A planning board subcommittee recently submitted a proposed chapter for Hanover's master plan recommending increased parking facilities to nurture commercial development.
The planning board will review the chapter, titled "Business and Economic Stability," on March 21. There are 11 other chapters to be completed for the new master plan.
When the plan is completed, there will be public hearings and ultimately the planning board will vote to adopt it.
The planning board assesses voters responses to the state of the Town of Hanover every five years.
Dartmouth Sociology Professor Robert Sokol worked with the subcommittee and developed a survey that was sent to 1,000 Hanover voters assessing their views on the current status of business and economic affairs in Hanover.
"We are very blessed to have Dr. Sokol involved in this," said Bruce Waters, a commercial real estate broker and chair of the subcommittee.
The survey received about 600 responses, and Waters said most area residents were happy with the current state of business and economics in Hanover.
"The overwhelming response was to leave Hanover principally the way it is," Waters said.
"The town likes what they are today -- the small, New England village town that they are," he said. "They don't want to see it grow expeditiously through the years from solicitation."
Parking was the biggest issue, according to Waters.
"If we could resolve the parking ... I think that a lot of what we have in Hanover would really get better."
Kate Connolly, the board of selectmen's representative to the planning board, also said the parking situation is an important issue in Hanover.
"There just isn't room to park," Connolly said, "especially for shoppers and all-day office workers."
Connolly said Hanover residents have not been willing to increase taxes in order to ameliorate the parking situation.
In addition to the "Business and Economic Stability" chapter, the other 11 chapters of the town's master plan will discuss population, regional context, open space, housing, community facilities, recreation, public roads, transportation, historic resources, natural resources and land use.
"There was a lot of information [in the survey] that was helpful not only to my issue, but all aspects of the master plan," Waters said.
Waters said that not all recommendations made in the master plan will be implemented.
"It's more like, 'In the next five years we are looking to do this.' But there is nothing that says that we have to do it," Waters said.
"Hanover is going to realize that economic development is not just building big buildings," he said.
Development will most likely be in areas such as computer-based research companies, Waters said.
Sokol has been researching the wants and needs of Hanoverresidents for the planning board since the 1970s, and has formatted the surveys so they can be placed into databases that track responses, Waters said.
Waters said because Sokol has been consistently researching the resident's responses, it is easier to track the trends from year to year.
Other members of the subcommittee include Bob Bailey, Hanover-area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Clint Bean, Director of Real Estate for the College Paul Olsen and Spectra President Brian Walsh.
