Nathaniel Niles

I am an elected member of the Town of Lyme planning board. When running for the board I specifically pledged to address the housing crisis while at the same time trying to preserve the rural character of our town and to elicit and be guided by the will of the community. Our board is currently in the process of doing just that. beginning with community opinion surveying, revising the housing section of our master plan and then crafting zoning amendments which then are put to a town wide vote. As you know, this is a process that happens in all New Hampshire towns and can be relied upon to result in a housing solution which "fits" local circumstances. I oppose this SB84 because it undercuts our process and usurps control over the management of zoning and planning of our local boards by imposing a "one size fits all" mandate. Specifically, this bill, by mandating smaller lot sizes throughout the town, effectively threatens its rural character and is contrary to the current master plan. And, I know of no effort by either the state or the town to determine whether or not our community is in favor of such a change. I urge you to reconsider the approach of the local planning board. In our case we have already conducted four community housing forums and are now poised to release a carefully crafted community wide survey on housing which will inform us as to the public sentiment regarding the magnitude, density, location, and type of housing development within our community. This will then guide revision of our masterplan as well as proposed zoning amendments going forward. While the result of this process cannot be guaranteed there will be certainty that it was guided by the citizens of our town, aligned with their wishes and was the exercise of their right to plan development as they see fit. While it may well be true that you were elected by the people of New Hampshire to help solve New Hampshire's housing problems, I very much doubt that their intent was to forfeit their rights to control land use, growth and development in their own towns. Thank you for hearing my concerns.