HB 1399 is being heard by the Senate Commerce Committee.
Contact the committee to ask them to ITL.
William.Gannon@leg.state.nh.us, Denise.Ricciardi@leg.state.nh.us, Shannon.Chandley@leg.state.nh.us, Donna.Soucy@leg.state.nh.us, Daniel.Innis@leg.state.nh.us, aaron.jones@leg.state.nh.us
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HB 1399 is “An act allowing municipalities to permit 2 residential units in certain single-family residential zones.”.
“A proposed housing development of expanding a single family residence within a residential zone to no more than 2 residential units shall be considered ministerially, without discretionary review or a hearing, if the proposed housing development meets all of the following requirements:”
“The planning board shall not impose objective zoning standards, objective subdivision standards, and objective design standards that would have the effect of physically precluding the construction of up to 2 units and each being at least 1000 square feet in floor area.”
The bill would establish (and planning boards couldn’t oppose) future (proposed) developments of 2 residential units in certain single-family residential zones.
This bill will override local zoning law and authority by creating a mandate to allow creation of multi-family neighborhoods from currently existing single-family neighborhoods.
In short, this bill would mandate a retroactive zoning change onto existing homeowners who bought into a (currently) zoned single-family neighborhood.
Reasons to oppose:
– What NH constitutional article or NH statute gives the General Court authority over Town planning boards regarding local zoning decisions?
– This will impact the value of property in previously single-family neighborhoods that are now able to be made into multi-family.
– What recourse exists for owners who invested in a dwelling in a single-family area whose value is diminished (taken?) by a retroactive zoning change?
– There is no apparent saving of money for current property owners, only for the cost of prospective future development.
– Housing availability and affordability issues should be handled by the free market through current, or expanded, or new, multi-family developments.