News

June 2022

What We’ve Heard

The Steering Committee for the Town of Fitzwilliam 2022 Master Plan wishes to thank everyone who completed the Master Plan Surveys, and also everyone who contributed to the Community Forum on March 26th and who took part in the many important discussions and working sessions.  All input gathered will  form the basis of the Master Plan and our collective vision for the future of Fitzwilliam. The Steering Committee has been reviewing the minutes from the Community Forum working sessions, as well as the results of the ongoing Comprehensive Survey, and offers the following summary of “What We’ve Heard'' from you and your neighbors so far.

Recurring Themes From 2022 Surveys & Forum

  • Highest Future Development Priorities:
    • Protect groundwater

    • Preserve historic & rural character

    • Preserve and maintain open spaces

  • Need for better collaboration, communication and coordination between committees and groups in town

  • Desire to utilize existing buildings and town resources better before building new

  • Desire for more effective enforcement of existing rules, regulations, and conditions

  • Concerns about increased services resulting in higher taxes

  • General consensus that The Fitzwilliam Inn is very important to the community and should be saved and supported

 

Key Recommendations Broken Out by Category 


Arts & Culture

  • Expand available venues for artistic and cultural events

  • Offer wide variety of activities and events held in town


Conservation & Natural Resources

  • Study offering more recycling categories and encourage more people and businesses to recycle

  • Promote the use and maintenance of public and conservation land, including walking trails

  • Promote renewable energy sources and upgrade town buildings to higher energy standards

  • Attend to concerns about water contamination, winter storms, and biological hazards

 

Economic Development

  • Make Fitzwilliam a “destination”

  • Convert under-utilized existing buildings to new uses

  • Create a plan to develop  infrastructure to attract business, i.e. three-phase power and cell service

  • Support home-based businesses

  • Promote local mom-and-pop retail, restaurants

  • Study public acquisition of properties leased to private businesses

  • Study options for commercial development along Route 12

  • Create Welcome Center to promote tourism & economic development

 

Historic Preservation and Heritage

  • Better promote important Town history

  • Integrate history and economic development – need community support

  • Promote historical buildings and spaces as gathering places, i.e. a watering hole or recreation/senior center.

 

Population & Housing

  • Improve planning guidelines and ordinances related to housing and development

  • Need Affordable Housing  options

    • Educate so there is better understanding of what is low income vs affordable vs workforce vs market rate

  • Explore options to provide better housing options for seniors

  • Promote housing that will attract younger people and families

  • Steer clear of  ‘suburbia’ or large apartment complexes

  • Group housing together in ways to allow more open space and buffers along frontage; or in ways so as to not threaten rural character and open spaces

 

Youth & Education

  • Re-imagine use of dedicated physical recreational space – use existing assets; 

  • Improve beach area – re-examine the area and how people use it

  • Expand outdoor recreation and offer more recreational activities

  • Study adding sidewalks to town.

 

VISIONING THOUGHTS:

  • Fitzwilliam’s superpower is the combination of its natural environment, historic character, sense of place and its people!

  • Fitzwilliam needs volunteers and community participation, small businesses, the Inn, a community center, and more diverse housing!

  • Fitzwilliam will get there with leadership, planning, and public participation!

 

COMMONALITIES & CONTRADICTIONS
Several ideas or concerns bridge the six categories and reoccur as general themes in our discussions and survey responses. Making better use of existing resources (including buildings and infrastructure) prior to building new structures, protecting and maintaining Fitzwilliam’s rural character and natural environment, and the need to stimulate more economic, cultural, and recreational activity while not adversely affecting Fitzwilliam’s core strengths as a community are all common to a number of different focused discussions.

As should be expected in a community of any size, there are also a few seemingly contradictory ideas that coexist within the collective psyche of Fitzwilliam. While there is a lot of interest in specific initiatives, such as a town beach, a Welcome Center, and infrastructure upgrades, there is also a great deal of interest in not raising taxes in order to pay for these initiatives. While there is support for new commercial and residential development, there is statistically stronger support for not changing the rural or historic character of our town. While these ideas may seem at odds, they also provide important guardrails for planning, fundraising and implementation strategies.

NEXT STEPS
At the time of this writing, we have received approximately 300 responses to the Comprehensive Survey. Fifty-five people attended the Community Forum. We’ve heard from relatively few people between the ages of 18 and 35 years old. We’ve also heard very little from Fitzwilliam’s summer community. We want to hear from everybody! Please provide feedback to the overview provided in this report in order to help us ensure that we are capturing everyone’s ideas and intentions. Feedback can include whether you agree or disagree with our findings, but please be specific, please be constructive, and please be respectful.

