Six bidders so far for project to update city's master plan

LACONIA — The City of Laconia is well on its way to a new master plan.

A municipal master plan is a long-range planning document meant to guide the city’s growth and development. City councilors allocated $100,000 toward creating a new one in the budget passed July 14. 

“I begged,” Planning Director Rob Mora joked during a July 21 Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting when asked by a ZBA member how he was able to swing the funds for an update. “I’m very fortunate we had a lot of city councilors who were like, ‘Hey, you know what, it’s a really good idea.'

“We are out to bid for that, the bid closes at the end of this month and then we will be selecting a contractor,” Mora said.

Laconia’s most recent update to the master plan update occurred in 2018 and was brief, just 18 pages long. For comparison, a much more comprehensive master plan, adopted in 2007, totals 128 pages and includes chapters on land use, economic development, housing, transportation, natural resources and others, plus a brief implementation plan.

The city put a new master plan update out to bid on June 30 — that bid is set to expire on the afternoon of Thursday, July 31 — and Mora said they’ve received six serious inquiries.

“We asked for that implementation chapter, and I think that is what is really, very important, especially driving changes in our zoning ordinance,” Mora said. “Where do we want to be and how do we get there — that chapter’s actually going to relay ‘this is your path forward to get to there.'” 

The request for proposals published by the city notes a consultant will be selected in early August, and the contract is to be executed later that month. The estimated timeline for the project writ-large is somewhere between a year and 18 months.

The new comprehensive master plan is meant to guide the city’s growth and development through 2055, Laconia’s bicentennial. The consultant ultimately selected by the city is required to have “extensive experience in community engagement, land use planning, and master development.” A resulting contract will include a provision not to exceed a year following the city manager’s signature, but the term of the contract could be extended twice, for six months each, at the city’s sole discretion. 

“We are going to be looking to have input sessions from all of the land use boards and city council, that’s one of the things that we want to make sure that we have, so that every land use board and council, we’re all on the same page,” Mora said. “This is the direction of the city, this is where we want to go, this is what we want to be when we grow up.”

Highlighting areas of the city not to develop, in order to preserve as rural, is just as important as defining areas to increase density, he said.

“There [are] going to be plenty of public input sessions, and there’s going to be public workshops as well where people can come in and voice their input,” Mora said. 

In a background section of the RFP published online, city staff describe Laconia as a former mill town which has experienced stagnating population growth, declining school enrollment and “little to no major economic development” between 1980 and 2020.

Since 2020, a handful of larger residential developments were approved, and a few more approved years earlier are progressing now. A proposed development on the former State School property could bring more than 2,000 units of housing to the north end of the city, plus around 375,000 square feet of commercial space.

The request for proposal notes potential consultants will be expected to work with city staff, stakeholders and residents to produce a plan including sections on long-term vision, land use, transportation, economic development, housing, along with a chapter on how the city should implement the plan.

The housing chapter may help provide concrete data to inform a contentious discussion which has persisted in recent years, both in formal and informal settings. A consultant is instructed to assess local housing conditions and project future needs of residents of all income levels and ages in the city and throughout the broader region. They’ll have to conduct a housing needs assessment specific to the city, and use an assessment completed by the Lakes Region Planning Commission to identify the needs of the region.

A key provision in the master plan is the chapter pertaining to its implementation. That’s got to include specific actions to be taken over a long period of time and define timelines, the delegation of responsibilities for such actions, a description of land use regulations the city should adopt, and outline procedures the city should use to monitor and measure the efficacy of each chapter contained in the master plan. 

Sections referred to by RSA 674:2 on master plan development are required, but a consultant could also suggest additional sections to be included. 

“A master plan is so very important, because it’s your guiding document for your entire city,” Mora said. “It is so important, and I’m glad that we’re finally going to do one the right way, with experts and all the corresponding studies that go with it.”