PROBLEM | The city of Dover, NH owns a 32-acre waterfront parcel along the Cochecho River located in its downtown urban core district. The parcel formerly housed the city’s wastewater treatment plant as well as a city farm, a jail, school bus storage, the City’s recycling center, and most recently the Public Works building. For over two decades, the city’s Cochecho Waterfront Development Advisory Committee (CWDAC) has worked to develop various plans for the ultimate sale and development of the property.
In 2015, the Cochecho River Park Development Project was established with the goal to redevelop approximately 6 acres of the 32-acre parcel into a shoreline park as the first phase of the overall development plan. Creating a river park that includes a boat dock would open up this land to the public for water access, paddle sports, rowing, and recreation along the waterfront ahead of the anticipated commercial and residential development. The City needed a grant to make this project happen but didn’t have the time or the in house expertise to research and write grants to fund a public park and dock.
SOLUTION & METHOD | The Dover Recreation Department partnered with the UNH Rowing Team and Great Bay Rowing Club to hire Truslow Resource Consulting LLC to identify potential funding sources and to ultimately prepare a federal Land & Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) grant proposal to build a permanent dock on the Cochecho River. The proposal was submitted in 2015 and in 2016 a $150,000 LWCF Grant was approved to help pay for the design, permitting and installation of a seasonal rowing and paddle sports dock. Dover Recreation Department director, Gary Bannon said, “the dock will make it easier for residents to use the river for fishing, boating and other recreation.” It is but a piece of the city’s overall plan to improve its 37-acre waterfront property and the adjacent Maglaras Park, but it plays a key role in launching the project and ensuring that a public green space remains in place as the ownership of the remainder of the property is slated to transfer to a developer in 2019.
The new dock on the Cochecho River located in downtown Dover, NH, funded in part by a federal Land & Water Conservation Fund grant.