Planning boards across the region are tackling updates of their towns’ master plans, creating a vision of each town’s future.
In Francestown, the master plan committee, a subcommittee of the planning board, is asking all town residents to fill out a survey about their wants, needs, and any concerns about the future of Francestown as the first step in revising the town’s master plan.
“We are putting out a plea to every resident to please, please, take the survey,” said Judy Bitterli, chair of Francestown’s Master Plan Subcommittee. “Every resident gets a seat at the table. The survey will show everyone’s priorities, not just the loudest voice in the room. This is a chance for everyone in town to be heard.”
Francestown’s master plan survey will be available after Labor Day online, in print, and at community gatherings. Each resident will receive a mailing card with a link to the survey, and the link will also be posted on the town website.
“We’ll have our committee members at town events with survey in hand,” Bitterli said. “We are just trying to get as many people as possible involved. As a team, we really believe that the master plan only works if it is built from the ground up. The priorities don’t come from the committee. They have to come from the people who live here.”
While it is commonly accepted that master lans must be updated every 10 years, according to the N.H. Municipal Association, there is no actual time requirement. Revisions are recommended for every five to 10 years, with most towns creating an updated master plan every 10 years.
According to the municipal association, a town’s master plan “serves to guide the overall future character, growth, and development of a community. It describes how, why, where, and at what pace a community desires to improve its built environment, economy, and quality of life. It provides guidance to local officials when they are making decisions on budgets, ordinances, capital improvements, zoning, and subdivision and site plan regulations.”
Francestown’s master plan subcommittee, which began meeting in April 2026, is currently completing the pre-work for the survey.
“Over the summer, we set up two workshops in a structured way so people could let us know what they value, what they love about Francestown, or what they think should not be happening,” Bitterli said.
The most recent workshop attracted about 50 residents.
“We were happy with the turnout, and we got a good cross section, demographically. We had older people, younger people, people from all walks of life,” Bitterli said. “Resident input is the foundation of the survey.”
The master plan subcommittee is incorporating current best practices for survey writing.
“We’re very intentional about not leading the witness. We do things like, we ask people to rate something from 1 to 5, rather than asking if they like something or not,” Bitterli said. “Our old draft had 100 questions, which is too long, so we’re shortening the survey to just what we want to know. Over the past 10 years, everyone’s been trained with brevity, everyone has a shorter attention span now, and no one has time.”
According to the municipal association, issues frequently included in master plans include land use, zoning and conservation. More recently, many New Hampshire towns are including goals for sustainability, water planning, transportation, and renewable energy, as well as strategies for affordable housing.
“The point of the master plan to make sure the town’s mission aligns with the mission and vision outlined in the plan, because it represents what residents want,” Bitterli said. “The planning board and the select board really believe that the master plan is not just a document that sits on a shelf. It has to be a shared vision for the next decade.”
Bitterli says while it is too soon to anticipate what the most prevalent concerns of Francestown residents will be, one issue that did come up in the workshops was property taxes.
“We did hear about property taxes and affordability,” Bitterli said. “Those are for sure a concern for people.”
After survey results are in, the subcommittee will tally the results and present them to the select board.
“The goal is to get ahead our budget cycle, which starts in September. We’ll get the responses into an executive summary, and we need to have that completed by November, and we hope to have to the actual plan written by first quarter next year,” Bitterli said.
Francestown’s master plan subcommittee members include Bitterli, Susan Kane, Gerri Bernstein, Karen Fitzgerald, Betsy Hardwick, Scot Heath, Ari Levine and Sarah Pyle.
“We have really deep expertise on this committee, and we also have people with really good hearts who just want to help the town,” Bitterli said.
Antrim preparing to release updated master plan to public
After over two years of visioning, outreach and revision, the Antrim Planning Board is preparing to present the town’s updated master plan to the public this fall.
“We probably just need maybe one more visioning session and we’re good to go,” said board member Ken Rubin at the Thursday night meeting of the planning board.
The town’s most recent master plan was completed in 2010, and efforts to revise it, starting in 2020, were derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The master plan revision process has included surveys, workshops, and visioning sessions with residents.
The draft of the plan states that, based on the completed visioning process, residents’ priority is “to preserve Antrim’s small-town charm that combines thoughtful development with scenic beauty and natural landscapes.”
The plan’s goals include fostering sustainable economic development; protecting Antrim’s natural resources, particularly water and watersheds; and incentivizing the creation of attainable and diverse housing options, including cluster housing and housing within Antrim’s village water and sewer district.
The plan also lists reducing energy consumption as a priority, including promoting energy-conscious development, and states the town’s intention to increase its reliance on renewable energy sources.
Another revised master plan goal is to promote a sustainable, engaged model for solid waste management. The goal states that Antrim “will challenge the outdated assumption that waste management ends at the landfill, and that Antrim will consider every stage of the waste management process from product design to consumption to disposal and re-use.”
The master plan photography contest, extended through September, seeks photos of Antrim to be included in the master plan. For more information, go to antrimnh.org/planning-board/pages/master-plan-photography-contest.