SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE, 2003- 2006
Project Description
By combining local knowledge with innovative mapping and implementation tools, the 3i Solutions process assists towns in strategies to shape growth while sustaining natural services and community character. The “three infrastructures” (3i) approach to municipal land-use planning helps towns think consciously about the interactions between their built, green, and social infrastructures. This perspective helps towns identify the most appropriate places for development to occur and desirable forms it can take. The process involves mapping the three infrastructures, evaluating conflicts between existing land use regulations and community vision, developing alternate CommunityViz scenarios, and recommending regulations and incentives to support the community’s vision for the future.
Finance and Support
3i Solutions is a project of the Jordan Institute and NH Audubon. The Orton Family Foundation has provided financial, consulting, and technological assistance throughout project development. Support for 3i implementation in three pilot towns comes primarily from the New Hampshire Fish & Game Department (which is seeking effective ways to work with municipalities in implementing its Wildlife Action Plan) and the Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust.
Stakeholders
Currently, primary stakeholders are residents of three pilot towns in the 26-town I-93 expansion corridor. The highway expansion and an associated community technical assistance program create a unique opportunity to help communities plan for growth.
Methods
The 3i team begins by working with a group of local leaders to review and revise draft maps of built and green infrastructures, and identify elements of social infrastructure for mapping. The green infrastructure is informed by the attributes of a landscape scale Natural Services Network. Next, the team employs public meetings and surveys to capture public opinion about existing conditions of the three infrastructures, as well as desired future conditions. These data provide the basis for developing CommunityViz scenarios to illustrate alternative patterns of growth. Citizens and town officials then review the scenarios and identify the one that best reflects community goals. This scenario provides the baseline for a regulatory audit of existing land use regulations. The audit identifies existing regulations that support and conflict with identified goals, and provides model language for supportive regulations and voluntary practices that the town may choose to adopt.
Outcomes
The project is still underway, but preliminary outcomes include:
- New appreciation for community character defined through the extent and interaction of built, ecological, and social attributes;
- Increased citizen understanding of community natural resources in regional context through spatial and statistical analyses;
- Science-based identification of candidate areas in the community for land protection and conservation-based development;
- Exploration of possible alternate future development patterns based on CommunityViz scenarios,
- Consideration of new tools for shaping local growth patterns and development.
Evaluation
Evaluation tools will include surveys of project partners and citizens and town officials in each community.
Innovative Ideas
The unique contributions of 3i Solutions include:
- A process for defining community character in terms of the interaction of a community’s environmental, social, and built features;
- The identification of constraints and synergies affecting progress toward community goals for future growth;
- Provision of implementation tools with both regulatory and voluntary approaches.
http://www.thejordaninstitute.org
3I SOLUTIONS AT A GLANCE
COMMUNITY TYPE
Rural/suburban towns
AREA
92 square miles
POPULATION
22,500
LOCATION
Southern New Hampshire
PROCESS
3i Infrastructures Approach
Visioning
PROJECT LEADERS
The Jordan Institute
NH Audubon
PROJECT THEMES
Conservation
Development
Community character