Andover’s previous Master Plan was approved in 2013, and it is supposed to be updated every 10 years. At the June 15 meeting, those citizens present worked on devising a survey to be circulated to Andover households, to gather citizens’ views on such crucial future issues as housing, business development, Andover’s tax base, and the future of the Andover water district.

Planning to meet Andover’s challenges over the next 10 years requires that we understand where we stand today. Recent data from NHES and ELMI show that Andover’s population is about 2,400 people, living in 1,060 households (including Proctor Academy’s student population). 

Andover’s population has only grown by 292 from 2010 to 2020. Andover’s tax base relies heavily on property taxes, with 8.3 percent of taxes collected from commercial properties, 82.3 percent coming from private homes and land, and the remainder from utilities (power transmission rights-of-way and maintenance buildings) and current use. Last year’s budget required Andover to raise $8.8M on a tax base worth $291M, a tax rate of about 3 percent. 

The most recent data (May 2023) pegs Andover’s unemployment at 1.3 percent, lower than any state in the nation, but only 547 people work within Andover. Like the rest of New Hampshire, Andover housing is becoming increasingly expensive and is in short supply. How would we prefer things to be in the future?

Please attend the September Master Planning session, whose Saturday date and time will be announced following the Planning Board’s August 8 meeting. You will find public notices at the post offices and at Town Hall, as well as on the Planning Board website: andover-nh.gov/planning-board.

Help us plan our shared vision for Andover! To view the 2013 Master Plan, which is due to be updated this year, please see andover-nh.gov/planning-board/pages/master-plan.

 NHES & ELMI link:
www.nhes.nh.gov/elmi/products//cp/profiles-htm/andover.htm#:~:text=The 2019 Census estimate for Andover was 2%2C373, and 0.9 square miles of inland water area.