There is still time to contribute to this discussion if you haven’t yet had the chance. The Comprehensive Survey will remain available online through June 2022. You can take the survey by accessing this link:

www.surveymonkey.com/r/FitzwilliamMasterPlanSurvey

The survey link is also available on the Town of Fitzwilliam website. Results of the survey are regularly tabulated and available on the town’s website as well. To contact the Steering Committee with questions, ideas or concerns, please reach out to Lori Nolan, Fitzwilliam’s Land Use Coordinator, at fitzlanduse@fitzwilliam-nh.gov. 

Thank you!

Fitzwilliam Master Plan Steering Committee.

March 2022

This month, the Town of Fitzwilliam’s Master Plan Steering Committee will be hosting a Community Forum on Saturday, March 26th at Emerson School. The Forum will take place between 10am and 3pm and all are welcome. After an opening presentation by the Steering Committee, community members will be invited to join a variety of break-out sessions focusing on specific topics, such as Population & Housing, Economic Development, Arts & Culture, Conservation & Natural Resources, Youth & Education, and Historic Preservation & Heritage. 

The Community Forum will be a working session and a chance to collaborate with your neighbors on drafting a plan for the future. The success of this event will, in many ways, be proportional to the number of people who participate, so please make plans to join us, share your ideas, or just listen in. A boxed lunch will be served, note-taking and ideation materials will be provided, and Zoom links will be established for those unable to participate in person.  The product of these working sessions, along with the community surveys, will provide the bulk of feedback that will result in the 2022 Town of Fitzwilliam Master Plan.

By now you should have received a Save-The-Date postcard for the Community Forum in your mailbox. Additionally, yard signs and posters will be appearing around town. We are hoping for a big turn-out, so please mark your calendar and gather your thoughts. And if you have not yet completed the Master Plan Survey, it’s not too late! Completed surveys can still be dropped off at Town Hall or at the Library. As an alternative, you can take the survey online by accessing this link:

www.surveymonkey.com/r/FitzwilliamMasterPlanSurvey

Thank you!

February 2022

Happy February from the Town of Fitzwilliam’s Steering Committee for the 2022 Master Plan. By now you should have received your 2022 Master Plan Survey in the mail. The surveys went out during the first week in January. We are hoping to receive everyone’s completed surveys on or around February 10th. This will ensure that the committee has sufficient time to compile and document responses in preparation for our Community Forum later in the spring. Completed surveys can be dropped off at Town Hall or at the Library. Additional copies can be picked up at those locations as well. As an alternative, you can take the survey online by accessing this link:

www.surveymonkey.com/r/FitzwilliamMasterPlanSurvey

So far, we’ve received a steady flow of completed surveys and many people are opting to use the online option. This is also a helpful feature if there are two or more folks in your household that want their options heard. We are hoping for 100% participation in the survey process and we hope you can do your part in helping us achieve this goal.

Thank you!

January 2022

The Steering Committee for Fitzwilliam’s 2022 Master Plan would like to wish all of our neighbors and fellow community members a very Happy New Year.  2022 is going to be a big year for Fitzwilliam. This spring we will host a Town Forum where, collectively, we will discuss the future of our town, our natural resources, our infrastructure, economic development goals, housing needs, and more. This will be an opportunity for anyone to weigh in and be heard. And we mean anyone! If you’re an Emerson fifth grader with a great idea, we want to hear about it. After all, we’re talking about your future!

In preparation for the Town Forum, the Steering Committee is drafting a comprehensive survey to be mailed to every household over the next week. This questionnaire is designed to gather important baseline information about the Fitzwilliam community, our institutions and resources, in order to provide analysis that will inform the community workshops that will take place during the Forum. Breakout sessions will be led by community leaders and committee members involved in the planning and administration of different disciplines. Your interest or expertise will be critical in forming a vision for the next ten years, the Master Plan.

When you receive the comprehensive survey in the mail, please fill it out and return it to the designated drop-off locations as soon as you can. There will also be an option to take the survey online, so multiple members of your household can, and should, participate. In 2007, the last time we distributed a community-wide survey, we had a return rate of around 25%. Let’s beat that record this year!

