Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Hello. We're so glad that you're interested in learning about Portsmouth's master plan. My name is Zoe Mueller. I am a senior planner at ETL, Architecture and Planning, based out of Boston. And I've had the pleasure of serving as the project manager for the consultant team that's supporting the city of Portsmouth on this effort. So I'm going to take a few moments to pull up a screen and give you a sense of what I'll walk you through today. But in general, we're going to give you a sense of where the master plan has landed. We're at kind of the draft plan stage. So we're going to walk you through the big picture recommendations so you can understand where we're headed and hopefully give us feedback if there's something that you feel like contributing. So with that, give me a moment to share my screen and we'll jump into the presentation. All right. So we'll give you an overview of the master plan to give you a sense of what we'll walk through. I'll give you a sense of purpose and process, the draft plan framework in terms of the vision, the values and the goals. That's kind of the written North Star for the plan and kind of the central piece of the plan, which is cultivating neighborhood centers. And I'll talk a little bit more about that, give you a sense of what we mean by that. And then we'll finish with giving you a sense of how that translates spatially into a framework for development in the city, the degree of change in different parts of the city that we're anticipating, future place type vision and potential zoning changes, as well as infrastructure and capital investment ideas. And with that, I am going to... hide my video just so you can see the full slides going forward, but we'll be excited to see what you have to share with us at the end. All right. So first, we want to give you a sense of what a master plan really is and what it does for a city like Portsmouth. So I think of it as a strategic plan that gives you a sense of where and how the city should develop and invest over the next 10 years or so, 10 to 15 years, let's say. And The master plan can be something that is helpful in aligning lots of different people who have to make aligned decisions to advance the development of the city. And it's important to kind of have that written component that really makes clear kind of what everybody's shared values are, where we're kind of, how we're making decisions. But it's really most powerful to in aligning development regulations, so things like zoning, subdivision regulations, land use controls that control, in many cases, private development on property in the city, and also investments in infrastructure and quality of life. So the Many times those are things that the public sector, so the municipality is investing in, but oftentimes it's a partnership between public and private investors to kind of make that infrastructure and those amenities really work well for the residents and visitors and kind of the broader community of Portsmouth. So with all that, this plan will give a statement of shared values, a strategic vision and kind of roadmap for the future of the city and a framework for implementation. That will include a growth framework. So where are we preserving? Where are we enhancing? Where are we adapting? And we'll provide a foundation for changes to land use and zoning regulations, as well as capital investment priorities and policy and program priorities. In general, this will not provide a full zoning rewrite. That typically follows as a separate effort after a master plan. And we often tee up some of those kind of topic area or place specific ideas But the details of working through that and exactly how the resources will be spent is typically handled as a follow-up to the master plan. So think of this as that framework to guide decision-making. In terms of the topics that the master plan will focus on, it's really comprehensive. It's touching all these different things that are related to one another. But in particular, we're focused on housing, the economy, and development patterns in urban form. These things are very closely related to what a master plan is best at, what I just sort of talked through. And it's also in our review of prior planning in the city. These are some of the areas where Portsmouth does not have as many planning documents, as many sort of studies and sort of things to guide decision making in these arenas. So we're looking at how those things are connected to one another, how we can give the city stronger guidance on how to make those decisions going forward. And spatially, one of our primary focuses is kind of how do we think about downtown and its relationships to the different neighborhood centers and districts outside? How do we strengthen that overall framework with an eye to housing and economy and kind of how those things are connected to one another? To just kind of go a little bit more into that detail, what that means is we will have a unified strategy for land use, zoning and community design that integrates economy, housing, issues of transportation and mobility and land use and built form. Those things are so interconnected with one another and really need a unified framework. In addition, there are tons of cross-cutting topics that are really integral to that sort of unified strategy and get woven into that strategy kind of throughout. And so those are things like sustainability and resilience. public utilities, services and facilities, natural resources and conservation, arts, recreation, amenities, and culture and historic preservation. So those are things that already in many cases have their own sort of standalone plans or reports, commissions, committees, et cetera, that are guiding those efforts. And so we're really pulling and building from that work that already exists in those spaces to make sure that it's showing up in the ways that we are guiding the economy, housing, transportation, mobility, and land use and build forms. So in terms of the process, we are at this draft plan stage. So that means that we are sharing back out to the community what we've heard so far and where we've landed in terms of the recommendations that