All right.

I'm going to call the meeting to order.

A meeting of planning and economic development committee was held today, Tuesday, September 16th, 2025 at 7 p.m.

in the automatic chamber.

And duly notice in two places, including the city's website in accordance with the requirements of RSA 91A.

Well, the curk Clerk, please call the role.

Alderman at large, Melbourne Moran Junior Chair.

Here.

Alderman at Large, Ben Clemens.

Here.

Alderman Derrick Thibault is here.

Alderman Ernest Jetty.

Here.

Alderman Tyler Govea, Vice Chair.

Here.

We have five.

We also have Planning Manager Sam Durfee and Director Matt Sullivan's on Zoom.

Great.

And before we're Alderman Clee is also here.

Sorry.

Great.

Thank you, everyone for attending.

And what we'll do first is call for public comment.

I see no one here from the public.

So we'll move on to presentations.

Manager Durfee, would you like to come and start your presentation?

You have do you need this?

I would like that.

Thank you.

All right.

Take it away.

Well, good evening, Mr.

Chair, members of Nashua's most esteemed aldermanic committee.

Thank you very much for having me back.

This is our, I believe, sixth session on the code.

Hopefully that this has been a positive exercise for everyone as we slowly digest various elements of the code.

I think that you all probably appreciate how how dense and how much there is to cover through land use regulations.

So tonight's topics are going to be the zoning map as well as talking about green score.

But just as a little refresher, how far we've come.

We we began these back with just a general introduction in October.

We got into building types and density earlier this year, kind of building on incrementally, you know, from the building blocks of the code, how it functions, and then the various um pieces that come together and play through the whole uh development process, really.

And um I chose these two topics for this evening.

Um slightly unrelated topics.

Uh the zoning map is important because we've uh had multiple opportunities to engage with the public as well as um property owners, developers, uh, and other individuals who have had time to look at the zoning map and have had questions, comments, concerns, and we've had very fruitful discussions.

Um overall, you know, it's it's we've come away with the impression that it's fairly accurate with how we've uh zoned things, but we've had a little tweaks along the way, so um I can talk about some of those this evening.

Uh green score uh is as well as use table and site standards, which we'll do uh in two weeks' time.

Uh much more focused around the development side of things, you know, site specific.

Um so I guess tonight's a little bit uh mix of of macro and micro, if you will.

Um so without further ado, let's uh let's get right into the zoning map.

Whoops.

All right.

So um why?

Why are we updating the zoning map?

Um I've I'm sure I've been quoted in multiple public meetings, or at least there's evidence of me saying so uh in the recordings that our current zoning map is is kind of a patchwork.

Um it has been it was originally developed, I believe, in 2008, and then through multiple um zoning ordinance changes, map changes.

Um it's it's evolved.

Um in some ways, we're trying to play catch up with kind of modern times, if you will, where we've done a lot of expansion of the MU overlay, which you know the planning board enjoys a large amount of flexibility afforded to it in that overlay, and we've expanded that in multiple areas of the city.

Um, that's great.

We do love that flexibility at the planning board, um, but at the same time, it begins to paint another picture of well, it seems like the rest of the zoning map just is in dire need of an update.

And for some data points behind that, you know, you'll see in the third bullet point higher caseload at the zoning board than the planning board.