Zoning

Adult Businesses

• See the results of the Municipal Land Use Regulation Annual Survey for towns with Adult Business regulations

Building Size Limits

• Big Box Tool Kit - Where To Start: How To Stop A Big Box
  by Stacy Mitchell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, December 23, 2011
• Examples of local regulations (check with each community for the most current regulation)
  • Hollis limits commercial building size to 12,000 SF in its "downtown" Agricultural and Business District
  • Hopkinton approved a limitation of 40,000 SF in its Industrial Zone, and 20,000 sf in the Village Industrial Zone.
  • Londonderry's Performance Overlay District limits the size of large scale commercial development.
  • Stratham has a limit of 80,000 SF in their General Commercial and Commercial/Light Industrial Office districts.
  • Walpole has a limit of 40,000 SF in their Commercial District.
  • Warner has a maximum gross floor area for Retail and Service buildings of 40,000SF.
  • Windham has a commercial building size limit of 10,000 square feet in their Village Center Zoning District
• Meeting the Big Box Challenge - Planning Design, and Regulatory Strategies, Planner's Advisory Service Report #537, APA Planners Book Service

Form-Based Zoning

• Form First - The New Urbanist alternative to conventional zoning Planning magazine, November 2004, APA
• Form-Based Codes Institute
  This website has been created by FBCI, an alliance of form-based coding practitioners recently convened to set standards for and disseminate information about the technique.
  • ABCs of Form-Based Codes
• A description of the implementation of Dover's form-based code from Innovative Land Use Controls: Reexamining Your Zoning Ordinance, NHMA Law Lecture #3, Fall 2012.
• What is a Form-Based Code? from the Londonderry Master Plan, March 6, 2013. (Provided with expressed permission.)
• IUNH Cooperative Extension Form-Based Code Brief
• SmartCode Central
  The SmartCode is a model, open-source transect-based planning and zoning document based on environmental analysis. It addresses all scales of planning, from the region to the community to the block and building. The template is intended for local calibration to your town or neighborhood. As a form-based code, the SmartCode keeps settlements compact and rural lands open, literally reforming the sprawling patterns of separated-use zoning.
• See the results of the Municipal Land Use Regulation Annual Survey for municipalities with Form-Based zoning.

Performance Zoning/Flexible Zoning

• Article VIII Performance Zoning District, Town of Bedford
• 16-38 Flexible Use District, City of Nashua

Spot Zoning

• Understanding Spot Zoning by Robert C. Widner, Esq., Planning Commissioners Journal, Issue 13, Winter 1994
• Definitions from A Planners Dictionary, PAS 521/522, Planners Advisory Service, APA
  • Spot Zoning
  • Floating Zone
• §2.12 Spot Zoning - from New Hampshire Practice, Vol. 15, Land Use Planning and Zoning, Fourth Edition, Atty. Peter J. Loughlin
• A Word About Spot Zoning
  Spot zoning is used by many people to describe many different zoning actions. Often, this phrase is improperly used to frighten municipalities away from land use controls that would have a positive impact upon the community if implemented.

Zoning Amendment Calendars

Zoning Protest Petitions

• § 5.10 Zoning Protest Petitions  - from New Hampshire Practice, Vol. 15, Land Use Planning and Zoning, Fourth Edition, Atty. Peter J. Loughlin
  • Form 6 - Petitioned Zoning Amendment  - from 15 New Hampshire Practice: Land Use Planning and Zoning, Appendix of Forms, Form 6 (LexisNexis Matthew Bender)
  • Form 7 - Diagram of Protest Petition Areas
  • Form 8 - Zoning Protest Petition Pursuant to RSA 675:5
  • Form 9 - Notice of Receipt of Zoning Protest Petition

Zoning Definitions

• PAS report #521/522 A Planners Dictionary. Michael Davidson and Fay Dolnick (eds). 2004. 460pp.
• When a term is not defined in a zoning ordinance, the plain language of the ordinance and common definition of the term will be used to interpret its meaning. (NHMA summary of Batchelder v. Plymouth Zoning Board of Adjustment)

Zoning Ordinances

• The Board of Adjustment in New Hampshire - A Handbook for Local Officials
• Adoption/amendment
  • In towns not operating under the town council form of government, RSA 675:3, I authorizes the planning board or board of selectmen to propose amendments.
  • In cities and towns operating under the town council form of government, RSA 675:2, I authorizes the local legislative body to determine the manner in which a zoning ordinance is established and amended.
  • RSA 675:4 authorizes amendments by citizen petition.
  • List of Municipalities without Zoning
  • Map showing municipalities without a comprehensive zoning ordinance and those with "single purpose" floodplain or telecommunication ordinances
• Complete List of Village Districts in NH

Village Districts with Zoning Ordinances

Village District	Town	RPC	Adoption Date
Haverhill Corner Precinct	Haverhill	NCC	2/27/89
Hopkinton Village Precinct	Hopkinton	CNHRPC	2/29/60
Kearsarge Lighting Precinct	Conway	NCC	2/13/73
Little Boar's Head	North Hampton	RPC	9/7/37
Lower Bartlett Water Precinct	Bartlett	NCC	4/1/80
Mountain Lakes Village District	Haverhill	NCC	3/16/96
North Walpole Village District	Walpole	SwRPC	10/6/36
Rye Beach Village District	Rye	RPC	9/24/37
Seabrook Beach Village District	Seabrook	RPC	3/30/77

• "Permissive" v. "Prohibitory" Zoning Ordinances
• Constitutionality of Zoning (From a Plan-link posting and reply ["ZBA Question"], February 2011)
• See the results of the Municipal Land Use Regulation Annual Survey for municipalities with Zoning Ordinances.

Zoning Variances

• But Which Do I Need? The Differences between a Special Exception and a Variance, Christopher L. Boldt, Esq., DTC Lawyers, September 23, 2014
• Requirements For Variance Applications - Appendix A from the ZBA Roles and Responsibilities session materials by Christopher L. Boldt, Esq., Donahue, Tucker & Ciandella, PLLC
• Applicant for a Variance Need Not Affirmatively Plead the Threshold Question of Whether Variance Is Necessary; Trial Court Must Consider It when Ruling on Variance Issues (NHMA summary of Bartlett v. Manchester)
  • BARTLETT v. CITY OF MANCHESTER, 164 NH 634 (2013) (No good deed goes unpunished)
    From 2014 Municipal Law Lecture Series Lecture #1 - The Zoning Board of Adjustment in New Hampshire, Part Two - The ZBA - Defender of the Constitution by Anna Barbara Hantz, Esq., Sheehan Phinney Bass & Green
• See Variances in Chapter II, Powers and Duties of The Zoning Board of Adjustment, from The Board of Adjustment in New Hampshire - A Handbook for Local Officials
• The Five Variance Criteria in the 21st Century , Municipal Law Lecture Series, 2009, by Attorney Cordell A. Johnston, New Hampshire Local Government Center and Attorney Christopher L. Boldt, Donahue, Tucker & Ciandella, PLLC (Provided with expressed permission.)
• Can a variance be approved with conditions? 
• § 24.05 Variance Runs With Land
• § 24.23 Variance to Accommodate the Disabled