What do you think Concord should look like in 10 or 20 years?
As the Concord city government embarks on an overhaul of its master plan, it has announced dates when officials want to hear what residents would like.
Master plans tie together a city’s vision for growth and development in the future, including how and where growth should be focused, guiding ideas on where to invest in infrastructure like roads and sidewalks, and how to draw up rules that might deliver those results.
The plan, once finished, isn’t a legally binding guidebook, but it does influence how decisions are made and how change unfolds. The master plan will determine how the city writes its development regulations and inform its capital improvement plans.
A consultant will do most of the legwork on developing and writing the new master plan, with input from the public and from members on a handful of the city’s volunteer boards. It is the planning board, not the city council, that has the final say over the finished product.
Public input will be taken in three main forms: an open house, a community survey and neighborhood forums.
The open house will take place at the Capital Center for the Arts on the morning of Saturday, Sept. 19. It will follow a brainstorming format, with people stopping at stations with separate themes, such as housing or transportation, and sharing ideas on how they want Concord to evolve and develop.
A community survey will be sent out this fall, according to a presentation to the planning board. Neighborhood meetings — one each for East Concord, Downtown and the West End, the Heights, Penacook Village, the South End and West Concord — will be held early in 2027.
There will also be select focus groups around certain issues and communities, such as housing and New Americans.
In May, city officials selected Boston-based Utile to take on the master plan update. The group is currently finishing up a master plan update for Portsmouth and has worked with communities across the region, including Salem and Nashua in New Hampshire, plus Burlington, Vt., and Portland, Maine.
The city expects a plan to be ready for approval by mid-2028, according to a timeline from Utile.
The New Hampshire Municipal Association recommends that master plans be updated every five to ten years. Concord’s current plan dates back to 2008.
An overhaul of the city’s zoning ordinances will follow, based on the master plan.
