Vision Haverhill 2035 Citywide Plan

Utile led the citywide plan for the City of Haverhill, MA. The plan offered three scenarios to consider the city’s future: increased density and height in the city’s industrial areas, modified regulations to encourage development along the waterfront and in the city’s downtown, and the creation of eight “village cluster” nodes across the outerlying areas of the community. By looking at increasing density only in specific areas, the plan aims to preserve the balance of town and country that residents enjoy, while continuing to keep Haverhill competitive in the economic and industrial sectors that have served it well in recent decades.

The process included an high level of community engagement employing a range of methods, including workshops, online and in-person surveys, and heavy involvement from an advisory committee.

By imagining realistic development outcomes based on each of the scenario interventions in the plan, the team has been able to confidently propose specific dimensional and use changes to the city’s zoning that would create a regulatory framework to encourage the kinds of development the plan envisions. Close collaboration with our economic development consultant, Ninigret Partners, has allowed the plan’s proposals to balance the desires of city, neighborhood and nearby stakeholders, and the prospective development community across the North Shore and Route 128 region.