HB 1425-LOCAL - AS INTRODUCED
2000 SESSION
HOUSE BILL 1425-LOCAL
AN ACT relative to driveway permits.
COMMITTEE: Municipal and County Government
This bill transfers the authority to issue driveway permits from planning boards to boards of selectmen and city councils, or designees.
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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Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
00-2108
08/09
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand
AN ACT relative to driveway permits.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Driveways and Other Accesses to the Public Way; Board of Selectmen; City Council. Amend RSA 236:13, V and VI to read as follows:
V. The same powers concerning highways under their jurisdiction as are conferred upon the commissioner of transportation by paragraphs I, II, III and IV shall be conferred upon the [planning board] city council or designee in cities and board of selectmen or designee in towns [in which the planning board has been granted the power to regulate the subdivision of land as provided in RSA 674:35], and they shall adopt such regulations as are necessary to carry out the provisions of this section. Such regulations may delegate administrative duties, including actual issuance of permits, to a highway agent[, board of selectmen,] or other qualified official or body. Such regulations, or any permit issued under them, may contain provisions governing the breach, removal, and reconstruction of stone walls or fences within, or at the boundary of, the public right of way, and any landowner or landowner's agent altering a boundary in accordance with such provisions shall be deemed to be acting under a mutual agreement with the city or town pursuant to RSA 472:6, II(a).
VI. The commissioner of transportation or [planning board] city council or board of selectmen shall retain continuing jurisdiction over the adequacy and safety of every existing driveway, entrance, exit, and approach to a highway, whether or not such access was constructed or installed pursuant to a permit under this section, and, unless the access is a public highway, the owners of property to which the access is appurtenant shall have continuing responsibility for the adequacy of the access and any grades, culverts, or other structures pertaining to such access, whether or not located within the public right of way. If any such access is or becomes a potential threat to the integrity of the highway or its surface, ditches, embankments, bridges, or other structures, or a hazard to the safety of the traveling public, by reason of siltation, flooding, erosion, frost action, vegetative growth, improper grade, or the failure of any culvert, traffic control device, drainage structure, or any other feature, the commissioner of transportation or [planning board] city council or board of selectmen, or their designee may issue an order to the landowner or other party responsible for such access to repair or remove such hazardous condition and to obtain any and all permits required therefor. The order shall describe the hazard, prescribe what corrective action or alteration in the location or configuration of such access shall be required, and set a reasonable time within which the action shall be completed. Such an order shall be sent by certified mail, and shall be enforceable to the same extent as a permit issued under this section. If the order is not complied with within the time prescribed, the commissioner or [planning board] city council or board of selectmen, or their designee may cause to be taken whatever action is necessary to protect the highway and the traveling public, and the owner or other responsible party shall be civilly liable to the state or municipality for its costs in taking such action.
2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.