HB 1123-FN-LOCAL - AS INTRODUCED
2000 SESSION
HOUSE BILL 1123-FN-LOCAL
AN ACT relative to local planning and zoning enforcement procedures.
SPONSORS: Rep. Boyce, Belk 5; Rep. Czech, Belk 5; Rep. Bartlett, Belk 6
COMMITTEE: Municipal and County Government
This bill removes the discretion of the court in granting reasonable court costs and attorney's fees to the prevailing party in a legal action brought by a municipality to enjoin an alleged violation of planning and zoning laws or ordinances.
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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Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
00-2110
08/09
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand
AN ACT relative to local planning and zoning enforcement procedures.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Transferring Lots in Unapproved Subdivisions; Penalties. Amend RSA 676:16 to read as follows:
676:16 Penalties for Transferring Lots in Unapproved Subdivisions. Any owner, or agent of the owner, of any land located within a subdivision in a municipality that has adopted subdivision regulations who transfers or sells any land before a plat of the subdivision has been approved by the planning board and filed with the appropriate recording official under RSA 674:35, II, shall forfeit and pay a civil penalty of $1,000 for each lot or parcel so transferred or sold; and the description by metes and bounds in the instrument of transfer or other document used in the process of selling or transferring shall not exempt the transaction from such penalties. The municipality [may] shall be entitled to enjoin a transfer or sale which violates the provisions of this section and [may] shall be entitled to recover the penalty imposed by civil action. In any action to recover a penalty, the prevailing party [may] shall be entitled to recover reasonable court costs and attorney's fees [as may be ordered by the court].
2 Planning and Zoning; Fines and Penalties. Amend RSA 676:17, II and III to read as follows:
II. In any legal action brought by a municipality to enforce, by way of injunctive relief as provided by RSA 676:15 or otherwise, any local ordinance, code or regulation adopted under this title, or to enforce any planning board, zoning board of adjustment or building code board of appeals decision made pursuant to this title, or to seek the payment of any fine levied under paragraph I, the municipality [may] shall be entitled to recover its costs and reasonable attorney's fees actually expended in pursuing the legal action if it is found to be a prevailing party in the action. For the purposes of this paragraph, recoverable costs shall include all out-of-pocket expenses actually incurred, including but not limited to, inspection fees, expert fees and investigatory expenses.
III. If any violation of a local ordinance, code or regulation, or any violation of a planning board, zoning board of adjustment or building code board of appeals decision, results in the expenditure of public funds by a municipality which are not reimbursed under paragraph II, the court [in its discretion may] shall order, as an additional civil penalty, that a violator make restitution to the municipality for such funds so expended.
3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect January 1, 2001.
LBAO
00-2110
10/25/99
HB 1123-FN-LOCAL - FISCAL NOTE
AN ACT relative to local planing and zoning enforcement procedures.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Department of Revenue Administration has stated this bill may have an indeterminable fiscal impact on local expenditures and revenue in FY 2001 and each year thereafter. There will be no fiscal impact on state and county revenue or expenditures.
METHODOLOGY:
The Department stated this bill gives prevailing parties in an alleged violation of planning and zoning laws and ordinances a legal right to reasonable court costs and attorney fees. It is assumed these fees and costs would increase a municipality's expenditures, if they were not the prevailing party, and would increase revenues to reimburse costs, if they were the prevailing party. The amounts of these expenditures and revenues cannot be determined.