Part of a series profiling the region’s newly elected municipal leaders and their communities

The year 2012 promises to be a time of significant development in Dover. The long-awaited groundbreaking of the Cochecho Waterfront Development Project is expected to take place in the summer, and several city-owned parking lots have been identified as potential sites for new mixed-use buildings.

Guiding economic development and job creation are among the top priorities of Mayor Dean Trefethen as he enters his first full term. Trefethen took over as interim mayor last year after former Mayor Scott Myers resigned to become town manager of Laconia. Trefethen won a three-way race to retain the post in November.

Trefethen previously served eight years on the City Council, including three as deputy mayor. Prior to that, he spent 16 years on the Zoning Board, including six as chair. The 57-year-old design engineer has lived in Dover for 27 years.

He is a native of Portsmouth, an adjacent city with a smaller population but a much heavier tourist industry. Dover, too, attracts its share of visitors, especially since the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire moved here a few years ago. But Trefethen said he is not aiming to mimic his municipal neighbor. 

“We’re certainly not trying to be another Portsmouth. I think that’s one important aspect to make. We don’t want to duplicate Portsmouth,” he said. “It’s a unique situation and we want to emphasize our strong points and go from there.”

Trefethen said he plans to invite citizens to a “mayor’s forum” within the next month or so. Among other things, he hopes to gather feedback about how much or how little change the citizenry would like to see in Dover.

“What is the direction? What do we collectively as a community want to do, and how do we express that?” he said.

The answer depends on who you ask. Some citizens, Trefethen said, are resistant to virtually any change. Others would like to see major growth.

“We do have the issue of a slight division among the citizens as to what direction should the city take in terms of its continuing improvement downtown and etcetera, and there are differing opinions about how to go about that,” he said.

That division has led to some contentious City Council meetings over the last several years. Under Myers, there was often friction between certain councilors, and a group of particularly vocal citizens frequently directed shrill criticism toward the Council. So far, that does not appear to have changed in 2012. Already, some councilors have bickered over procedural rules and committee appointments.

While acknowledging the tension, Trefethen said some disagreement between individual councilors and citizens is to be expected in any community. He noted there are three new council members who are still learning the ropes.

“I think we are off to a little bit of a rocky start,” Trefethen said. “I think it will settle down fairly quickly. I don’t think it’s going to be a major problem.”

As the new Council settles in, it will be considering a number of development options, including a proposal to develop three city-owned parking lots. The River Valley Development Corporation has proposed building a multi-level parking garage and a multi-use building on the Orchard Street lot, while adding two other multi-use buildings to lots on First and Third streets. Those buildings would include commercial space on the ground level and residential units on the upper floors.

The Dover Business and Industrial Development Authority recently voted against recommending the proposal, and Trefethen agrees with their decision. Although he believes the city needs a parking garage, he worries the proposed development would create an uneven distribution of parking across the downtown.

He also worries about covering the parking garage’s $7 million price tag, $2.5 million of which would be due up front (the remainder of the bond would be paid over time with revenue from parking fees). The Parking Commission is still considering the proposal, but Trefethen does not support it.

“Personally, I’m not willing to commit city tax dollars to a parking garage at this point in time, and certainly not to that level. It’s a substantial amount of money,” he said.

But there are other promising developments in the works. The city’s development director has been in contact with several businesses interested in setting up shop in Dover, Trefethen said. Confidentiality laws prevented him from revealing specific details, but he said the businesses include a couple of retail establishments, a restaurant, and an industrial or engineering company.

“Out of the four or five active things we have going on right now, I think it’s reasonable to expect that a couple of them will come through,” Trefethen said. “Maybe all of them, but we just don’t know.”

The city is currently considering several zoning changes, which Trefethen characterized mainly as “housekeeping in nature.” They involve setbacks from roads and neighboring properties, as well as allowed uses in certain zones.

Meanwhile, the Council is gearing up for budget season, and it must work within the confines of a newly amended tax cap that could prove restrictive in its first year. In the past, the tax cap limited spending increases to the national consumer price index from the previous year. A charter amendment approved by voters in November changes the formula to the three-year average of the Boston regional CPI.

Under the old formula, Dover’s budget would have increased by close to 3 percent this year. But, since the three-year average includes 2009, when inflation was negative, the rate will instead be around 1.6 or 1.8 percent, Trefethen said (the exact rate will not be known until final CPI numbers for 2011 come in).

“It’s a little more restrictive,” he said. That will probably change next year, however, when 2009 drops out of the equation. Also, the cap can be overridden with a two-thirds majority vote of the council.

The new tax cap formula also creates a bit more wiggle room by allowing exceptions for certain expenses that are beyond the city’s control, such as county taxes and other costs downshifted from the state.

Also no longer included under the tax cap are costs from water and sewer mandates from the state and federal government. That’s important, as the Environmental Protection Agency is set to impose stiffer nitrogen discharge limits that could require $25 million worth of upgrades to the city’s wastewater treatment plant and cause sewer rates to increase by more than 50 percent.  

Dover has joined Portsmouth, Exeter, Rochester and Newmarket to form the Great Bay Municipal Coalition, which has proposed a more moderate nitrogen limit. Their plan would require about $10 million worth of upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant, resulting in a rate increase of 19 percent.

Trefethen said city officials realize they must curtail nitrogen discharges into Great Bay. But he questions the science behind the EPA’s strict limits, noting that 70 percent of the nitrogen flowing into the estuary comes from non-point sources like stormwater runoff, lawn fertilizers and septic systems.

“We all agree that we need to protect Great Bay. We all agree that we need to make upgrades to our treatment plants,” Trefethen said. “It’s just, how much do you do, when do you do it, how far do you go, and why are you doing it?”  

Representatives from the Great Bay Municipal Coalition have reached out to local legislators and urged them to draft legislation that would limit the nitrogen content of fertilizers sold in the state. House Bill 1481, sponsored by Rep. Adam Schroadter (R-Newmarket), would do just that. It’s currently under consideration by the House Environment and Agriculture Committee.

Regardless of upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant, Dover has other significant expenses coming down the pipe. Trefethen recently participated in a tour of public schools. He said the Dover Middle School and High School are in need of extensive work. The Middle School will come first, probably in 2013.

“There are a lot of issues at Garrison that need to be addressed, both in terms of heating efficiency, lighting, electrical needs, Internet access, etcetera. There is also some asbestos and substance abatement that needs to be addressed,” he said.

The mayor plans to announce his public forum soon. At that time, he will invite citizens to weigh in on all the issues and help plot Dover’s future.