we're making for feedback before we go to kind of writing that all up and composing it as a final report document that will become the adopted master plan for the city. So this is a really critical point for feedback from the public. And we want to make sure that this is a good foundation for people to understand where we've landed. Thank you. This is also kind of the culmination of or kind of a pivot point after a really in-depth effort by Anne Weidman, our community organizer, along with the rest of the consultant team to really build a foundation, foundational understanding of, you know, what are the key issues people need this plan to address, things that people love about Portsmouth, things that people think can be improved. And so Anne really did a huge effort, especially in kind of the last summer and kind of into the fall, catch people where they are already in their day-to-day lives and get input from folks and make sure people are aware of the plan. So you can just see here some of the numbers there. I won't go through all the details, but over 28 events, over 700 kind of one-on-one conversations and comment cards that were filled out and close to 600 participants in a survey that was used to identify issues and opportunities. As we've come kind of to the second half of the work around drafting recommendations, we've had a sort of a deliberate lull in engagement as we were kind of gathering all that and composing our sort of synthesis of what we've heard so far. But more recently we've had a draft plan framework survey, a business mini survey, and then of course the April open house that we held at the community campus. And so now we're kind of in that mode of just getting feedback from folks following that little burst of engagement. So this was a little bit more survey based, as well as that, you know, that one open house approach. So with all that background, let's jump into what the recommendations are. The plan as a whole is held together by vision, values, and goals. That's what's kind of the North Star, kind of the way that we're guiding all of the subsequent more detailed recommendations. And this came very directly from what we've heard from folks in that sort of early flush of engagement that Anne was leading. So for the vision statement, I'll read this out. This is where we've landed after a lot of wordsmithing and sort of shared input and hopefully captures kind of the spirit of Portsmouth and where we're going as a community. So Portsmouth will continue to cultivate our role as the seacoast region's cultural and economic hub, protect the places that anchor our shared identity and historic character, and invest in sustainability, resilience, and environmental justice. As the city of the open door, we will support the people who create our community, expand attainable housing options for residents at every stage of life, and ensure our city is accessible and inclusive. Together, we will work to keep Portsmouth a beautiful, vibrant, and welcoming home for all people for generations to come. This is a quick aside. The image that you're seeing here is an early kind of image created by the Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce that was to kind of broadcast a vision of Portsmouth and sort of welcome people to the city. In terms of core values, this is something that we built from the prior master plan and sort of fine-tuned based on what we heard. The values that we're kind of holding as we kind of go into those more detailed recommendations are vibrancy, authenticity, inclusivity, connectivity, sustainability, and resiliency. I won't read through the specifics of this, but you can access all of this on the website that's available to download or view at your convenience. But these are really to help us when there's a question, do we do this or do we do this? We go back to these values and say, which is more aligned with these values? The goals are what then takes this to that next level of resolution and starts to kind of get to those particular recommendations and actions that can be taken to further that vision and those values. So for those of you who are more interested in the sort of the nuts and bolts, we're getting there, but the visioning language is important to guide that decision-making. So the first goal is investing in quality of place. This is about improving the everyday lives of residents and visitors and fulfilling the community's desire for a sustainable future by investing in and connecting them to Portsmouth's environmental and cultural amenities. Next, we have retaining and creating diverse housing. This is to enable, incentivize, and support diverse and attainable housing for all ages and incomes that will support current residents and welcome newcomers. This is closely aligned with and sort of coordinated with the housing action plan that's been ongoing, concurrent with the master planning process. The next is promoting fiscally responsible development, promoting smart growth development patterns and processes that contribute to fiscal health and manage residential property tax burden through aligned land use policy and municipal capital investments. Next, we have cultivating our economy. That's supporting the local artists, small businesses, and anchor employers that enrich Portsmouth and its regional importance. And last but not least, protect core identity. This is to safeguard the cultural, historic, and environmental assets that make the city unique and beautiful. and ensure that future development contributes to Portsmouth's character. Now, of course, you see these kind of as one, two, three, four, and five. That is not to convey kind of relative importance or priority, but rather to just give us a sort of a structure by which to introduce these and sort of, you know, refer to them in a more specific way. So now getting to kind of what has become the heart of this plan, based on what we've heard and sort of the analysis that we've been doing. So we feel this is sort of a critical point for Portsmouth to turn to how the city might be able to cultivate stronger, richer neighborhood centers, in particular for Portsmouth's Gateway neighborhood. So those neighborhoods that are around downtown and sort