Community Development

Welcome to the Community Development Department (CDD) which helps guide the City of Nashua, its citizens, and the private sector towards a better vision for the City's future. CDD includes the Department of Building Safety, Planning Department, Code Enforcement, Urban Programs, Transportation and Waterways. Each department includes various commissions, boards, and programs, like the Planning Board, Conservation Commission, CityBus, and many others.

Imagine Nashua Master Plan

In October 2021, Nashua completed an update to its Master Plan. Imagine Nashua combines comprehensive community engagement with major plans created in the past 20 years to create an innovative vision for the future of Nashua. This plan focuses on equity, resilience, and climate protection.

Clear Vision Means Sound Growth

Growth must be based upon a shared vision for the future. Growth management and understanding of community vision is a shared social, civic, cultural and economic responsibility between Nashua residents, neighborhoods, institutions, non-profit organizations, private land & building developers, businesses, corporations, the municipality, the state, and the federal government.

Mission

The Community Development Department's mission is to “guide the City of Nashua and its citizens in its pursuit of a clear vision for its future and to provide the framework and mechanisms for the city and private sector to implement that vision”. Through master plans, district plans, site planning regulations, zoning ordinances, environmental impact assessment, public space design, environmental (“brownfields”) contamination mitigation, transportation system standards, preservation planning, natural and cultural resource protection, building codes, improvement incentives, grant writing, neighborhood activism, affordable housing initiatives, and downtown revitalization, the City of Nashua’s Community Development Division serves as the lead agency in assuring the quality of life today and far into Nashua’s bright future.

Division Components

How to apply for a building permit
Code and zoning enforcement
Projects and Events
Transportation
Waterways
Building Safety Department
Forms and studies
Planning Department
Urban Programs Neighborhood and Housing Development