House Bill 1655 would require municipalities to assess a $100 annual fee on properties with waterfront access to a water body impounded by a state-owned dam.
Properties with deeded access — but not direct frontage — would pay $50 per year. Properties enrolled in current use or classified as farmland would be exempt. Municipalities could retain up to $5 per parcel to cover administrative costs, with the remaining revenue deposited into the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) Dam Maintenance Fund.
The fee would generate approximately $3 million statewide. However, NHDES has testified that it needs roughly $16 million annually to adequately maintain the state’s public dams.
Opponents raised several concerns at the hearing. Chief among them is fairness: All residents benefit from safe dams, yet the bill singles out only waterfront and access properties, even though downstream properties would also be directly impacted by a dam failure.
Additionally, because the proposed fee covers only a fraction of the documented funding need, critics warned that the legislature may face continued pressure to increase the fee over time to close the gap.
NHAR is monitoring the bill, which is currently before the House Resources, Recreation and Development Committee. The Committee is expected to take action this week.
Fee on Rentals
Senate Bill 634 would authorize municipalities to impose an occupancy fee of up to $2 per 24-hour period on “room rentals,” which means hotels and short-term rentals. The fee could be charged for up to 184 consecutive days per occupancy, with revenues directed toward municipal services associated with tourism and transient traffic.
NHAR testified in opposition. A central concern is administrative feasibility: at a $2 rate, many municipalities would likely spend more administering and enforcing the fee than they would collect, prompting future requests to increase the fee simply to cover costs.
NHAR also noted that short-term rental properties already pay local property taxes as well as the meals and rooms tax, and no evidence was presented showing that these properties impose higher municipal service costs than other residential uses.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee agreed and narrowly voted 3-2 to recommend that the bill be killed. The full Senate is expected to vote later this week.
A Housing Dead End
Senate Bill 509 would prohibit municipalities from denying a building permit or restricting development solely due to the length of a dead-end road, provided the road is constructed and maintained in compliance with the state fire code. NHAR testified in support of the bill.
By tying road length standards to certification under the state fire code, the bill establishes a uniform, objective safety benchmark, while eliminating inconsistent local thresholds that often function as de facto growth controls.
This debate comes as housing production continues to slide. According to a recent report from the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs, permits for single-family homes in New Hampshire have declined each year since 2020, even as median sale prices have surged. The shortage of single-family housing is increasingly blocking one of the most traditional pathways to the middle class — homeownership.
Maximum dead-end road length ordinances are a clear example of local regulations that limit housing supply and drive prices higher, without improving safety outcomes.
The bill is currently under consideration by the Senate Commerce Committee, with final action expected next month.
Quote of the Week
“I want to commend Catholic Charities for taking on this new role of developing housing for families of a variety of different incomes who really need homes. This work is not for the faint of heart. To say there are a lot of hurdles to jump through would be an understatement.”
—Cynthia Lacasse, executive vice president of Evernorth, at the ribbon cutting for a project that includes 64 apartments reserved for households earning 50 to 60 percent of the area median income. Catholic Charities indicated that it took “19 tries” before finding a community, Peterborough, that would permit such housing. (Monadnock Ledger Transcript January 20, 2026)
For more information, contact New Hampshire Realtors CEO Bob Quinn: bob@nhar.com.