We were pretty sure Rochester rejected participation in the Granite State Future ‘master plan’ boondoggle back in 2012, but now we read they will adopt mixed use zoning.

“Once the comprehensive rezoning plan is approved by the City Council, it will replace Chapter 42, the zoning chapter, of the city’s ordinances. The document is a comprehensive revision of the city’s zones, including their locations, definitions, and permitted uses.

One of the new zones included in the document is the neighborhood mixed use zone, which allows for small-sized businesses to be located in the same area as residential homes. Currently, a portion of North Main Street is one of the areas proposed to be neighborhood mixed use.”

Read more…

Urbanization continues!

“The city’s ultimate goal is to create a vibrant, walkable, and attractive urban core that supports small businesses and moves us closer to our overall vision for the City,” said Dave Sharples, director of Planning and Economic Development.”

Read More…

Today’s decision was a win for property rights.

[This post has been updated three times and re-dated… see end for links]

Once you have studied the hierarchy of the RPCs and how they seek to influence the town planning and zoning boards, you will see that no taxpayer ever gets to vote on what they are selling. The only way to make sure that your town doesn’t take part in some wasteful endeavor that will cost it dearly long after HUD grants have run out, is to make sure your planning and zoning board members listen to the public that elected them.

In Moultonborough, one Josiah Bartlett has been asked to leave his position on the planning board. In this article from the Laconia Daily Sun, we learn that Moultonborough selectmen want Planning Board member out, for ‘neglect of duty & malfeasance’ he says has never been specified.

“Planning Board member Paul Punturieri noted that the law requires the Selectboard to hold a public hearing to dismiss an elected official and suggested the board must have already made its decision.” (See Puntieri’s blog about the issue.)

This seems to us to be nothing more than an outrageous attempt to oust anyone who doesn’t engage in the necessary ‘group think’ for the pre-determined ideas and outcomes of Granite State Future.

We await the announcement of the actual charges and demand a public hearing on same. We encourage Mr. Bartlett not to give up or resign, as he has every right to hold that position unless these somewhat libelous charges have been aired and are proven true.

Hear his wife speak on his behalf at the August 1 meeting of the planning board.

Update: A second planner has been asked to resign.

Update: Moltonborough Planning Board stands by its members

Update: August 14 Planning Board Meeting

Update: Both Planning Board Members Exonerated

Plan Pinardville is supposed to be about ‘sustainability’.

So why can’t people be allowed to ‘sustain’ their back yards?

Hear Rich Girard talk about it on Girard at Large for August 30, 2013

Even as the Granite State Future program is praising and supporting small farms and local produce the same federal government is passing new laws to suppress the farmers’ ability to exist and do business.

Long ago, some folks in the NHTPC warned about a federal bill called Food Safety and Modernization Act. Not too many people were interested. Now the problem has shown itself.

To understand what the bill is about, one must get up to speed on Codex Alimentarius, yet another tentacle of the United Nations Agenda 21 program.

Please read more…

Farmers protest proposed food safety rules

Small farmers say rules could halt local food trend
FDA’s Secret War on Raw Milk and Organic Farming

This morning on Girard at Large, Goffstown Realtor Mark Warden talked about Plan Pinardville and how major changes via a “master plan” are not needed to accommodate new businesses in the downtown area.

Of course we all know that Plan Pinardville is just a small part of a bigger program, NH’s Granite State Future.

Regional Planning Commissions are charged with ‘assisting’ with master plans and making ‘suggestions’ for changes per the recommendations of HUD and the grants thereof. They’ve dubbed their plan Granite State Future and it’s a product of your state and federal tax dollars. Nashua’s RPC gets paid $1.5 MILLION, yes that’s MILLION dollars per year for this dubious job.

RSA 36:45, “enables” Towns to join in the formation of Regional Planning Commissions.

RSA 36:47 states that the costs of “assistance” shall be paid by the municipality or county to which the service is rendered. [which means it’s a taxpayer-funded operation and thus subject to all 91-A rules, transparency laws, and freedom of information and enjoys no copyright]
 
The Master Plans are being “quietly” implemented at the local level during planning board meetings where, although there’s been notice to make it all quite “legal”, there’s no one from the public in attendance. Oh sure, they had “listening sessions” set up and run by PR firms such as Action Media and NH Listens, but those were limited to the Delphi method of controlled input.

The few times one of our residents says she has been bored enough to watch live Salem local government channel and the Planning Board, she’s seen Ross Moldoff, Salem’s Planning Director, try to get the planning board to approve the “Master Plan” at the local level in a perfunctory manner, without discussion and with no member of the public present.

But wait a minute, didn’t Salem opt out of Granite State Future and the whole “master plan” deal? We think we remember they did.

We did hear a planning official tell a resident in another town that they would go ahead without permission regardless. Is this legal?
 
The government is supposed to be the servant of the people, but “we” are becoming their servants as we unwittingly trust their authority and “professional expertise” and as they quietly strip us of local control and seize our liberty.