Herschlag: A City Planning Report Disappears Into The Ether

A recent project that went before the planning board for a public hearing on Oct. 15, appears to have removed a previous city planners report that had been part of the public record

The project is for an urgent care facility on the corners of North State and Penacook streets. In September, when the project went before the planning board for determination of completeness and setting the date for the public hearing, there was a report included in the agenda from AnneMarie Skinner, the most recent city planner to leave the city.

But in the October planning board’s agenda, her report is no longer noted, and the report from staff for the October planning board meeting is a revised report. The October report is not noted as being a revised version of the report from the September agenda.

If you want to compare the two reports, you can’t. Going to the city’s website and accessing the calendar for planning board meetings and their agenda and clicking on the September report a message appears that “This record is currently unavailable.”

The section of the revised report that came from the engineering department appears to have been left intact, with the names of the engineers who wrote the report and a notation that it was sent to Skinner

Usually, a report from a city department is not only attributed to the department, but to the individual who wrote the report. The first section of the October report (unlike the September report) only attributes the report to the planning department.

And it is unusual to not see the original report with the second report noticed as a revised report listed in the current agenda.

So why did the city erase the original report a public document and why did the city not notice the second report as a revised report. This certainly challenges the city’s mantra of open and transparent.

* Please not the following update. I wrote above that the September report was from the previous city planner Anne Marie Skinner. I believe that to be correct. However when reviewing the September report I had saved in my files it does not have her name on it. And while I have a copy of Spetember's staff report, as of Saturday October 18, it is still not able to be opened from the planning board agenda. Interestingly the other items from the agenda can be opened.