The NH Office of Planning and Development annually surveys municipalities regarding their land use regulations pursuant to
RSA 675:9 as well as for other general municipal information.
RSA 675:9 establishes the New Hampshire Office of Planning and Development (OPD) as the state repository for all local land use regulations including master plans, zoning ordinances, historic district ordinances, capital improvement plans, building codes, subdivision regulations, historic district regulations, and site plan review regulations.
RSA 675:9 also authorizes OPD to conduct an annual survey of all municipalities in order to collect information pertaining to new and/or amended land use ordinances.
The survey includes those municipalities that lack a comprehensive, traditional zoning ordinances, as several have other types of land use regulations including residential subdivision regulations, non-residential site plan review regulations, a wireless telecommunications ordinance, sign regulations, and/or a drinking water protection ordinance. Several of the municipalities that lack comprehensive, traditional zoning ordinances are also participating communities in the National Flood Insurance Program and have separate floodplain development ordinances, which are tracked by our office’s
State Floodplain Management Program separate from this survey.
2022 Survey Results are coming soon...
2021 Survey Results - updated September 2022
The
2021 survey was completed by all, but of five of the state's 234 municipalities as well as nine village districts with zoning authority and Coos County, which has zoning authority over 23 unincorporated places in the North Country. In addition, 128 communities submitted zoning amendment updates after their 2021 Annual Town Meetings.
The survey results including 2021 zoning amendment updates are available in various forms noted below. OPD welcomes the use of the survey data for further analysis, but we ask that all data be attributed to OPD's 2021 Municipal Land Use Regulation Survey and would appreciate notification if your analysis produces any noteworthy results.
- The State of Local Land Use Regulations in New Hampshire - 2019-2020 - Article summarizes the results of the 2019 - 2020 survey.
- Interactive Map - Map depicts by community all topics covered on the 2019-2020 survey in the order it was presented on the survey.
- Community-By-Community Snapshot - Survey results for each community including links to land use regulations, master plans, and zoning ordinances. You can search by community or village district by entering the command "Ctrl +F" (Command+F on a Mac), which opens the search window, after the PDF opens.
- 2021 Adopted Zoning Amendments (Excel Workbook)
- Subject Specific Tables - The data collected from the survey is categorized by topic below in the order it was presented on the survey (see below)
Municipal Planning Organizational Structure | Land Use Regulations | Master Plan Topics | Housing Information | Building Code Information | Economic Development | Planning & Development Techniques | Water & Shoreland Regulations | Energy Information
Municipal Planning Organizational Structure
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Land Use Regulations/Documents
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Master Plan Topics
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Housing Information
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Building Code Information
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Economic Development
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Planning & Development Techniques
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Water & Shoreland Regulations
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Energy Information
Past Presentations
- Presentation slides for Overview of the 2021 Municipal Land Use Regulation Survey Results webinar on September 19,2022
If you have any questions about the survey results or specific data requests please contact Noah Hodgetts at
Noah.D.Hodgetts@livefree.nh.gov or (603) 271-2157.
DISCLAIMER:
The 2021 results are reflective of data submitted via survey response by local officials. While information submitted is believed to be a reliable reflection of current local land use regulations, this data should be relied upon for reference purposes only and no warranty is given for its accuracy.