{"id":9845,"date":"2025-03-12T11:04:44","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T16:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/?p=9845"},"modified":"2025-03-12T16:27:05","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T21:27:05","slug":"rep-len-turcotte-dont-let-elites-hijack-your-zoning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/2025\/03\/12\/rep-len-turcotte-dont-let-elites-hijack-your-zoning\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Len Turcotte: Don’t Let Elites Hijack Your Zoning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Union Leader 03\/12\/2025<\/a><\/p>\n

WAKEY, wakey, Granite Staters, pay heed before it\u2019s too late. A small but determined group of individuals are looking to take away your municipality\u2019s ability to control your local zoning ordinances. Instead of doing it in one fell swoop, they are doing it in small bites in hopes you don\u2019t realize it until it is too late. It\u2019s the old \u201cfrog in boiling water\u201d analogy.<\/p>\n

Recently, I\u2019ve read an op-ed and article that headlined a new catchphrase, \u201csnob zoning.\u201d The term is poignant as it invokes thoughts of class warfare. Ironically and hypocritically, several of those pushing these zoning changes implicate themselves as the snobs.<\/p>\n

The sponsors of SB 84 would force all municipalities to set zoning to a maximum lot size of around 1.5 acres, less under certain conditions. If your town thinks two acres is better, too bad, their ideas are superior and you fit their snob definition.<\/p>\n

In reality, the sponsors of SB 84 showcase the \u201cI\u2019ve got mine, pull up the ladder\u201d mentality, but want you and your town to be shamed and guilted into a maximum 1.5-acre lot. They have assigned motives to you, but who are the actual snobs, NIMBYs and hypocrites?<\/p>\n

HB 577, the latest \u201caccessory dwelling unit\u201d (ADU) incarnation, would mandate every municipality allow a detached ADU on most single-family lots throughout the state \u2014 again, a one-size-fits-all mentality. Are the municipalities of Nashua and Errol even remotely similar? Will detached ADUs become apartments and short-term rentals (STR)? Reach out to the Conway representative who sits on the Housing Committee and ask why he voted in favor of increased STRs after all the problems and lawsuits Conway has dealt with over the past few years.<\/p>\n

The sponsors claim ADUs would reduce prices for single-family housing. Yet, it will have exactly the perverse opposite effect. If this ADU mandate bill passes, single-family houses will be purchased by investors and developers (aided by real estate brokers) so detached rental units can be built on those properties. Done in even small numbers, the inventory of single-family homes would be reduced, causing their prices to rise, not decline, while also lowering inventory.<\/p>\n

In the process, investors, developers and real estate brokers will benefit, current and future single-family homeowners will be hurt.<\/p>\n

Current property owners who bought in single-family neighborhoods would find themselves living in rental neighborhoods, which polls consistently show people move away from to escape.<\/p>\n

There are more than a dozen other bills that look to impose state zoning mandates on your town\u2019s zoning ordinances without any citizen approval under a municipality\u2019s current zoning change process.<\/p>\n

Any of the zoning changes being sought in Concord can be accomplished through the warrant article process at the municipality level. Have sponsors of these bills made the effort to propose these changes in their own municipalities, or are they instead using the heavy hands of bureaucracy to impose their will?<\/p>\n

I recently read the following in the introduction of \u201cThe Road to Serfdom,\u201d a book by economist Friedrich Hayek:<\/p>\n

\u201cHayek lamented how Western democracies were increasingly circumventing the spirit of liberal constitutionalism by passing coercive legislation, typically under the guise of achieving social justice, but in reality, serving well-organized coalitions of special interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t help but notice the similarities to what is occurring in our state today. Replace a few words and we get: \u201cThey lamented how a cadre of minority idealists were circumventing the liberty of most citizens by implementing state-mandated zoning legislation, typically under the guise of achieving personal property liberties, but in reality serving well-organized coalitions of special interests\u201d.<\/p>\n

Housing and zoning zealots are on a mission to implement what they believe is best for you regardless of what you and the citizens of your town or city know is best. If you don\u2019t engage in stopping it now, in a few years you may not recognize your town, city or state as local control is systematically eliminated.<\/p>\n

—
\nRep. Len Turcotte, R-Barrington, represents Strafford District 4. He was chairman of the House Municipal and County Government Committee this past term.<\/em><\/p>\n

Addendum:<\/p>\n

The Editor of the newspaper took these important facts out:<\/p>\n

“Yet, until recently, the Prime Sponsor lived on a 3.6 acre lot in an upscale subdivision in Bedford with strict protective covenants. A co-sponsor of the bill who resides in Auburn, lives in a covenant-protected high-end neighborhood which requires at least 2-acre minimum lots and one of the covenants reads:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026desires to preserve the peaceful country atmosphere and natural state of the Subdivision and to ensure the Subdivision is used for attractive purposes only and that all improvements located on the Subdivision shall be harmoniously landscaped, used and maintained, so as to preserve the investment and resale value of the Subdivision;\u201d<\/p>\n

A third sponsor, current Chairman of the newly formed Housing Committee, lives in a condominium in Goffstown.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Union Leader 03\/12\/2025 WAKEY, wakey, Granite Staters, pay heed before it\u2019s too late. A small but determined group of individuals are looking to take away your municipality\u2019s ability to control your local zoning ordinances. Instead of doing it in one fell swoop, they are doing it in small bites in hopes you don\u2019t realize it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles-nh","category-legislation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9845"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9850,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9845\/revisions\/9850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}