of a little bit removed from downtown and have their own identities and sort of needs that might be best met by a sort of vibrant neighborhood center. So a bit more about how we've landed here. We heard sort of from start to finish, all across the city, people have a real love for Portsmouth's downtown. And there's a general sense that it's mature, it's built out, it's stable and well-loved. In particular, over the last decade, there's been a lot of development, a lot of change downtown. And the downtown has expanded with residential and hotel projects, in particular in the North End. And so as we think about what's coming for the next decade for Portsmouth, the sense is that the remaining focus downtown should really be about preserving, surgically fine tuning, to really keep it at its best and make sure that it continues to be accessible to all. But it's really, you know, it's mature, it's built out. And so it's really sort of more of those tweaks around the edges to kind of keep it at its best. And so as we think about what that means for the master plan and for the city's focus in terms of planning and development going forward, we wanted to kind of see, say like, okay, what's next then? And, you know, when we look at the planning that the city has been doing, the planning itself is quite concentrated downtown. So that's been a real focus, you know, and, you know, continuing to steward the best downtown possible for Portsmouth and deal with all the complex questions that come up when you're kind of taking care of a downtown that is so beloved and also has so much going on. And so you can see here just visually on this map kind of where a lot of those plans in the last decade or so have been focused. And so as we think about that and sort of what's happening in the market, how people's lives are sort of shifting and evolving, A lot of what we were hearing is that prices are actually driving locals to gateway neighborhoods and that local residents and businesses are often facing a question of whether they can stay downtown financially. There's a real pressure there. And so a lot of Portsmouth community members are looking beyond areas that are walkable to downtown. just to find an affordable space for them to be. And so you're just seeing a couple stats here on the screen of what typical households can afford, who can buy downtown. They just give you a little bit more kind of specificity around the challenges that many Portsmouth residents and community members, businesses are experiencing as they figure out how to contribute and sort of be a part of the Portsmouth community. And so we're seeing, you know, both in the private sector, so development, investment, as well as the public sector, there's a shift in sort of public and private investment hubs, really looking beyond downtown in good ways and in positive ways. And so looking at There's a mix of housing development happening outside of downtown, kind of multifamily scale housing development. And then the different kind of amenities and sort of resources to the community, like the senior activity center, community campus, skate park, the rail trail or the greenway. All of which are kind of beginning to give that attention and investment beyond downtown. And you can see that in the private markets behavior as well. You're seeing here in the kind of purple blue on the left, commercial and industrial investments. You can see, you know, downtown lights up there, but also other areas outside of downtown. And similarly for residential, which you're seeing on the right in orange, downtown shows up strong, as does the West End. And then sort of there are lots of other clusters beyond that. So really just noticing that is important. And it's not just the private market. It's not just public investment. It's also showing up in land use regulations. So the city kind of took the initiative to adopt the gateway neighborhood districts, which sort of give that fresh, sort of set of rules to guide development in these places that are already experiencing pressure and development to try and make the most of that new development, make it mixed use, make it supportive of the goals that the city has for those places. And so there's both Gateway Corridor and Gateway Center that you're seeing kind of pop up on the map here that if you can kind of recall back those hotspot maps previously are kind of aligned there and really guiding that development. And so we wanted to build from all of that and say, kind of, how does the master plan give more guidance and clarity on how to move forward, given all these different things that are kind of shifting and sort of these patterns and trends that are happening already in Portsmouth and what people need from the city and from kind of the community. And so... We wanted to give kind of some clarity around what it takes to really cultivate a strong vibrant gateway neighborhood center because that's really kind of as we see what's happening that seems like the real focus of what the master plan can help help the city and the community do and so. A lot of these places weren't built necessarily to be neighborhood centers. They were former industrial hubs. They were areas of commercial development in the post-war era. And so looking at how do we adapt those using comprehensive tools that blend public and private investment. And that means looking at issues of infrastructure and mobility, looking at civic recreation and sort of other like commercial amenities and thinking about how do we create density and vibrancy. And so the idea is that this plan, this master plan can help create a shared framework for how to do that adaptation work. across all these different tools. So these kind of capital investments and the land use regulations and the development that needs to occur to kind of bring this all together. And so we're really hoping to offer a framework that can be helpful and supportive as the city, you know, navigates these questions in the coming decades. To just illustrate that idea a little bit more, we've developed some illustrations to guide, to help people kind of see how these things might come together. And so it's really looking at some of these places like the West End, and