HB 4

• Appropriates funds to the Housing Finance Authority for the purpose of providing financing or state matching funds for affordable housing.
• Requires a portion of the revenue collected from the imposition of the real estate transfer tax to be transferred to the affordable housing fund.
• Creates Housing Appeals Board that has the power to affirm, reverse, or modify final decisions made by municipal boards/committees on subdivisions/site plans, variances, innovative land use controls, growth management controls, historic districts, etc.
• The board has the authority to hear and determine appeals of decisions of local land use boards regarding proposals for workforce housing, including but not limited to whether the municipality’s land use ordinances and regulations provide a reasonable and realistic opportunity for the development of workforce housing; whether the local land use board has imposed conditions of approval that render the proposal economically unviable; and whether a denial by a local land use board was unreasonable or unlawful.
• The board cannot reverse or modify a decision except for errors of law or if the board is persuaded by the balance of probabilities, on the evidence before it, that said decision is unreasonable.
• Workforce housing is defined as “housing which is intended for sale and which is affordable to a household with an income of no more than 100 percent of the median income for a 4-person household for the metropolitan area or county in which the housing is located…[and] rental housing which is affordable to a household with an income of no more than 60 percent of the median income for a 3-person household for the metropolitan area or county in which the housing is located….”

Note that the jurisdiction of the NH Housing Appeals Board is not limited to affordable housing projects as is the case for the MA, CT, and soon-to-be-eliminated RI analogs.