The Planning Process

In January 2008, the Keene City Council and Planning Board began a community-based comprehensive planning process to update the collection of existing Master Plans by creating one plan – a comprehensive master plan. A steering committee was created to work closely with the planning department staff and the selected consultant for each phase of the process. The committee spent much time during the winter of 2009 and spring of 2010 drafting the details of the plan, reviewing, revising, and elaborating on the goals, objectives and actions herein.

The first step in the planning process was to create a cohesive community vision devised by the people that know Keene best – its citizens. The second step was to use the vision as a foundation to create the plan. Breaking the project into these two phases has resulted in a community-owned, city-supported initiative, with extensive participation from both community residents and those from surrounding towns and neighboring states. The public's comments, suggestions and stated preferences assisted the steering committee in identifying and maintaining a balanced approach and a range of actions to achieve the community’s vision.

Overall, this plan was created with the participation of nearly 2,000 people through various participation methods. The process generated a vast amount of community baseline and supporting information, which can be found either as appendices to this document or on the city’s website.