Bill Text - SB527 (2024)

Relative to student housing.


Revision: Nov. 19, 2023, 1:42 p.m.

 

2024 SESSION

24-3112.0

12/10

 

SENATE BILL [bill number]

 

AN ACT relative to student housing.

 

SPONSORS: [sponsors]

 

COMMITTEE: [committee]

 

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ANALYSIS

 

This bill includes student housing in municipal workforce housing regulations.

 

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

24-3112.0

12/10

 

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

 

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Four

 

AN ACT relative to student housing.

 

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

 

1  New Paragraph; Workforce Housing; Definitions.  Amend RSA 674:58 by inserting after paragraph IV, the following new paragraph:

V.  “Student housing” means off-campus housing primarily intended for undergraduate and graduate students at a college or university.

2  Workforce Housing; Include Student Housing.  Amend RSA 674:59, I and II to read as follows:

I. In every municipality that exercises the power to adopt land use ordinances and regulations, such ordinances and regulations shall provide reasonable and realistic opportunities for the development of workforce housing, including rental multi-family housing[.] and student housing. In order to provide such opportunities, lot size and overall density requirements for workforce housing and student housing shall be reasonable. A municipality that adopts land use ordinances and regulations shall allow workforce housing and student housing to be located in a majority, but not necessarily all, of the land area that is zoned to permit residential uses within the municipality. Such a municipality shall have the discretion to determine what land areas are appropriate to meet this obligation. This obligation may be satisfied by the adoption of inclusionary zoning as defined in RSA 674:21, IV(a). This paragraph shall not be construed to require a municipality to allow for the development of multifamily housing in a majority of its land zoned to permit residential uses.

II. A municipality shall not fulfill the requirements of this section by adopting voluntary inclusionary zoning provisions that rely on inducements that render workforce housing and student housing developments economically unviable.

3 Effective Date.  This act shall take effect January 1, 2025.