ZONING, SUBDIVISION AND SITE PLANS

Every member community and planning board is actively involved in the administration and update of its Zoning Ordinances, Subdivision and Site Plan Regulations. This can be a time consuming task.

The SNHPC offers many services to support local planning officials and planning boards with updates and revisions to local zoning ordinances and maps and provides technical advice on land use regulations and legislation. Often these services are rendered as part of the community member’s dues or, in the case of large projects, such as a major ordinance update in the implementation of a master plan, as a separate contract.

Examples of past and current projects include:

Town of Raymond
Reformatting the Planning Board’s Subdivision and Site Plan Regulations into one unified set of regulations (Draft only completed)

Preparation of a new Zoning Map (ongoing)

A Summary of Adopted Growth Management Ordinances
This summary identifies and discusses the various forms of growth management regulations and ordinances that have been adopted by municipalities within the Southern New Hampshire Planning Region. The summary was a product of presentations and discussions held at the SNHPC Planners Roundtables during the summer of 2005. The summary compares the ordinances across SNHPC communities and includes the full language of all referenced regulations in the appendix.

Overview and Comparison of Impact Fee Ordinances
There are seven municipalities in the Southern New Hampshire Planning Region that currently have an Impact Fee Ordinance: Bedford, Deerfield, Goffstown, Hooksett, Londonderry, Manchester, and Raymond. This Report provides an overview of the Impact Fee concept, and discusses the State law which enables creation of an Impact Fee Ordinance. Each municipality's current Impact Fee Ordinance is also included for comparison.

Impact Fee Development for New Hampshire Communities
Prepared in 1999, this handbook provides communities with guidance for the development of impact fee assessment provisions, following the guidelines and principles established by RSA 674:21,V. It illustrates a process of impact fee development which the authors believe reflects the basic principles of proportionality required by the enabling legislation. The impact fee represents a one-time, up-front charge on new development to pay for future public capital costs serving new development, or to recover past expenditures in capacity to accommodate that development. This handbook discusses principles, methods and data sources that may be applied in estimating the demands placed on various capital facilities by new development, and provides examples of impact fee systems.

Mixed-Use Development Ordinances: A Summary of Mixed-Use Zoning in the SNHPC Region
Mixed-use development has always been an important part of the American landscape existing in both village areas and densely populated downtowns. However, it was not until the New Urbanist architectural movement beginning in the 1980s that the concept of planning for mixed-use development received renewed interest among developers and planners, particularly as a specific form of zoning or zoning technique. Presently, there are a total of ten (10) municipalities within the Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission region that have adopted or are seeking to adopt mixed-use zoning in various forms. The purpose of this report, prepared in January 2006, is to discuss mixed-use zoning – what it means and how it is being implemented within the Southern New Hampshire planning region. This report also provides a summary of the types of mixed-use zoning ordinances currently in use including several ordinances that are presently being considered for adoption within the region.