It was a mixed legislative session at the House of Representatives last week when it came to expanding housing opportunities for New Hampshire residents. First the good news, as the House passed the following bills:
Senate Bill 188 will facilitate speedier and more efficient development while ensuring public safety by authorizing state-licensed third parties to certify documents and inspect buildings in compliance with applicable building codes.
Senate Bill 281 prohibits municipalities from denying building or occupancy permits for property adjacent to class VI roads under certain circumstances.
Senate Bill 282 allows for residential buildings up to four floors to have only one stairway under conditions established by the state building code review board.
Senate Bill 283, as amended, will standardize how floor-area-ratios (FAR) are calculated. Currently, different cities/towns calculate FAR differently; some include below-grade areas while others exclude below-grade areas from the calculation. This bill excludes below-grade areas from the calculation.
All of the above bills had already passed out of the Senate.
But not all housing bills cleared the House last weee. Senate Bill 174 stated that if a residential development proposal adequately provided for water and septic, then a municipality could not consider the number of bedrooms to reject the application.
The intent was to prevent towns from mandating smaller, one-unit or studio apartments in order to keep families out of development. The notion that more kids leads to higher property taxes has been thoroughly disproven by NHAR(Click here) as well as the NH Housing Finance Authority (click here).
By a very narrow margin (183-176), the bill failed before being tabled – meaning it is possible, but not likely, to be brought up again.
Also failing was Senate Bill 170, The bill, which had undergone significant amendments, would have, among other things, altered the timeline for a town to conduct its initial planning review. The bill was tabled without debate.
Minimum lot size bill retained
Senate Bill 84 would have mandated that municipalities, in a majority of land zoned to permit single-family residential uses, and for lots not serviced by municipal or community sewer infrastructure, could not require lot sizes greater than 88,000 square feet for single-family residential uses, unless required by NH Department of Environmental Services. All other set-backs, frontage requirements, etc., would still have needed to be met.
The bill also required that for lots serviced by municipal water and sewer, the lot size could be no more than 22,000 square feet.
The bill passed out of the Senate and received positive response by the House Housing Committee, but they decided to retain in the Committee and come back this fall to continue to work on the language.
Guaranteeing transparency when purchasing ROC
Senate Bill 166 was put forward by NHAR in order to ensure buyers in resident-owned communities (ROCs) enjoyed the same access to association financial information as those purchasing a condominium.
The bill states that ROC must provide the prospective unit owner specific financial information, including income statement and balance sheet, planned capital expenditures, reserve amounts, non-payment of fees by other owners, and other financial documents.
The bill has passed both the House and Senate and is headed to the Governor’s desk for her signature.
Quote of the Week
“I actually truly think the free market is going to be able to build affordable homes if we cut the red tape, cut the spending. We’ll build affordable homes when there’s enough supply. The market will adjust.”
–Rep. Joe Alexander (R-Goffstown), Chairman of the House Housing Committee, commenting on bills in front of his committee.
For more information, contact New Hampshire Realtors CEO Bob Quinn: bob@nhar.com.