Comprehensive & Strategic Plans

Master Plan
Windham, NH (2005)

Taintor & Associates was the lead consulting firm for developing the 2005 Windham Master Plan. Windham is one of the fastest growing communities in New Hampshire, and the Master Plan featured strategies to help manage this growth and identify appropriate land uses that match the desired character of the community.

Several community wide visioning sessions were held as part of this project. Each led to a consensus-based vision and goals for each of the eight plan elements. The community-wide vision reflected the Town’s motto of Old Values, New Horizons, celebrating the community’s respect for the past, and its optimistic outlook towards the future, and recognized that residents of Wareham “share a sense of responsibility, cooperation, and friendship, and seek to ensure this ethic continues to define the Town amid future changes in population and land use.”

Although the Windham Master Plan is a comprehensive guidance document for Town policies and actions, there are clearly a few specific issues that have the potential to substantially affect the community’s ability to realize its vision for the future. Public discussion that took place during the visioning process repeatedly centered around these inter-related topics, which represent the major challenges Windham will face during the next several years. Priority issues included: Alleviating Traffic and Improving Transportation Options; Growth Management: Maintaining High Quality Public Services and Facilities; Ensuring Long-term Water Quality and Supply Protection and Wastewater Treatment.

The Master Plan included an ambitious, but realistic, implementation schedule to ensure that the Plan’s vision and recommendations are realized through a strong public-private partnership. The Master Plan documents also included an Executive Summary brochure that highlighted the key themes and ideas contained in the full plan.