HOP Grant Committee
Dublin has been awarded a NH Housing Opportunity Planning (HOP) grant under New Hampshire’s Invest NH Initiative. HOP grants will enable municipalities to analyze and update their land use regulations to help increase housing development opportunities. Cities and towns will use these grants to study zoning or other regulatory causes that contribute to a lack of diverse housing, identify potential changes to local land use regulations, and/or establish or update those regulations in response to those findings. Community engagement is a key part of municipal work under these grants!
The Dublin Planning Board is forming a Housing subcommittee (HOP Committee) to work on developing community engagement programs and oversee the process under the HOP grant.
Housing is a complex issue. The HOP grant provides funding plus the opportunity to bring everyone in Dublin into the process: Learn about housing issues and opportunities. Have a voice in how our land use provisions respond to housing needs. The HOP grant also includes funding for projects in which we may be eligible providing we, the committee, do the careful review called for by the HOP grant process.
Using HOP grant money, Dublin has hired a consultant to gather information regarding housing needs and to update parts of Dublin's Master Plan. The consultant will also review our Zoning Ordinances and make suggestions on changes that would encourage development of a variety of housing options. Several committee members are already participating in the Housing Academy program. The goal of Housing Academy is to build local capacity for engagement on housing matters. Participants are exploring a wide range of housing and community engagement topics, including: Understanding the housing crisis, Using data, How to talk about housing, Envisioning communities with more housing options, Community engagement beyond public meetings, How to make change – working with opposing views and mapping out regulatory change and bringing new people and voices into the housing discussion.
The HOP committee will be reaching out to all Dublin residents on their individual thoughts and views for the future of our community. Please keep an eye out for opportunities. Thank you.