February 06th, 2018

With regard to the “Concord Next” Kick Off meeting next week, here is a quick summary and details of the project: 
  
The City has hired planning consultants to complete a form based code update to the City’s Zoning Ordinance. Code Studio, from Austin , Texas, will be visiting Concord next week to conduct stakeholder interviews, tour the City for field work, and hold the Public Kick Off Meeting. The kick off meeting will explain the process, present the project timeline, and answer questions.  
The Public Kick Off Meeting is on Wednesday, February 7th from 6-8 pm in Council Chambers. All are welcome to come and participate.   
The revised ordinance is intended to guide development with a “character-based” approach to zoning regulation, similar to the recommendations of the Penacook Vision Plan, but for a larger area of the City. The project  is intended to be completed over two years. The first year will focus on transitioning to character based districts for the downtown commercial and residential neighborhoods of Concord and Penacook, along with the reorganization of the existing code into a character based zoning format.   
With regard to Penacook, this process is intended to build on the work that occurred previously during the Penacook Vision Plan meetings. The Vision Plan was actually sent to the consultants as part of the reference material for this project, and will be very helpful for them moving forward with the coding for Penacook. The last time I met with the Penacook Village Association, I was working on some revisions to the recommendations to more accurately reflect the desires of the community, and I indicated that I would return with those revisions. This is still the case. Those revisions will be folded into this process and be presented to the community when the consultants get to that point. 
  
The second year of the zoning update will focus on creating a new vision and codes for the commercial corridors (e.g. Loudon and Fisherville), transitional areas, and performance districts. The project overall will be focused on commercial and residential districts within the Urban Growth Boundary.