Definitive Plan
In October of 2003, the Board of Selectmen requested Town Staff to create a Definitive Plan for HHNP. A link to the BOS meeting is here.
The plan is described in the 10/23/2003 minutes as follows:
Town Manager Shankle and Jay Minkarah, Director of Community Development, made a staff recommendation regarding the management plan for the Horse Hill Nature Preserve. The recommendation states that the Board of Selectmen should maintain authority with assistance of staff until there is a definitive plan for the property under the general guidelines of the master plan. The staff, under the direction of the Town Manager, would work with experts and consultants for property that would include a contiguous area of at least 500 acres, recommended sites for parking and access points, identification of existing and proposed trails by type and function, and identification of historic and significant features with recommendations regarding preservation and wildlife habitat areas. The plan should be based on input received in public hearings, regulations, policies, etc. Regular updates should be made to the Board with a draft completed by June 30, 2004. The Board of Selectmen may designate the management responsibility of the site to at least one outstanding town committee. Until the plan gets completed, volunteers, clubs, and organizations are encouraged to continue to propose and implement improvements to the property consistent with the draft plan that would not compromise the development of a definitive plan. This would involve appropriate people at the beginning of the development of plans and make the most of the Town’s enthusiasm.
The Definitive Plan was not completed by June of 2004 with Jay Minkarah requesting a delay in February of 2004 with some restructuring of the Ad-Hoc Committee, he described more work was needed and more study also needed. The BOS accepted his recommendations.
From early 2004 through late 2005, Town Staff changed completely and many other factors impeded the development of the Definitive Plan. Then, late in 2005 after a bidding process, the Nashua Regional Planning Commission in conjunction with Tom Kokx was contracted to complete the Definitive Plan.
The NRPC developed a web page to show this work. It is available here.
To get a feel for the process followed, use the links and chronology below...
1.) The NRPC response to the RFP is here. It describes the process to be followed, what was to be developed, and provides credentials on those contracted.
2.) The HHNP Ad-Hoc committee was extended and became the Consensus Building Group. The CBG is described in the proposal document above.
3.) The next step was to come to agreement with a set of Objective Criteria in which all aspects of the Definitive Plan would be weighed against. This objective criteria is available here.
4.) Next, the CBG went through a series of 4 mapping exercises to work through and build consensus on aspects of the Definitive Plan. This process included 5 separate meetings January 2006 through April of 2006.
5.) In the end, the CBG reached consensus on the Definitive Plan and submitted it with 2 minority reports to Town Staff to be forwarded to the Town Council.
6.) Many of the maps developed and a preliminary version of the Definitive plan are available at the NRPC - HHNP website. It is available here.