Why Portsmouth Needs a Town Planner

Some town council members have questioned the need for a Portsmouth Town Planner, indicating that this function could be accomplished by volunteers or part-time by other town employees. I think that this is an extremely short-sighted view and consider that there is a vital need for keeping a professional town planner position in Portsmouth, especially with all the numerous planning-related issues currently ongoing in town.  

If citizens are concerned about how the Town will look many years from now, the Town Planner is critical to make sure the correct planning is in place to ensure the preservation of the Town’s character. Zoning issues, waste-water issues, land use issues, and all planning issues (especially the Comprehensive Plan) require a full-time, dedicated town planner, with the proper professional credentials and background. Without a knowledgeable Town Planner, future commercial interests may overwhelm the Town staff with lawyers and engineers and force our Town to turn into something we don’t want. 

I note that we have a dedicated and experienced public servant with that critical skill-set combination in our current assistant town planner, Gary Crosby.

The duties of a town planner are many and varied, as this short list of planning responsibilities shows:

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Supervise the maintenance and updating of the Comprehensive Community Plan, the Zoning Ordinance and various other ordinances and regulations, as needed;
• Supervise any and all long-range, comprehensive planning studies;
• Gather and analyze information about population, land use, economic and environmental conditions, physical features and other data describing the Town;
• Implement the Comprehensive Community Plan by developing plans for land use and zoning, transportation and utility systems, agriculture, recreation and open space and other all other elements of the Comp Plan;
• Ensure the Town’s compliance with all Federal and State planning-related laws, rules and regulations;
• Review proposed development in the Town and prepare recommendations to the Planning Board on agenda items, when requested;
• Review all applications for relief from the Zoning Ordinance and prepare recommendations to the Zoning Board, when requested;
• Review all proposed amendments to the Zoning ordinance and/or Official Zoning Map and make recommendations to the Town Council, when requested;
• Provide planning-related technical assistance to the Planning Board, Zoning Board, Town Administrator and Town Council, when requested;
• Supervise and conduct studies to solve planning problems either town-wide or limited to a specific geographic or functional area such as neighborhood studies, housing studies including provisions for low-income housing, flood danger studies, beautification studies and others;
•  Seek alternative funding sources through grant writing and administer a variety of assistance programs, as needed.

 This list could go on and on, but to think that all of these important tasks could be done by citizen volunteers or parceled out to other town employees is highly impractical and misguided. 

If you agree that the Town Planner’s position is important, please contact our Town Council President, Joe Robicheau at jrobicheau@portsmouthri.com and/or other town council members and express your views. This important position should not be left out of our Town budget going forward.