there's several other kind of suburban corridor hubs that we've kind of abstracted a bit here to kind of generalize some of the things that tend to come up in those settings, to think about how do we create neighborhood centers that are compact, mixed use, active, inclusive, that are connected. So areas that are walkable and accessible and that are supported by, you know, healthy, sustainable and resilient systems. So that's really what we're looking to create and kind of help the city sort of foster in these places. And these are not really development proposals so much as illustrations to see how things could come together and sort of be able to imagine that what that has to offer the neighborhoods and the city's sort of residents and visitors. So coming to the spatial frameworks, this is where it all comes together and kind of taking those principles that are about the neighborhood centers and then zooming out and thinking about the city as a whole, what does that mean for the city as a whole? I'm going to walk you through some of these key ideas and invite you to spend some more time with them using the materials that are available on the website. So development constraints is an important starting point for any, you know, consideration of future development. And so we were very careful to understand both the environmental constraints and sort of sensitive areas, things like coastal flood risk, wetlands, existing conservation areas and open space, as well as ecological and wildlife migration corridors. We also took care to look at existing historic resources, historic designation, like downtown historic district, And also the limitations of existing infrastructure to support future development. So water, sewer are critical to understand that potential and sort of where it's possible to, you know, support development in the city. And so this is sort of our starting point for thinking about development. And then based on, you know, our observations and our conversations with people, we've landed with this degree of change map. And so the way to kind of read this is it's showing you what parts of the city are areas where the focus should be preserved. So encouraging adaptive reuse, restoration, conservation, etc. So sorry. Where in the city should the focus be about enhancing? So making targeted improvements for flexibility, for quality of life, to kind of refine or kind of build on a pattern that's already working well, but that has a couple of areas where targeted improvements would make a big difference. And then lastly, what areas of the city really need to adapt? Places that need to have a shift in their development pattern to really serve the purpose and sort of support the needs of the city as we look to the next decade and what, you know, what does the city need to have available to really thrive, you know, through the changes that are coming. And so these are areas where there might be more targeted efforts needed to really fulfill that potential and sort of have these areas support the city and sort of the neighborhoods around them in the best way possible. And so this is something that, you know, again, encourage you to spend some more time with it, but you'll see here that, you know, the downtown is not a highlight for adaptation, you know, that, that larger shift in development pattern. It's really about preserving what's there continuing to kind of do that sort of more surgical alteration and really giving that focus to like, how do we guide change in these areas that, that really need more guidance. And so with that, you know, as we think about where we're headed to, we wanted to start by understanding kind of what are the patterns of development today? So this is often called, you know, people refer to this as like character or a development pattern, or oftentimes if people are very familiar with zoning, this is similar to zoning, but it's not quite the same. So what we've added here is a sort of capturing our read of the city, how it functions today. So We have different place types, the downtown, which has a sort of its own clear identity, existing neighborhood centers, which right now and looking at the city, we don't really see a strong presence of neighborhood centers as sort of like a, you know, a real hub of activity outside of downtown. We do see neighborhood corridors like Islington. We see suburban corridors like Route 1 or Lafayette. And then in terms of the residential districts, we see downtown neighborhoods, traditional neighborhoods, that's sort of the pre-war neighborhoods that are then kind of outside that early kind of colonial close-in ring that's right around downtown. And then garden neighborhoods, so generally post-war, a little bit less dense and sort of more present with landscaping and such. And then in terms of the more kind of business industrial neighborhoods, place types, we see the civic hub, unemployment hubs, sort of places where there's a strong presence of civic institutions like libraries, schools, et cetera, and places that have, you know, strong industrial employment or kind of larger employers that are institutional or kind of sort of present beyond the downtown. So this is really a starting point for thinking about, you know, where is the city going? We want to first understand where is the city today? So this kind of gives you a sense of those. You can view this on the website to kind of read in more detail, but they're grouped by centers and corridors, special use districts and neighborhoods. And this is sort of a framework to understand what are the characteristics that are important that tie these areas together and also kind of what targeted improvements might be beneficial to kind of do their best for the community. So to think about how that bridges to where we're going, in most cases, we're suggesting kind of a continuation of the patterns that exist now, sort of that sort of targeted improvements. But we really want to see a focus on how to cultivate these neighborhood centers. And so you'll see here we've pulled out five areas of focus here. to cultivate those new neighborhood centers. And that's in that kind of darkest nucleus that you're seeing there in each of those black outlines. And