Mapping Dover's Transportation Future

In this episode of the Dover Download podcast, Deputy City Manager Christopher Parker chats with Planning Director Donna Benton and Christine Trearchis of VHB about the transportation chapter of Dover's master plan, now underway about 10 years after the last update. Benton explains this is one of the plan's most technical and costly chapters. A seven-member steering committee representing bicyclists, pedestrians, drivers, and transit users is guiding the work, alongside public outreach through tabling events like Apple Harvest Day, a survey, and stakeholder interviews. Trearchis describes VHB's process of establishing an updated baseline of existing conditions — vehicle volumes, bike and pedestrian networks, crash data, and transit ridership — layered together to identify gaps, such as sidewalk connections near bus stops. VHB is partnered with Strafford Regional Planning Commission, drawing on a combined team of over a dozen people and a regional travel demand model to test future land-use scenarios. Both guests note the chapter builds on Dover's recently updated vision and land use chapters, and will include a parking utilization study of downtown and adjacent areas. The team expects a draft to go before the planning board for adoption in spring 2027, following public hearings. Benton and Trearchis emphasize that success will be measured over the next decade by how often the plan is actually used to guide policy and budget decisions, rather than left on a shelf.

In This Week in Dover History, we look back at the Aug. 3, 1933 fire that destroyed Dover's third City Hall and its grand opera house, a building that had stood since 1891. Firefighters from six communities battled the blaze, but by daybreak the four-story building and many city records were lost. A new City Hall broke ground the following year and remains in service today.