Municipal Land Use Regulation Annual Survey

The NH Office of Strategic Initiatives 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 Strategic Initiatives (OSI) as the state repository for all local land use regulations and documents 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 OSI 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.

2018 Survey Results - updated October 2019

The 2018 survey was completed by all 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.

The survey results are available in various forms noted below. OSI welcomes the use of the survey data for further analysis, but we ask that all data be attributed to OSI's 2018 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, New Hampshire Town & City Magazine, NHMA, September/October 2019 Edition - Article summarizes the results of the 2018 survey.
Interactive Map - Map depicts by community all topics covered on the 2018 survey in the order it was presented on the survey. In addition, the maps contain data on zoning amendment updates submitted by 76 communities after their 2019 Annual Town Meetings.
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.
Subject Specific Tables - The data collected from the survey is categorized by topic below in the order it was presented on the survey. In addition, the tables below contain data on zoning amendment updates submitted by 76 communities after their 2019 Annual Town Meetings.

If you have any questions about the survey results or specific data requests please contact Noah Hodgetts at noah.hodgetts@osi.nh.gov or (603) 271-2157.

DISCLAIMER: The 2018 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.