Support John Harden for Planning Board

To the Editor and Manchester Voters,

I am writing today to express my interest in serving on the Manchester Planning Board.

I am a professional architect with over 20 years of experience in a wide variety of project types, many of which involved approvals before regulatory boards.  As a result, I am very familiar with the issues that are important to small New England towns.  Most importantly, I understand what it means to do work in the same area in which you live, and how the things that you design and are ultimately approved effect the people and places around you.

As I consider the opportunity to join the Planning Board, there are several ways in which I believe I can contribute to the improvement of town. 

First of all, I believe that the history of town is critical to understanding the future of Manchester.  Towns are always evolving and changing.  If you do not understand the mechanisms that led to the development of our town’s character and charm, it is hard to make decisions about how to guide its future.  I have made it a priority to study our town and have gained great insight into how it became the place that we know.  I will share that knowledge and put it to work on the Planning Board.

I also believe that while we need to protect those aspects of our town that we love, we also need to be optimistic about our future and believe that we can make it even better.  Our job is not to keep everything the same.  It is to better support those things that we value in our town.  We do not live in a perfect place.  We lack housing opportunities for our older and younger demographics.  We lack vibrancy in our downtown.  But we do live in a beautiful place with incredible assets and so many opportunities to make Manchester even better.

Lastly, I believe that the role of the Planning Board in the community is to engage in an open conversation about who we are and what type of town we want to be.  We are so lucky to live here.

We all value this place, the people, and our relationships.  The physical environment is part of what connects all of us together.  That is why the actions of the Planning Board are open to the public.  We invite you in to give your voice to the process. We are there to listen and to understand, rather than pass judgement because of our opinion.  I hope to be able to use my knowledge of the town, together with my experience as an architect, and my ability to engage in meaningful conversations to be a helpful and productive member of the Planning Board.

John Harden, AIA

Manchester