Revision: Dec. 1, 2025, 10:08 a.m.
HB 1273 - AS INTRODUCED
2026 SESSION
26-2838
06/08
HOUSE BILL 1273
AN ACT enabling municipal support and incentives for residential flood resilience improvements.
SPONSORS: Rep. Muns, Rock. 29; Rep. Balboni, Rock. 38; Rep. Bridle, Rock. 29; Rep. Darby, Hills. 11; Rep. Grote, Rock. 24; Rep. Maggiore, Rock. 23; Rep. Sabourin dit Choiniere, Rock. 30; Rep. Edgar, Rock. 29; Sen. Altschiller, Dist 24
COMMITTEE: Municipal and County Government
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ANALYSIS
This bill:
I. Renames the coastal resilience zone to a flood resilience incentive zone.
II. Expands qualifying improvements and funding mechanisms.
III. Authorizes municipal flood resilience fees and revolving funds.
IV. Permits tax credits and special assessments for flood mitigation investments.
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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Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
26-2838
06/08
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty-Six
AN ACT enabling municipal support and incentives for residential flood resilience improvements.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Flood Resilience Incentive Zone. Amend RSA 79-E:4-a to read as follows:
79-E:4-a [Coastal] Flood Resilience Incentive Zone.
I. A city or town may adopt the provisions of this section by vote of its legislative body, according to the procedures described in RSA 79-E:3, to establish a [coastal] flood resilience incentive zone ([CRIZ] FRIZ). Municipalities may use the New Hampshire Flood Hazards Viewer online tool developed by the New Hampshire floodplain management program to identify potentially impacted structures and the boundaries of such a FRIZ. Municipalities adjacent to Great Bay or the Gulf of Maine may also refer to storm surge, sea-level rise, and extreme precipitation projections in the 2016 report of the New Hampshire Coastal Risk and Hazards Commission, "Preparing New Hampshire for Projected Storm Surge, Sea-Level Rise, and Extreme Precipitation," and its successor projections[, to identify potentially impacted structures] to assist with those determinations.
II. The municipality implementing a [CRIZ] FRIZ shall determine the resilience measures it deems qualifying ("qualifying improvements")[,] such as, but not limited to, [elevation and free-board renovations, elevation of mechanicals, construction of resilient natural features, enhancement or creation of tidal marshes, elevation of private driveways and sidewalks, construction or enlargement of private culverts and other structures to enable increased water flow and storm-surge, and movement of property to higher elevation on the property or to a newly acquired property at a higher elevation within the municipality. Municipalities may grant tax relief to the qualifying structure and property as described in RSA 79-E:4] providing flood and water damage mitigation and resiliency improvements, prioritizing repairs, replacement, or improvements that qualify for reductions in flood insurance premiums, including raising a structure above the base flood elevation to reduce flood damage; constructing a flood diversion apparatus, drainage gate, or sea/lake/river wall improvement, including sea/lake/river wall repairs and sea/lake/river wall replacements; purchasing flood damage-resistant building materials; adopting water management practices that use the natural environment to address flooding events, such as vegetated rooftops, roadside plantings, absorbent gardens, bioswales, tree planting and other vegetation and other measures that capture, filters and reduce stormwater; or making electrical, mechanical, plumbing, or other system improvements that reduce flood damage.
III. Municipalities may grant tax relief to the property with qualifying improvements. as described in RSA 79-E:4 and this section.
[III] IV. Municipalities may provide other relief to properties in a [coastal] flood resilience incentive zone that are subject to repeated inundation[,] by acquiring preservation or water control easements or establishing tax increment financing districts.
[IV] V. Municipalities may create a nonlapsing [CRIZ] FRIZ fund as a capital reserve fund under RSA 34 or RSA 35, or a town-created trust fund under RSA 31:19-a, to provide funding for projected municipal costs associated with projected storm surge, sea-level rise, and extreme precipitation, and such funds may be used to support the [coastal] flood resilience incentive zone purpose established in this section.
VI. A municipality may create a nonlapsing FRIZ investment fund as a revolving fund under RSA 31:95-h to provide funding to support the FRIZ purposes established in this section.
(a) The FRIZ investment fund shall be structured so that other sources of public and private funding intended to address risks from flooding in the FRIZ may be deposited into the fund and so that funding, through grants or below market loans, may be provided to individuals and businesses within the FRIZ intending to invest in qualifying improvements.
(b) The legislative body of a municipality may vote to apply and collect a municipal flood resilience fee on each property within the entire municipality or within only the FRIZ, for deposit into the FRIZ investment fund. The fee may be collected as an additional assessment on the assessed value of all property in the area, in an amount not to exceed $0.50 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. Enforcement powers for nonpayment shall be as provided in RSA 31:39-c, RSA 31:39-d, and RSA 47:17-b, relative to enforcement of ordinances.
(c) Disbursements from the FRIZ investment fund, whether in the form of grants or below-market loans, shall be handled in accordance with RSA 31:95-h, II, with the understanding that all such requests shall be approved by the select board or city council pursuant to procedures and policies established by and approved by the governing body.
VII. In addition to or in place of tax relief for flood resiliency qualifying improvements as provided under RSA 79-E:4, a city or town may, upon adoption pursuant to RSA 72:27-a, offer an annual property tax credit of not less than $100 and not more than $1,000 for a period not to exceed 5 years on a property with qualifying improvements. The total value of such credit over the period it is offered shall not exceed the value of the flood resiliency investment, and the credit shall attach to the property and not to the property owner.
VIII. The collection of any municipal flood resilience fee under this section shall be made by the tax collector or other official responsible for the collection of property taxes or municipal service charges. A municipality shall commit bills for amounts due on the special assessments, including interest and charges, to the tax collector with a warrant signed by the appropriate municipal officials requiring the tax collector to collect them. Each year, bills for amounts due on the special assessments shall coincide with bills for property taxes or municipal service charges. Each special assessment imposed under a FRIZ program pursuant to an assessment contract, including any interest or penalty, shall, upon recording of the assessment contract in the county in which the district is located, constitute a lien against the property on which the assessment is imposed until the assessment, including interest or any penalty, is paid in full. The lien of the assessment contract shall run with the property until the assessment is paid in full and a satisfaction or release has been recorded by the municipality or its program administrator, and shall have the same lien priority and status as other property tax and special assessment liens as provided in RSA 80. The municipality or any permitted assignee shall have all rights and remedies in the case of default or delinquency in the payment of an assessment as provided in RSA 80 for delinquent property taxes and other delinquent special assessments.
2 New Subparagraph; Revolving Funds. Amend RSA 31:95-h, I by inserting after subparagraph (g) the following new subparagraph:
(h) Grants or below market loans, or both, to fund qualifying improvements in a Flood Resilience Improvement Zone (FRIZ) pursuant to RSA 79-E:4-a.
3 Definitions. Amend RSA 79-E:2, II(e) to read as follows:
(e) In a city or town that has adopted the provisions of RSA 79-E:4-a, "qualifying [structure] improvements" also means potentially impacted structures identified by the municipality within the [coastal] flood resilience incentive zone established under RSA 79-E:4-a.
4 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.