Planning Board adopts Culture and Recreation chapter of Master Plan

posted on: 5/29/2020

At its May 26 meeting, the Planning Board unanimously adopted the Culture and Recreation chapter of the City's Master Plan.

The updated Culture and Recreation Chapter of the Master Plan replaces the 2009 Recreation Chapter and adds culture to its title to address the arts in Dover. The chapter also includes more details about programming for culture and recreation in the community than in the previous chapter.

The updated chapter follows the work of a steering committee; City staff; the Strafford Regional Planning Commission (SRPC), which served as the consultant; and significant public input.

During the fall of 2019, the City of Dover and SRPC attended four community events (two Art Walks, the Downtown Trick-or-Treat, and Apple Harvest Day), conducted surveys on art and recreation, and gathered information at different City locations such as outside the City Clerk’s office in City Hall. This past winter, SRPC and staff met to review previous Master Plan recommendations to discuss what had been accomplished, what has not yet been accomplished, and how to overcome any obstacles as well as adding new recommendations. This spring, members of the steering committee, Recreation Advisory Board, and SRPC reviewed different recreation sites in person to fill out site assessments to see what was needed at each location.

"The Steering Committee, Arts Commission, staff, and our consultant, SRPC have taken the public input gathered from the fall from over 1,200 respondents and created up-to-date recreation and culture recommendations," said City Planner Donna Benton. "The combination of culture and recreation goes hand in hand to help continue making Dover a wonderful place to live, work, visit, and certainly play.”

The draft chapter presented to the Planning Board for consideration can be viewed here.

The Culture and Recreation Chapter presentation to the Planning Board on May 26 can be viewed here: https://dovernh.viebit.com/player.php?hash=Jj8lAPdzNQq1#.