The municipal master plan is a long-range planning document meant to guide land use policy, housing and transportation development, economic development and community investment over the next decade or so. Resilience Planning and Design are contracted to shepherd the city committee through the process, with assistance from RKG Associates and Beta Group, Inc.

In the 2025-26 fiscal year budget, councilors allocated $100,000 toward updating the master plan. The update will focus on chapters pertaining to vision, housing, transportation, economic development, community facilities and land use. The last update to the master plan occurred in 2017, and was brief. 

Councilors stood up a master plan steering committee, comprising city staff, elected leaders and city residents, and the group met for the second time Thursday evening.

The purpose of the Nov. 13 meeting was to discuss expectations for their next meeting in January, and discuss some of the insights members may have gained since last month’s joint meeting of the master plan steering committee and several members of city boards and commissions. That meeting, which took place at the Belknap Mill, laid out a year-long process involving frequent public engagement.

A successful master planning process would result in a tangible roadmap of strategies and actions city leaders would employ to achieve the goals laid out in the vision section. It would ensure decisions made by the council, city boards and committees, and real estate developers are aligned with the city’s priorities. 

At present, planners Steve Whitman and Crystal Kidd of Resilience, along with their teams, are working through the first phase of the project: an analysis of existing conditions in the city. They’ll look at data and identify trends, issues, challenges and opportunities present in the city, keeping in mind locally-specific information provided by the city, the public and the steering committee.

This phase is expected to last through the winter. In winter and into spring next year, planners will focus on a vision for the future, attempting to anticipate what conditions may exist 10 to 15 years down the road. In the summer and into the fall of 2026, they’ll render updates to the master plan to be used by city leaders.

At the meeting on Thursday night, Ward 3 Councilor Eric Hoffman told Whitman and the steering committee there is an interest from the public to understand the types of housing already in the city, and the quantities of each. Whitman said the report would be as specific as possible with regard to those questions, and noted he’s observed the city has a lot of single-family housing at present.

And members of the steering committee spent considerable time discussing the necessary preservation of the characteristics found across the city’s three distinct villages — downtown, Lakeport and Weirs Beach.

“There’s a distinct feel to each of them,” Planning Director Rob Mora said. 

Committee members are also concerned about preserving downtown as the city center, especially in light of the anticipated development of the State School property on Parade Road. They are interested in guarding against that property becoming perceived as the new downtown. 

One observation Whitman made which provoked intrigue at the meeting was that there is a considerable level of demographic growth in the city of young people of “child-rearing age,” which is not common throughout the municipalities of New Hampshire. Members of the steering committee pondered how the city might develop a way to attract well-paying jobs which could, in turn, retain younger residents. 

The next meeting of the steering committee is 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 14, at City Hall downtown. 

“In the end, it’s your plan,” Whitman said.