Does Bedford NH, a rural town, really need or want bike paths? Same goes for ‘overlay zoning’ to create mixed use neighborhoods, as well as ‘workforce housing’. What workforce are we serving? (section 8?)

And the grants for all these projects seem to come from the NH Housing Finance Authority but where do THEY get the money? We suspect it’s HUD.

From the article:

Bedford adopts master plan for bicycle-pedestrian paths
By SUSAN CLARK
Union Leader Correspondent
February 14. 2014

“The town was awarded a $30,000 Community Planning Grant from the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority to complete the Pedestrian and Bicycle Connectivity Master Plan, which follows through on several recommendations of the 2010 Master Plan.

At the hearing, the consultants, planner Jeff Taylor, landscape architect Karen Fitzgerald, and planner Grace Wu of the Resource Systems Group, outlined the project results and recommendations for zoning changes.”

Perhaps now we have the reason why the Town Council wants to remove your right to vote on zoning!

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More info about zoning changes: Bedford Zoning Articles for March 11, 2014

Bedford Master Plan

Bedford’s Latest Planning Minutes

Smart Growth Areas in Bedford [Video promoting ‘walkable’ communities]

Update: We have been told this is the same thing going on as with Rindge: “your town is missing a center.”
In Rindge, that is exactly what they said. Their grant came from NHHFA, and NHHFA got it from HUD. It was community planning grant to change zoning. It is important to point out that Rindge belongs to SWRPC, but the selectmen said NO to GSF. Rindge’s proposed plan contains sidewalks and bike paths too.

NH State Rep Jane Cormier has filed HB 1573 in an effort to fight intrusion by the federal government by way of the RPCs who seem to have become lobbyists for federal agencies and their mandates, ON OUR TAX DIME. There is already a law that says they cannot do this, BUT THEY ARE DOING IT ANYWAY.

A new law has been proposed to stop this practice across the board. HB 1560

Please support Cormier’s HB 1573. Bedford is vulnerable since now their Town Council wants to take zoning decisions out of our hands which means we would have NO oversight when it comes to HUD/EPA/DOT grants with ‘strings’ — strings that seek to alter zoning laws so the fed can impose social justice by leveling the playing field.

The Granite State Future program is not locally inspired, but rather is a federal government initiative to level the playing field in towns they see as ‘too economically or demographically homogeneous’.

Bedford rejected a warrant article to allow its Town Councilors to approve zoning without public vote in 2010.

This attempt must be defeated once again. If the Council can approve zoning decisions and changes without a public vote, this means that zoning changes recommended by the Regional Planning Commissions due to their HUD grants could be implemented with absolutely ZERO approval by the people.

This must not happen in Bedford or anywhere else.

November 07, 2013 8:09 PM
Bedford voters may be asked to let council decide zoning

The change in the zoning ordinance process was first brought to voters in March 2010 but was rejected. That proposal had been recommended by the town’s Economic Development Committee in 2009. If the Town Council and the Planning Board agree to put a similar zoning amendment on the March 2014 ballot, voters would be asked to authorize the Town Council to approve future zoning amendments, which is within the council’s purview under state law and the Bedford Town Charter, said Town Manager Jessie Levine.

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