By Devon Cormier
Staff Writer

Hooksett Town Planner Charles Watson said he wants residents to understand that the master plan is not an actual plan of things that will happen, but suggestions for the future.

But, he said, he welcomes any criticism or input from the public, and that is exactly what a new committee is doing. A group of more than 20 Hooksett residents has found ideas in the plan which they believe are bad for Hooksett and want to know why the master plan contains them.

Hooksett Citizens/Taxpayers and Volunteers, or HCTV, is gathering every Wednesday night in January to discuss problems they found with the master plan and the process it underwent and put their findings in writing before the comment deadline.

Steve Korzyniowski, vice chairman of the Community Economic Development Corporation of Hooksett, known as CEDCOH, said he is upset about the sudden discontent because he and many other volunteers spent hours a week for years discussing the master plan.

“I’d like to know where these people were over the past two years when we tried to get people into a room to work on this project,” said Korzyniowski. “We are volunteers and I would like these people to start working constructively with all those who have spent so much time working on it.”

HCTV started when Mike Sorel attended the public hearing for the master plan on Dec. 4. Sorel stood up to say that many people in Hooksett had not received a copy of the master plan, and that even if they had, it would be difficult for residents to absorb all the information contained in the 14 chapters and over 200 pages of the document.

In response to the request from Sorel and from other residents, the planning board added 30 days to the written comment period, bumping the response time to Feb. 2. However, Sorel said that was not enough time and invited the public to a meeting on Dec. 15 to discuss the master plan. That’s where HCTV was formed.

Now, Sorel and Molly Kelahan are co-chairing the group and discussing some other aspects of the plan.

“Overall I think it is a very good plan,” said Kelahan. “There are just a few things I don’t think would be good for Hooksett.”

Kelahan said the group doesn’t like the idea of turning some low-density residential land on the west side of Interstate 93 into industrial land; a piece of the plan that Watson will only say is very complicated.

“We just haven’t found a basis for this,” Sorel said. “When people are driving south on Interstate 93, they are going to see Hooksett as an industrial zone.”

Sorel said he also dislikes the idea of constructing a bridge over the Merrimack River because he thinks it will tie up traffic on Route 3A.

At their next meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 5, at 7 p.m., HCTV will gather in the American Legion on Riverside Street to start to put together their written comments.

“If the planning board were to adopt the master plan as it’s currently written it would not change anything,” said Watson. “It does not change zoning or roadways. All the idea is is to hopefully represent a consensus in the community, and if it doesn’t, it needs to be changed.”

At the end of the comment period the planning board will decide if the changes residents suggest are small and can be modified, or large and need a lot more work. Before the plan is adopted, there will be a public hearing on the master plan.