On Thursday, August 13, the Planning Board held a Master Plan public forum at the East Wakefield Fire Station.
As this was the first forum for many of the members of the public in attendance, the discussions provided a brief overview of the Master Plan process, the purpose of the document, and a summary of the discussions from previous forums. Those in attendance offered some additional comments regarding the economic development potential for the Town of Wakefield and discussed the types of businesses they would like to see in town. The discussion then turned to the population growth that the Town has experienced over the last 30+ years.
The Town of Wakefield has consistently experienced a population growth rate that exceeds that of neighboring communities, Carroll and Strafford Counties, and the State of New Hampshire. You may wonder why Strafford County is included in the comparison. The Town of Wakefield is unique in that while it is located in Carroll County, it is also part of the Rochester-Dover Labor Market Area. So characteristics of both counties may impact population growth in Wakefield.
During the period of 1960 through 2008, the population of the Town of Wakefield increased by slightly more than 295%. The State of NH, Carroll and Strafford Counties experienced population increases of 116.7%, 199.4% and 105.4%, respectively, for the same period. The NH Office of Energy and Planning projects that the population for the Town of Wakefield will increase another 24.1% over the next 12 years.
What has brought about such a significant increase in population? Most likely, many factors are involved. The comparatively low housing cost combined with an exceptional quality of life is likely to attract many new residents to the community. Conversion of seasonal homes to primary homes would result in an increase in population as seasonal residents retire to these homes. Increasing housing costs in communities to our south, as well as decreasing availability of land in those communities, would contribute to an increase in population as people seek housing that is more affordable.
The age distribution of the population is another key component of a population analysis from a planning perspective. For example, an aging population will place increasing demands on emergency services while, at the same time, can contribute to declining revenues as more homeowners become eligible for the elderly tax exemption program. An increasing number of young families will place more demand on the school system. Therefore, it is necessary to understand more about the town’s population than just the number of residents. These analyses will be part of the Master Plan process and will be posted on the blog as they are completed.
And a note of thanks to Mary Richards. The Planning Board would like to thank Mary Richards for all of her assistance in organizing the East Wakefield Master Plan forum.
The next public forum will be at Town Hall on Thursday, September 10th. We hope to see you there.
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One of the big problems with attracting either commercial or light industrial business to Wakefield is the lack of available land in attractive locations. Commercial business wants to be near residences or traffic - we addressed the residences issue in the big zoning change a few years back by adding bus/comm zoning areas all around town, but we never did address the high traffic (Rt 16) issue. Light Industry also wants to be near Rt. 16 because they need access to trucking/rail.
ReplyDeleteAround 10 years ago, the PB considered using the land bordering all of Rt. 16 in Wakefield for commercial/light industrial use. The idea was to overlay the existing RIII/Ag zoning with a Commercial/Light Industrial zone. That way, the land could be used as is, or for comm/light ag, as the land owner desired, and it would provide Rt 16 land for Comm and light ind. No one would want Rt 16 in Wakefield to deteriorate into a series of strip malls like elsewhere along the road, so, to deal with this and other potential aesthetic issues, we planned on requiring a large natural vegetative buffer (say 100 - 150 ft plus the ROW) between the business and Rt 16.
We thought we might be able to attract hi-tech industries who would need a research facility or a company compound, or a training center, or a regular business park, etc. Dave Schweitzer has a good idea about computer back-up sites. The visual model would be the research triangle business park in Raleigh, NC. This is a beautiful, huge (thousands of acres) facility that, except for tasteful signs, cannot be seen from the surrounding highways.
Such companies bring many very high paying jobs, and the downstream effect on local construction is great because folks with high paying jobs want nice houses. Also, lots of high end businesses would be attracted to the area to cater to such folks.
A proposed zoning amendment for the overlay was defeated, primarily due to active campaigning by a few folks who were concerned with: (a) traffic issues on Rt 16, and (b) that the terrain bordering 16 was too steep to allow development, and (c)that the land should all go into conservation, and, (d) and that the land is underlain by an aquifer. There is of course no answer to (c), and regarding (d) the entire town is underlain by an aquifer. Regarding (a) and (b), any large developer/business would build off ramps/overpasses, or whatever cutting or filling or other terrain alteration was needed. This seemed incredible to opponents, but it is certainly easily within the grasp of large scale developers/businesses/hi-tech companies.
I still think a commercial/light industrial zone overlay along all of Rt 16 is a great idea, provided the zoning is carefully worded to prevent the strip mall effect.
Joe Fluet