The Town of Temple will be holding a charrette Friday, Oct. 14, to address challenges faced by the community, and all residents are invited to participate. 

Public listening sessions will be held from 3:30 to 5 p.m. and 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Temple Town Hall, 423 Route 45. The charrette team will then present recommendations Saturday, Oct. 15, at 3 p.m., also at Town Hall.

The word “charrette,” from the French word for “cart” or “charriot,” is used to refer to a period of design or planning. It has evolved to refer to a technique for consulting with all stakeholders in planning decisions. Temple’s charrette is coordinated by Plan NH, a membership-based nonprofit that includes architects, builders, planners and designers. The charrette team includes volunteers who are all professionals within their industries.

Christine Robidoux, who is chair of the Planning Board and Community Advisory Committee, as well as vice chair of the Land Use Committee, said all three boards and committees have had a hand in bringing Plan NH’s charrette team to Temple. 

“Over the past couple of years, the CAC has been talking to residents, and other boards and committees, to find out what is most important to them as far as planning for the future in Temple,” she said, adding that town leaders are aware they aren’t always reaching everyone.

Robidoux said she learned about Plan NH while doing research on housing challenges and how to balance planning with the community’s goals, including the master plan’s vision statement. After attending a few of their workshops and speaking with representatives from other towns who have done charrettes, it seemed like a good fit for Temple, she said.

“The CAC proposed the charrette to the Select Board and all of the other boards and committees in town, [and] they were unanimously on board to proceed with the application,” she said. “We received a grant from NH Housing Finance Authority because of our focus on creating new affordable housing opportunities in Temple.”

The affordable housing conversation has come up many times over the years, said Robidoux, who became involved in 2019 at a time when proposed zoning changes by the Planning Board were raising concerns for some residents.

“At the same time, Temple was facing another recurring challenge, low enrollment at our elementary school,” she said.  “As a result of both of those issues, the Community Advisory Committee was formed to look at opportunities to attract young families to Temple without dramatically changing our landscape… along with looking for ways to engage citizens who don’t normally get involved in order to broaden these conversations.”

A year later, Robidoux said the Temple Land Use Committee was formed to look at all town-owned land to make recommendations on the best use of those properties. Several of those properties – which have been incorporated in the upcoming charrette – have been sold for single-family homes, and a couple of them have been identified for conservation. 

A Temple Planning Board survey was done in 2021 seeking residents’ input on what type of housing they felt would be most suitable for Temple. This year, Robidoux said the board is applying for a grant from the InvestNH fund to engage and educate the community further on housing options and to do a housing needs assessment “since we don’t really know how much affordable housing we have.”

“[We are also] doing a full regulatory review to make sure we are up to date and using all of the tools at our disposal to support our residents who want to stay in Temple but find it financially challenging,” she said. “Community engagement is a huge part of this grant opportunity.”

The charrette will be Temple’s first, and Robidoux said it’s likely there will be a learning curve.

“Residents likely don’t know what to expect,” she said. “It’s really important for [them] to know that the charrette is the beginning of the conversation, not the end.”

The Plan NH team will make recommendations and appropriate boards and committees will take the recommendations into review, followed by public forums on any proposals or follow-up questions and ideas, Robidoux said,  adding that hopefully some tangible options will arise that can be presented to voters in the future.

“We won’t be making any final decisions (this week),” she said, adding that the hope is to receive input from Temple residents on current challenges and opportunities in the village center, the Holt and Skladany properties and for the land next to TES that “we feel would be suitable for some sort of affordable housing development.”

Most importantly, Robidoux said, the charrette is an opportunity for residents to sit down and talk to their neighbors about the issues that are affecting everyone.

“We don’t get many opportunities to really sit down and listen to each other. In these increasingly divided times, I hope that this brings us all a little bit closer together.”

Each listening session will be conducted in a small group discussion format, with Plan NH team members acting as facilitators and scribes. There will be time allotted for general discussion after each session. On Saturday, Oct. 15, at 3 p.m., the Plan NH Team will present its recommendations, as well as a summary of the charrette program.

Zoom option is available

A Zoom option is available for both public input listening sessions, and people are asked to send email to templebroadband@templenh.org to register and indicate which session they plan to attend.

For the first listening session, Oct. 14 from 3:30 to 5 p.m., the link is at us02web.zoom.us/j/4277886609, the meeting ID is 427 788 6609 and the passcode is 400400. For the second session, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., the link is at us02web.zoom.us/j/86079485296, the meeting ID is 860 7948 5296 and the passcode is 470826.

For the presentation Oct. 15, , the link is at us02web.zoom.us/j/82895633118, the meeting ID is 828 9563 3118 and the passcode is 314302.