Statewide zoning mandates enacted in 2025 did little to address housing affordability and risked undermining the local decision-making that is central to New Hampshire’s identity, according to a whitepaper by the New Hampshire Municipal Association. 

The paper advocates for renewed partnership between the state and municipalities, emphasizing that effective housing policy must include infrastructure investment, targeted incentives, and flexible, locally tailored tools.

“Unfortunately, many of the housing and zoning bills last year were not crafted to address affordability or access and were rife with technical issues and ambiguities. Along with many of our members, NHMA opposed these efforts to undermine local self-governance by voicing concerns in committee hearings and with individual legislators,” said Margaret Byrnes, NHMA’s executive director.

Their main issues with many of the proposals centered on the loss of local voter input—as voters approve or reject zoning in most New Hampshire municipalities—along with potential impacts on infrastructure and parking, which the cities and towns would be left to deal with.

“We do not believe most New Hampshire voters appreciate the extent to which their ability to shape their communities is being stripped away—often with zero debate,” Byrnes said.

She said the goal in the whitepaper was to provide the background and context to the housing crisis that was often ignored or underplayed last year, when cities and towns were painted as the primary culprits and statewide mandates were sold as the only solution.

“Sadly, a lot of well-intentioned legislators in both parties were taken in by that false narrative. Going forward, NHMA wants to foster collaboration between municipalities and the state, rather than an adversarial relationship. NHMA believes sustainable, fiscally responsible growth requires empowering communities to shape solutions that reflect their unique needs and capacities,” Byrnes said.

The paper is available at:  
https://www.nhmunicipal.org/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/room-for-everyone_2026.pdf  

The paper traces the roots of the housing deficit back nearly two decades, outlining the economic, demographic, and market forces that fueled rising prices and constrained supply.

NHMA believes four most-concerning “housing” policies last year were:

• Mixed-Use Mandate, requiring residential in all commercial zones (HB 631)
• Building permits by right on Class VI roads, roads that aren’t maintained (SB 281)
• Mandating group or congregate living, aka dormitory-style housing in all residential zones (HB 457)
• The new ADU law, which is ripe for mandates that promote poor planning (HB 577)

And bills this year to fix these issues:

• HB 1010, being amended to establish infrastructure review and requirements for the mixed-use mandate
• HB 1065, establishing a definition for infrastructure that aligns with existing law, updating the definition for multi-family dwelling to align with existing law, clarifying how nonconforming a dwelling undergoing adaptive reuse may be, and requiring mixed-use in a majority, but not all, land zoned for commercial uses
• HB 1079, making several clerical fixes to the ADU statute due to sloppy legislating last year.
• HB 1098, returning to the old building permit approval process for dwellings/structures built on roads with frontage only on Class VI roads
• HB 1136, restoring several key provisions in the ADU law that promote better planning
• HB 1525 allows the group or congregate living mandate to apply only to a majority of land zoned for multi-family dwellings, but not necessarily all. Also defines a bedroom to facilitate the law’s implementation.