the idea here is to really shift the pattern there and sort of help to create a local destination That dynamic mix of housing, commercial uses, public spaces, institutions, and infrastructure that serve the immediate neighborhood surrounding it. And so the idea is that each of these would have a distinct sort of character, distinct sort of contribution, but all of them would be serving as that local destination that sort of really connected to the neighborhoods around them. Zooming into those, this is really where we've spent the most time for our visioning work with the city and based on the feedback that we've gotten from the community to think about how do we promote adaptation in these areas to get from the existing communities or place type to that future vision of a place type or development pattern that would really help to fulfill all of these goals and sort of the needs that came through. For instance, housing was a huge theme and sort of focus of people's need for attainable housing options that really suited their stage of life and their income. And so this is something that we feel these neighborhood centers, these kind of future neighborhood centers have a really critical role to play in providing high quality housing options that meet people's needs now and into the future. So a critical tool in bringing that about or sort of making the conditions where that's possible is zoning. So this is the regulations that control what can and cannot happen on private land. And so within each of these sort of degree of change areas, so preserve, enhance, and adapt, there are different ideas about what kinds of zoning changes would be beneficial. So in terms of preserve, looking at... simplifying downtown zoning. So it's really kind of able to achieve the goals that it sets out to do, but to do so in a way that's more intuitive and sort of efficient in the way that people can get to that outcome. And also to enhance resilient zoning. This is, you know, there's already tools in place, but in particular, looking into the future at flood risk, thinking about how can zoning better encourage development to be compatible with and sort of adapted to that sort of future flood risk. For areas of enhancements, so again, that's sort of the white areas on this map, looking at targeted improvements for flexibility and quality of life, calibrating zoning to support diversity and sort of flexibility where needed. The biggest area of kind of intervention or improvement here would be creating more flexibility in existing residential districts so it's possible to build the kinds of housing that Portsmouth residents and community members need today. And again, also looking into the future as people age in place and look to kind of different housing types. And then last but not least, this is perhaps the area of sort of the biggest sort of change and sort of focus is continuing to refine the existing gateway neighborhood districts to continue to support kind of this integrated vision for what these neighborhood centers can and should look and feel like. In addition to the zoning work, mobility is really a critical piece of how all this comes together. And a lot of this is municipal capital investments, but it's also how does the private sector contribute to meeting these goals? So thinking about how future investment can prioritize walkability and intersection safety. We've heard a lot of feedback about concerns around pedestrian experience, accessibility, safety. And so thinking about how do we really where that matters most, where there's that highest impact on people's experience and people's sense of safety, how do we make improvements that will make a big difference? We also heard a lot of interest in a bike priority network that's sort of connecting key employment and recreational destinations to those neighborhood centers. This is something that is also kind of Well, developed in the bike pad plan so we're just kind of carrying that idea forward an interest in how we better accommodate motorized micro mobility so things like scooters etc and then transit priority routes and stops is also a critical focus. looking at, you know, what routes are sort of doing the most work in terms of connecting these sort of gateway neighborhood centers to the employment hubs and sort of recreational destinations in the city and how do we continue to prioritize improved service on those routes to make sure that it's possible for people to, you know, get to their destination in a variety of different ways. In terms of, you know, the sort of walkability and intersection safety, we wanted to identify a handful of kind of crossroads that are really key intersections that are important areas, you know, of transition access that really would benefit from safety wayfinding. So that's like, you know, signage, et cetera, to guide people through decision-making and public space enhancements that will really just have an outsized impact on people's experience and sort of level of safety in the city. So that's kind of the full suite. That's what we have for you to kind of review today and sort of digest as we're moving towards the end of this planning process. We welcome you to jump to the website. You can scan the QR code here to get there. This is the best place to kind of see all the materials we have, including the full written draft recommendations, the open house boards and presentation slides, and the the comment form that we have available. We anticipate this will likely close at the end of July. We'd love to hear from you. And this is really the best time to sort of share what your thoughts are on where the sort of draft recommendations have landed so that we can carry that forward as we prepare the final plan document. And that will be coming forward in the fall. We're aiming for September, may drift into October, depending on how things go. And that will really be the full document. You can see everything in one place and we'll be welcoming public comment at that time as well. So I'll leave you there and hope that you are able to peruse the materials at your leisure and share with us any comments that you have for us to incorporate into the final version of the plan. Thank you so much.