Planning Board to take up Dover 2023 vision at June 12 meeting

As a first step in updating its Master Plan, the City is in the process of developing a vision statement which will serve as a guide for all other Master Plan updates and chapters.

“Because the vision will guide the Master Plan, which in turn guides the entirety of the City’s decision making process, it’s critical that the vision is truly reflective of the community’s goals and desires,” said Planning Director Christopher Parker.

To help develop the vision, the City contracted with Roger Hawk of Hawk Planning Resources, LLC, based in Concord, to plan and facilitate a series of community meetings. Overseeing the effort is the Master Plan Steering Committee, made up of citizen volunteers. These volunteers have guided the process and worked with the City’s consultant to ensure that the vision developed will reflect the community’s values.

The visioning process, titled “Dover 2023: Building Our Tomorrow” in honor of Dover’s 400th Anniversary which will be in 2023, began on March 10 with a community wide meeting held at the Dover Middle School.

“The March tenth meeting was designed to get the community thinking about what it likes about Dover and what it sees as some of its challenges,” Hawk said. “The idea was to get folks excited about what this City is and can be.”

The March kick-off was followed by six neighborhood meetings held at the elementary schools in March and April. At the March neighborhood meetings, participants were asked to “dream big” about Dover’s future without consideration as to cost or feasibility. Based on these meetings, a list of goals and ideas was developed and categorized by Hawk. The April meetings were designed to begin to prioritize these goals based on the ease or difficulty of implementation.

A draft vision statement was prepared following the April meetings, and at the final two meetings held in May, participants were asked to go through the draft vision in detail to double check the results and provide comments and feedback. “The overall project has benefitted from active and engaged participants,” says Hawk. “People who attended the events were vocal and thoughtful when giving their input.”

The draft vision statement will be considered by the Planning Board at its workshop on Tuesday, June 12. Parker feels confident that because of the Dover 2023 neighborhood meetings, the vision that is finally adopted will be truly reflective of the community’s values.

“Some municipalities permit staff or the Planning Board to develop their vision,” Parker said. “In Dover, we recognize that our residents, property owners and business owners are the ones who should decide where we go in the next 15 years.”

For more information, visit www.dover2023.com where the draft vision and results of the community meetings can be viewed.

The draft vision will be considered by the Planning Board at its workshop on June 12, at 7 p.m. Members of the community are welcome and encouraged to attend.