December 2021

As we approach the holidays, the Steering Committee for Fitzwilliam’s 2021/22 Master Plan is happy to report some progress on information gathering, citizen outreach, and plans for the coming new year. Responses to our initial public survey have been encouraging, although a little less numerous than had been hoped. We wish to thank those of you who participated, for taking the time and for providing some really helpful information and insight. Your responses have provided the foundation for ongoing outreach, including the development of a more comprehensive questionnaire to be released early in the new year. If you haven’t yet completed the “summer survey,” there is still time to do so. Surveys can be accessed online from Survey Monkey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/26SXB5R) or picked up and dropped off at Town Hall, the Library, and the Transfer Station.

The Steering Committee is busy preparing for two big public events this winter. First, we will be distributing a questionnaire to all households, seeking opinion and data about different aspects of life in Fitzwilliam, from zoning and land use concerns, to housing needs, to the status of economic development initiatives, infrastructure, our natural environment and the historical character of our town. This questionnaire will help establish important quantitative and qualitative data that will become the foundation for each chapter of the Master Plan.


The second big event will be a public Forum, to be held in February 2022. The Steering Committee, in partnership with Fitzwilliam’s Board of Selectmen and Planning Board, will host a community workshop where issues that have been identified through the public outreach process will be presented for discussion. Breakout groups facilitated by Fitzwilliam’s municipal committees, including the Economic Committee and the Conservation Commission, will enable smaller teams of citizens to work together to identify and articulate challenges and opportunities. 


This summer the Steering Committee for the Town of Fitzwilliam Master Plan announced the launch of the 2021/22 Master Plan Reimagining. The volunteer Steering Committee, with the support of the Planning Board and Board of Selectmen, have been meeting every couple of weeks to plot a course that will conclude next year with the publishing of what will amount to the community’s vision and intent for the next ten years. These meetings are open to the public and all are welcome to attend.

October 2021

 

Master Plan Survey #1

From now until the end of the year, the Steering Committee will be reaching out to our neighbors and a variety of stakeholder groups to gather ideas and assemble the first draft of our renewed vision statement. Last month the first of three short surveys was distributed at public events, Town Hall, the Library, the Transfer Station, and in this newsletter! It’s still open, so if you haven’t filled one out yet, please do! The survey can be completed by every member of your household - that way we’ll get the most complete picture. 

This is the beginning of a process that we hope will include the entire community. We want to hear your ideas, concerns, shout-outs, and hopes for the future. Stay tuned for regular updates and planned outreach events. 

September 2021

 

Last month the Steering Committee for the Town of Fitzwilliam Master Plan announced the launch of the 2021/22 Master Plan Reimagining. The volunteer Steering Committee, with the support of the Planning Board and Board of Selectmen, have been meeting every couple of weeks to plot a course that will conclude next year with the publishing of what will amount to the community’s vision and intent for the next ten years. These meetings are open to the public and all are welcome to attend.

The Town of Fitzwilliam Master Plan is updated about every ten years. The plan sets out goals and principles related to land use, zoning, the physical character of the community, environmental stewardship, infrastructure, community services, and economic development. In short, it’s a long range plan. You can obtain a copy of the last Master Plan (2012) from the Town Hall or through the Fitzwilliam website: https://fitzwilliam-nh.gov/


From now until the end of the year, the Steering Committee will be hosting events and reaching out individually to our neighbors and a variety of stakeholder groups to gather ideas and assemble the first draft of our renewed vision statement. This month a survey will be available at all public events, Town Hall, the Library, and in this newsletter! We hope that you will introduce yourself.


This is the beginning of a process that we hope will include the entire community. We want to hear your ideas, concerns, shout-outs, and hopes for the future. Stay tuned for regular updates and planned outreach events. 

August 2021

The Steering Committee for the Town of Fitzwilliam Master Plan is excited to announce the launch of the 2021/22 Master Plan Reimagining process. While not quite as infrequent as the arrival of noisy swarms of cicadas, the Town of Fitzwilliam Master Plan is updated about every ten years and is an event to be celebrated. This is our opportunity to reassess our collective vision for our town, set goals, and develop plans for implementing changes and improvements that are important to everyone. Above all, this is intended to be an inclusive process. 

From now until the end of the year, the Steering Committee, with the support of the Board of Selectmen and the Planning Board, will be hosting events and reaching out individually to our neighbors and a variety of stakeholder groups to gather ideas and assemble the first draft of our renewed vision statement. We hope that you will help contribute.

The Steering Committee meets every couple of weeks at the Town Hall - times to be published. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. We will provide regular updates through this column, so stay tuned!