What is "Rural Character?"

What is rural character? Is it living among woods, rivers, fields, animals and sky? Is it walking down a quiet road embraced by trees and stonewalls? Is it the ability to hunt or fish or snowmobile or hike or cross-country ski in your town? Is it doing business in a quaint, charming structure in a comfortable, walk-able place?

Most of NH's towns have some statement about preserving rural character in their Master Plans. However, the towns that are trying to retain rural character are now finding that they need to clearly describe what rural character actually is and unfortunately, some have trouble doing so!

Most are finding that two very strong components in the definition are open space and abundant natural resources. The NH Coalition for Sustaining Agriculture has also proven the rather obvious case that agriculture contributes to rural character. You should be able to borrow from your town planners an informative citizen's planning kit called "Preserving Rural Character Through Agriculture" which includes a video tape.

It is no longer enough to use "rural character" as a poorly defined cliché buried in our planning language. Distinctly identifying and describing what creates this type of character and using these terms as a common theme and basis for decision-making is the only way we can hope to preserve what we love about NH. We all want to ensure that the rural character of our communities remains a reality and not just a cliché.