Residential Wastewater Service permits

Sewer Permits, officially termed Residential Wastewater Service Permits, are issued by the City Engineer's Office for residential and commercial properties. These permits may be issued for an initial tie on, or connection, increased usage such as adding additional fixtures to a commercial business already connected to the municipal sewer or a residential dwelling adding an additional dwelling unit, or may be issued for a replacement connection to be provided by City forces for a one or two-dwelling house.

The original, hard copy sewer permits are maintained by the City Engineer's Office.

Electronic files of all sewer permits issued since 1892 are maintained in the VAX system. City Employees with access to the VAX system may access these records by entering the username DPWUSER and following the instructions on the screen.

The latest sewer permit issued, as well as date of issue, to a specific piece of property is noted on the data sheet for that property in the City of Nashua internet/intranet and is accessible to everyone at http://www.gonashua.com/content/51/53/132/default.aspxSewer Service (Connection) Tie Sheets

Sewer services, or connections, are located by various methods. Swing ties, or measurements, tie some to buildings. A measured distance from manholes locates others. There are other items of interest, such as type of pipe and, the very important,  depth at the property line. Copies of these tie sheets are available at the Engineering Department at 9 Riverside Street.

Sewer and Drainage Record Drawings

Sewer and Drainage Record Drawings are those plans of public sewers and drains which have been constructed and whose plans have been revised to reflect actual as-built information of location and depth. These sewers and drains may have been constructed by city forces, by private developer or by a commercial contractor under contract to the City. Copies of these plans are available at the Engineering Department at 9 Riverside Street for a fee of $6.00 per sheet.

Sewer Interceptor Record Drawings

Sewer Interceptor Record Drawings are those plans of public sewers and drains, which have been, typically, designed and constructed by commercial concerns under contract to the City. The contracted company has revised these plans to reflect actual as-built information of horizontal and vertical location and depth. Copies of these plans are available at the Engineering Department at 9 Riverside Street for a fee of $6.00 per sheet.

New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) Highway Plans

The State of NH Department of Transportation, (NHDOT) is responsible for maintenance of some highways/streets in the City of Nashua. They are the F.E. Everett Turnpike, Henri Burque Highway, and Route 3 (Concord Street) from the Henri Burque Highway north to the Merrimack town line. The NHDOT has state managed construction projects on these state maintained routes. As a courtesy, they provide us with their “as bid” construction plans. These plans are filed in the City Engineers office. City sponsored, City of Nashua street projects, designed by the NHDOT are filed in the same manner.

Street Status (accepted/discontinued) plans (NRO Sec. 19-34 to 19-38)

Street Acceptance or Discontinuance Plans are essentially the metes and bounds (bearing and distance) description of the right-of-way (ROW) for a street. In the case of discontinuance plans, they also show how the former street is to be parceled out to the abutters and any easements that may result, such as for sewer or drain.

In either case, acceptance or discontinuance, the metes and bounds written description is also included in a petition, the original of which is filed in the City Clerk's office at City Hall.

New streets constructed by developers become “official city streets” after the Board of Aldermen vote to accept the street. The procedure for street acceptance is in NRO (Nashua Revised Ordinances) section 19-34 and 19-35 (see Figure 6). .

Property owners desiring to have dedicated streets discontinued from usage may petition the Board of Aldermen, through the City Clerk's office, to vote to discontinue the street. The procedure for street discontinuance is in NRO section 19-36 to 19-38 (see Figure 7).

Street Acceptance or Discontinuance Plans are filed with the City Engineer records along with a copy of the petition.

Benchmarks

The City Engineer's Office provides benchmarks (vertical elevations and horizontal locations) to anyone requesting them. At the present time, all surveying requires the vertical datum NAVD88 and horizontal datum NAD83 (see below).

Vertical Datum

Previously, surveying in the City of Nashua involved a vertical datum called "City Datum." This datum was originally created from a point under the Veteran's Memorial Bridge between Nashua and Hudson on Route 111 East which was given an 'assumed' elevation of 0.00 (zero). The USGS (United States Geological Service) datum used at that time was called NGVD29 which was 90.47 feet higher than City Datum. A newer USGS vertical datum has been created recently called NAVD88 which is 0.70 feet lower than NGVD29. The following is a cross reference listing of the various vertical datums:

Old USGS = NGVD29

New USGS (State Plane coordinates) = NAVD88

"Old" USGS (NGVD29) = "New" USGS (NAVD88) + 0.70

City Datum = "Old" USGS (NGVD29) - 90.47

City Datum + 89.77 = "New" USGS (NAVD88)

City Datum = "New" USGS (NGVD29) - 89.77

City Datum + 90.47 = "Old" USGS (NGVD29)

Horizontal Datum

The horizontal datum in current use is the New Hampshire State Plane Coordinate System NAD83.

Archive Maps and Plans

There are many and varying types of historical maps located in the City Engineer's Office. These maps come in differing types of medium; from bound books to vellum, sepia, paper, blue and black line copies, mylar originals, tracings, etc. They cover all sorts of venues from airports to railroads, utilities to street reconstruction, etc. Copies of these plans are available at the Engineering Department at 9 Riverside Street for a fee of $6.00 per sheet up to 24" x 36". Larger copies are $8.00 each:

The City of Nashua, as an entity, is shown in maps covering the period 1842-the present, starting with an 1842 map by Hoar & Meade.

The best historical city map is 4' 4" wide by 5' 2" tall, framed and hanging on the wall in the office at 9 Riverside Street. It was surveyed and drawn by A. L. Knowlton and W. C. Offutt in 1871. This map includes ward boundaries, buildings and owners. Of special note is the existence of Artillery Pond where Holman Stadium is now located and the former Harbor Pond which is now the home of City Plaza at 300 Main Street. Also, the former South Common is now the home of Elm Street Middle School. Copies of this map are not available.

The current edition of the city map is produced at a scale of 1" = 1000' and is available for a fee of $3.00 per copy. It measures 36" x 44" and is not folded.

A current street index is available for a fee of $5.00 each. It relates to the current edition of the city map and can be used to determine the location of streets through coordinates.

Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

The original AutoCAD drawings used to create the GIS ArcIMS program found on the City of Nashua website  (GIS) were digitized from aerial photography dated April 13, 1998. These drawings were done at a scale of 1" = 40' (inner city/CSO area) and 1" = 100' (remainder Of The City). They were originally drawn in AutoCAD Release 14. Some have been subsequently upgraded to AutoCAD 2006.

These drawings, measuring 34" x 44", are available to the public for $8.00. If necessary these drawings can be manipulated and edited to place a specific location in the center of the paper. If so, the price is $25.00 per sheet.