A Breath of Fresh Air: NH's Affordable & Efficient Alternative for Zoning Disputes
The New Hampshire Housing Appeals Board, established by the Legislature in 2020 to accept Planning and Zoning appeals, is alive and well and working as it should.
According to its (very clear, well-designed) website:
The Board's goal is to provide an alternative forum to the New Hampshire Superior Court in zoning and planning cases that are timely, fair, inexpensive, and accessible to affected property owners, abutters, other proper parties, and municipalities. The Board has a responsibility parallel to the Superior Court to hear appeals of all planning and zoning decisions as specified in NH RSA 679.
And the Board’s responsibilities are to:
Hear and affirm, reverse, or modify in whole or part appeals of final decisions of municipal boards, committees, and commissions regarding questions of housing and housing development.
We sat down with recently-retired Chair Elizabeth (Beth) Fischer to find out what had brought her to this role and how she found the process:
When Beth graduated from UNH with a degree in business and economics, she went to work with her dad, a small developer and builder.
In her long housing-focused career, Beth has built subdivisions, worked as a consultant to clients seeking permits for projects, renovated properties, managed apartments in her personal portfolio of rental units, well as for other landlords covering the gamut of housing types, including, elderly, student, HUD subsidized, commercial, and market rate properties.
Beth served for 14 Years on the Board of the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority, being reappointed twice by sitting NH governors, chairing several committees, and as vice chair in her final years on the board as well as President of the National Association of Housing Finance Boards.
In the mid-2000s, Beth had the opportunity to manage an initiative of the NH HBA to train builders and sub-contractors in advanced Green Building techniques. She later worked for the Home Builders Institute, training at-risk youth, including incarcerated individuals, in the basics of the building trades to help overcome the shortage of people needed to build homes for the citizens of NH.
In 2020, after thirty years of talking about the concept, the New Hampshire Legislature established the Housing Appeals Board, and Ms. Fischer got a call: the Board needed a public member who knew housing. (To keep politics out of it, the Supreme Court makes appointments.) By December 2023, she had been Chair for two years but had other projects and interests she wanted to pursue, so she recently stepped down from that position.
Beth confirmed that during her 3 ½ years serving on the board, it has been working as intended. The beauty of it is the timeframes the legislature put in place (from the website):
Appeals must be filed with the New Hampshire Housing Appeals Board within 30 days of the final decision of a municipal board, committee, or commission with a notification to the municipal board, committee, or commission of such appeal and file the certification of service document with the board (NH RSA 679:6).
Within 30 days of receipt of such notice of appeal, the Municipal Board, committee, or commission shall submit to the New Hampshire Housing Appeals Board a certified record of the proceedings of the matter subject to the appeal (NH RSA 679:6).
At the discretion of the board, cases may be scheduled for mediation within 15 days of filing the appeal. If the appeal is not settled, a hearing on the merits shall be held within 90 days of the board’s receipt of the notice of appeal. The board shall render a decision within 60 days after conducting a hearing on the merits.
It’s a focused, expedited process for appeals, vs a court system, which can take a long time. It brings all parties together (with or without attorneys), and all records (which need to be certified) of the process that was denied earlier that precipitated the appeal.
There is a pre-hearing, during which time both parties clarify what motions were filed, what records might still be missing for the appeal. The parties can submit a memorandum of law in which each side spells out its position.
At the hearing, each side presents their case. No new information is accepted – the appeals are limited to the information in the Certified Record. The Board then has sixty days to deliberate and to make a decision.
Upcoming hearings are posted on the website, as are the decisions, which are clear and well-supported.
This is a great resource for us here in New Hampshire. We are fortunate to have this option.
Planning and zoning laws are public information, and those wishing to submit a housing plan of any sort to their local Planning Board or other related entity would be wise to know as much as they can about what housing laws relate to their project and how they support it.
Here are some helpful resources – within each, you may wish to refine your search by entering “housing zoning” or similar.
Local laws
can be found in your library or town hall, as well as on line in most communities.
can also be found in the New Hampshire Zoning Atlas. The zoning laws of each jurisdiction in the state were coded and form the foundation of this extremely comprehensible tool. Click on the map where you are interested, and information will come up for the jurisdiction and underlying zoning district. Links to the land-use regulations are provided, where available, at the bottom of that jurisdiction’s window. (from the website)
State laws and information about them may be found
Loughlin, Peter, Land Use Planning and Zoning (4th ed.) This is Volume 15 of the New Hampshire [Municipal Law} Practice Series. According to information provided:
This volume deals with the purposes, adoption, amendment and enforcement of zoning ordinances; nonconforming uses; vesting; preemption; variances; special exceptions; subdivision and site plan approval; historic districts; excavations and wetlands.
It Is available for purchase via LexusNexus, and is more than likely to be found in your public library.
New Hampshire Municipal Association holds workshops and webinars that address land-use regulations, as well an annual day in October for municipal leaders, planners, builders and others with a stake in knowing what the laws say and mean.
The New Hampshire Law Library at the New Hampshire Supreme Court is a treasure trove of information related to zoning in the state.
The Resources page of the New Hampshire Office of Planning and Development offers yet more information about zoning here in the Granite State.
And of course, New Hampshire Housing has a page dedicated to Housing Challenges and Solutions, with lots of great information for people expanding housing options in their communities.
