Town Council Goals

Every year the Town Council develops and approves goals that will guide Town Staff, boards and committees, and the Council itself in the coming year. Some goals are intended to span a longer horizon and so remain on the list from year to year.

2024-2025 Council Goals*
Adopted May June 3, 2024

Mission
To provide ongoing stewardship for the Durham community including effective and efficient municipal services.

Core Values
Excellence, Honesty, Integrity, Justice, Resilience, Respect, Transparency

Goals

1. Facilitate optimal functioning of Town government through continuous improvement, new efficiencies, waste reduction, and inter-agency collaboration.
   • Move forward with key infrastructure projects.
   • Utilizing the UNH Sustainability Fellow program, update the Town’s Climate Action Plan in 2024/25 and integrate conclusions into the Town’s long-term planning efforts by involving committees and departments and encouraging them to actively suggest ideas and spearhead initiatives. 
   • Strategize on ways to effectively advertise and fill vacant alternate and regular positions on Town boards/committees and positions at the polls and ensure a sufficient number and diverse mix of volunteers.
   • Expand outreach around services, amenities, information, and programs provided by the Town.
   • Continually evaluate cybersecurity risks and take steps to address potential vulnerabilities.  Consider providing Town Councilors with town email addresses.
   • Fill the vacant Assessor position and work to ensure a smooth transition. 
      
2. Conduct planning and take steps as necessary to protect public health and safety and provide ongoing service continuity given the anticipated impacts of climate change, the post- pandemic era, and general operational challenges.
   • Align long-range capital improvement planning (CIP) with the recently approved 2024 Durham Multi-hazard Climate Mitigation Plan and the 2023 Climate Adaption Chapter of the Master Plan.
   • Work to begin updating long-term feasibility planning with UNH on the future Durham Fire Station capital project to be located on Waterworks Road. 
   • Maintain Durham Police Department national accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) with an upcoming cyclical review date of spring 2025. 
      
3. Pursue long-term economic strength and resiliency, anticipating the community’s, the region’s, and the nation’s economic characteristics and opportunities.
   • The Council and Administrator, working together, will strive to hold the municipal tax rate at the 2024 level plus inflation (CPI-U for Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH) or less, and continue to make an effort to control spending, enhance revenues, broaden the tax base, and explore innovative ways to stabilize or reduce the municipal tax rate.
   • Thoughtfully develop and adopt an ordinance that advances efforts to create increased availability of a full range of housing types by April 2025.
   • Encourage downtown business development and growth of the tax base and housing opportunities within the commercial core through the application of smart growth principles focusing on planned economic and community development that attempts to curb urban sprawl in a sustainable manner, to include the future of 66 Main St. and the Town-owned Pettee Brook parking lots.
   • Collaborate with UNH on The Edge at West End project to include the development and adoption of a Planned Unit Development (PUD) Zoning Overlay District, evaluation of the long-term buildout for necessary infrastructure supporting Town and UNH economic expansion, and myriad other aspects concerning the initiative including research, public-public-private opportunities, mixed-use, and housing.
   • Look at Federally owned properties in Durham (US Post Office and US Fish & Wildlife) and evaluate whether there is opportunity for redevelopment. 
      
4. Pursue long-term environmental sustainability and resiliency, taking into account existing and predicted impacts of climate change in multiple areas including drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, agriculture, food, society, transportation, ecology, solid waste, and economy.
   • Work toward continued Town-wide reductions in solid waste on a resident generation per pound basis through full implementation of a volume-based collection system.
   • Support public and active transportation alternatives to the automobile and continue taking steps to address downtown multi-modal options.
   • Increase local food production in the short and long-term to support a regional goal of reaching 30% local food consumption for the Northeast.
      
5. Pursue long-term social resiliency and quality of life in Durham intended to strengthen the community in a welcoming and inclusive manner by supporting the needs of residents, families, and other identified stakeholders by offering a wide array of active and passive parks & recreation and library opportunities, programming, events, facilities, and publicly facing educational information celebrating the rich tapestry of Durham history.
   • Strive to be inclusive of all gender options within overall Town operations.
   • Support the recreational, educational, and social needs of residents through Parks & Recreation, Durham Public Library, and social programming for all ages of life.
      
6. Continue cooperative and collaborative efforts with UNH to enhance mutual intellectual, cultural, environmental, social, and economic benefits associated with hosting New Hampshire’s flagship state university.
   • Encourage the UNH administration to engage and work with Durham’s Administrator in decision making and short & long-term planning that impacts UNH, the Town, local businesses, and local residents.
   • Encourage UNH to actively advertise and solicit Durham resident awareness of and participation in athletic, cultural, social, health/fitness, recreation, and educational opportunities on campus. 
   • Endeavor to establish Durham as an epicenter of off campus volunteerism and research by UNH students/faculty/staff. 
      
7. Leverage Town committees and subcommittees to develop tactical plans to align with the broader goals of the Council and encourage them to collaborate with each other and communicate as necessary with the community at large.
   • Encourage all Town committees, boards, commissions, and departments to:
     1.  Become familiar with and develop programming/action steps, as appropriate, to prompt widespread community involvement in implementing Durham’s Climate Action Plan;
     2. Work toward supporting the development of a full range of housing types (workforce, seniors, missing middle) enabling a larger portion of Durham’s workforce to live in town;
     3. Support an expanded and vibrant downtown business mix;
     4. Adopt a complete streets approach to transportation planning.
   • Periodically highlight the contributions of local elected and appointed officials serving on local committees to give praise and increase the attractiveness of civic participation.

* Note that the numerical order of the goals does not imply priority.