New Urbanism Key to Maintaining Cherished NH Communities

As part of the Earth Day festivities, private environmental planner and faculty member Steve Whitman spoke on new urbanism and smart growth. He talked largely about the Plymouth area, as well as New Hampshire as a whole. While many residents living in Plymouth may feel as if the area is getting too crowded, they may be surprised to learn that Plymouth is doing better than many communities when it comes to reducing sprawl and protecting the community. “Generally, people don’t say ‘we want to increase sprawl,” Whitman noted. “For a lot of towns [new urbanism] means investing in what’s already there…Plymouth is not unlike a lot of other small towns.” What Whitman means is that it is important for communities to use the resources they already have rather than building new ones. Part of smart growth is having many resources in the same area. Plymouth is a good example of this. There are residences above the stores on Main Street. Store fronts have often been remodeled with the comings and goings of businesses. This is a better alternative to building from scratch at a fresh or demolished site. Whitman compared new urbanism building, sometimes known as Traditional New Development (TND), with Conventional Suburban Development (CSD). Under TND building style, there should be a distinct town center, interconnected streets, a walkable or multimodal oriented community, have large shade trees close to the road, have on street parking to slow down traffic and allow you to meet your neighbors, and provoke a sense of community. In contrast, CSD has no form, lots of cul-de-sacs, has no trees on the side of the street because of liability fears, encourages off street parking which pushes us into our garages and away from other people, and is highly automobile oriented. Commonly, there are no sidewalks or bike paths. One thing many people fear in this area is overcrowding. Much of what we love about rural New England is how close to nature (and far from other people) you can be. Whitman says it is not uncommon to feel like a sudden burst of development came out of nowhere. In many communities, it does just that. When Wal-Mart came to town a few years ago, many were threatened that Plymouth would soon be overrun with new residents and businesses. Whitman feels that “Wal-Mart didn’t attract residential development,” and only recently has retail been drawn to the area. “Plymouth serves a massive labor market,” Whitman reminded an audience full of questions about the changing shape of this area. One thing to consider is that, even if Plymouth decides to vote against “big box” development like Lowes, another community will likely accept the project instead. This means Plymouth could have to deal with the traffic and pollution of a store without gaining its economic benefits. Residents of small and large communities alike need to be smart when thinking about future growth. It is easy to lose the character, community, and history of a community when construction projects develop left and right. “People talk about this all the time,” Whitman commented. “It needs to be on the lips of your friends and family.”