[HISTORY: Adopted by the City of Rochester 6-6-1995 as Ch. 41 of the 1995 Code. Amendments
noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Zoning — See Ch. 275.
That there be created hereby a City Planning Board, to consist of nine members and up to five alternates appointed in accordance with the provisions of § 7-28 of the Code of the City of Rochester.
All members of the Planning Board shall serve without compensation.
Appointed members shall not hold any other municipal office except
that:
A.
One such appointed member may be a member of the Zoning Board of
Adjustment.
B.
Either one appointed or one ex officio member may be a member of
the Conservation Commission, if one exists in the City, in accord
with RSA 36-A:3.
C.
Either one appointed or one ex officio member may be a member of
the Historic District Commission, if one exists in the City, in accord
with RSA 674:46-a.
[Amended 3-5-2019]
The terms of ex officio members shall correspond to their respective
official tenures, except that the term of the administrative official
selected by the City Manager shall terminate with the term of the
City Manager selecting him/her. The term of each appointed member
shall be three years, except that the respective terms of the members
first appointed shall be staggered.
Members of the Planning Board selected by the Council may, after
a public hearing, be removed by the Council for inefficiency, neglect
of duty or misfeasance in office. The City Manager may remove the
administrative official and/or designee appointed by him/her without
cause. The Council shall file with the City Clerk a written statement
of reasons for such removal.
Vacancies in the membership of the Planning Board occurring
otherwise than through the expiration of term shall be filled for
the duration of the unexpired term by the Mayor and Council in accordance
with the provisions of Section 74 of the Rochester City Charter in
the case of members selected or appointed by them, and by the Council
in the case of the Councilor member.
The Planning Board shall elect its Chairperson from amongst
the appointed members and create and fill such other offices as it
may deem necessary for its work. The term of the Chairperson shall
be one year, with eligibility for reelection. The Planning Board shall
hold at least one regular meeting in each month and shall adopt rules
for the transaction of business and shall keep a record of its resolutions,
transactions, findings and determinations, which record shall be public.
The Planning Board may appoint such employees as it may deem
necessary for its work, whose appointment, promotion, demotion and
removal shall be subject to the same provisions of law as govern other
corresponding civil employees of the City. The Planning Board may
also contract with the City planners, engineers, architects and other
consultants for such services as it may require. The expenditures
of the Planning Board, exclusive of gifts, shall be within the amounts
appropriated for the purpose by the Council.
It shall be the function and duty of the Planning Board to make
and to perfect from time to time, so far as funds appropriated by
the Council for such purpose will permit, a Master Plan for the development
of the City. Such Master Plan, with the accompanying necessary maps,
plats, charts and descriptive matter, shall be designed with the intention
of showing as fully as is possible and practicable the Planning Board's
recommendations for the desirable development of the territory legally
and logically within the scope of its planning jurisdiction, including,
on that basis, among other things, the general location, character
and extent of streets, bridges, waterways, waterfronts, boulevards,
parkways, roadways in streets and parks, playgrounds, squares, aviation
fields, and other public ways, places, grounds and open spaces; sites
for public buildings and other public property; routes of railroads,
omnibuses and other forms of public transportation; and the general
location and extent of public utilities and terminals, whether publicly
or privately owned or operated, for water, light, heat, sanitation,
transportation, communication, power and other purposes; also the
acceptance, removal, relocation, widening, narrowing, vacating, abandonment,
change of use of, or extension of any of the foregoing ways, grounds,
places, open spaces, buildings, properties, utilities or terminals
and other planning features, as well as a zoning plan for the control
of the height, area, bulk, location and use of private and public
structures, buildings and premises and population density; the general
character, layout and extent of any community center; and any other
matter permitted by RSA 36 of the laws of the State of New Hampshire.
A.
Preparation
of Master Plan. In the course of the preparation of such Master Plan,
the Planning Board may make careful and comprehensive surveys and
studies of existing conditions and of data and information relative
to the probable future growth of the City. The Master Plan shall be
made with the general purpose of guiding and accomplishing a coordinated,
adjusted and harmonious development of the City, which will, in accordance
with existing and probable future needs, best promote health, safety,
morals, order, convenience, prosperity, or the general welfare as
well as efficiency and economy in the process of development, including,
among other things, adequate provisions for traffic, the promotion
of safety from fire and other damages, adequate provision for light
and air, the promotion of good civic design and arrangement, wise
and efficient expenditure of public funds, and the adequate provision
of public utilities and other public requirements.
B.
Adoption
and amendment. The Planning Board may adopt the Master Plan as a whole
by a single resolution or may, by successive resolutions, adopt successive
parts of the plan, said parts corresponding with major geographical
sections or divisions of the City, or with functional subdivisions
of the subject matter of the plan, and may adopt any amendment or
extension thereof or addition thereto. Such Master Plan shall be a
public record, but its purpose and effect shall be solely to aid the
Planning Board in the performance of its duties. The adoption of the
Master Plan or any amendment thereto shall be by resolution carried
by the affirmative votes of not less than a majority of all the members
of the Planning Board. The resolution shall refer expressly to the
maps, descriptive matter and other matters intended by the Planning
Board to form the whole or part of the plan, and the action taken
shall be recorded on the adopted plan or part thereof adopted, by
the identifying signature of the Chairperson or Secretary of the Planning
Board, and a copy of the plan or part thereof shall be certified to
the Council.
A.
The Planning
Board shall have power to promote public interest in, and understanding
of, the Master Plan and of any Official Map of the City which may
hereafter be established by the Council, and to that end may publish
and distribute copies of the Master Plan, or of such Official Map,
or of any report, and may employ such other means of publicity and
education as it may deem advisable.
B.
Members
of the Planning Board, when duly authorized by said Planning Board,
may attend city planning conferences or meetings of city planning
institutes or hearings upon pending city planning legislation, and
the Planning Board may, by resolution, spread upon its minutes, pay
the reasonable traveling expenses incident to such attendance.
C.
The Planning
Board shall have authority to make such investigations, maps and reports
and recommendations in connection therewith, relating to the planning
and development of the City, as seems desirable to do.
D.
The Planning
Board may, from time to time, report and recommend to the appropriate
public officials and public agencies programs for the development
of the City, for the erection of public structures and improvements
and for the financing thereof. It shall be part of the Planning Board's
duties to consult and advise with public officials and agencies, public
utility companies, civic, educational, professional, research and
other organizations, and with citizens with relation to the protecting
or carrying out of the Master Plan, and to make recommendations relating
to the development of the City.
F.
All public
officials shall, upon request, furnish to the Planning Board, within
a reasonable period of time, such available information as it may
properly require for its work.
G.
The Planning
Board, its members, officers, and employees, in the performance of
their functions, are authorized to enter upon any land and make such
examinations and surveys as are reasonably necessary and place and
maintain necessary monuments and marks thereon.
H.
In general,
the Planning Board shall have such powers as may be necessary to enable
it to fulfill its functions, promote municipal planning, or carry
out the purposes hereof, provided the total expenditures of said Board
shall not exceed the appropriation for its expenses.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General
Provisions, Art. II)]
The Planning Board shall act as a Zoning Commission, to recommend
to the Council the boundaries of the various original districts provided
for in RSA 674, and appropriate regulations to be enforced therein.
The Planning Board shall make a preliminary report and hold public
hearings thereon before submitting its final report to the Council.
