When it Comes to Zoning, Know What You Are Voting For

Important Update March 10, 2014: According to Town Planning Director Rick Sawyer, the Overlay District was voted on by the citizens on the March 13, 2012 ballot and was passed 3402 to 957 (78%). We suspect most had no idea that they were voting on turning a section of Bedford into Portsmouth.

The Ped/Bike Plan does not require a town wide vote and was adopted by the Planning Board on February 10, 2014 and by the Town Council on February 26, 2014 both following public hearings by each board.

The Planning Board will be developing a regulation to implement the recommended changes for site plans and subdivisions over the coming weeks which they will discuss at the March 24, 2014 meeting.  The public hearing has not been scheduled, but it may be held on either April 7th or 21st.

We are still researching whether this initiative is being enabled by NHHFA/HUD/GSF and will update when we get that information.
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Does Bedford NH, a mostly rural town, really need or want bike paths? Same goes for ‘overlay zoning’ to create mixed use 'smart growth' neighborhoods, as well as ‘workforce housing’. What workforce are we serving?

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

From the UL article: "Bedford adopts master plan for bicycle-pedestrian paths"
 
"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.”

Info here: http://www.bedfordnh.org/Pages/BedfordNH_Planning/BikePed

Perhaps now we have the reason why Town Councilors want  to remove your right to vote on zoning.
 
The same thing is going on in Rindge and Bow: “Your town is missing a center" they tell the towns officials. Rindge's grant came from NHHFA, and NHHFA got it from HUD. The federal government has a plan and that plan requires towns  to change their zoning. It is important to point out that Rindge belongs to SWRPC, but the selectmen said NO to Granite State Future. Rindge’s proposed plan contains sidewalks and bike paths too.

Seems some folks want to turn Bedford into Portsmouth. No thanks.

Are we going to let the federal government come in and change our zoning laws so they can urbanize our rural NH towns?

Watch the video and you will hear the usual buzzwords from the 'consultants' — 'mixed use', 'compact housing', 'sprawl', 'walkable cities', etc: http://trms.bedfordtv.com/CablecastVOD/4497-1-1-RiverCorridorSmartGrowthDistrict.wmv

Is Smart Growth Really Smart?
http://bloomfield.patch.com/groups/sue-ann-pennas-blog/p/bp--is-smart-growth-really-smart

More drawbacks to 'smart growth': http://youtu.be/pMfUva0w8QA