ANDOVER — What does “our land” mean? Land is never “ours” beyond our lifetimes. It passes on to a new generation of folks who may have a new idea of what is best for that space.
On one hand, “our land” may refer to private property, owned by an individual, a family, or a business. On the other hand, “our land” may refer collectively to everything within the boundaries of our hometown or our community, for which we have a shared responsibility of stewardship.
These two views sometimes come into conflict, which is why land-use boards exist. Suppose a hypothetical landowner wanted to establish a new slaughterhouse, housing, or daycare on a lot they purchased within a residential neighborhood. The lot owners may insist they “can do whatever they like with their own property,” while neighbors may insist that the development would be detrimental to the community as a whole.
Whose view should prevail? Land-use boards exist in order to resolve those kinds of conflicts, and they follow detailed rules put in place by the townspeople in advance of those board decisions..
The Selectboard, the Planning Board, and the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) are three boards in New Hampshire town government whose powers and limitations may seem a bit mysterious. The latter two are referred to together as the “land-use boards.” Following is an oversimplified way of viewing each board’s powers and their checks and balances.
The Selectboard functions something like the Town’s “presidents,” in charge of time-sensitive executive functions such as hiring and firing, paying the bills, enforcement, etc. The Planning Board is a legislative, or law-making, body analogous to a Town “senate,” which looks to the future as it drafts general proposals for zoning ordinances, while it also ensures that proper alterations to boundaries, etc., are preserved for the future, and whether fees are paid and applications are complete.
The Planning Board also offers non-binding consultation, in which the Board reviews preliminary plans for subdivision and construction projects, answers landowners’ questions, and offers advice for completing the application process successfully. The landowner returns with their application for a Completeness Review, then schedules meetings, if required by ordinances, before the Zoning Board. As the final step, the Planning Board conducts a final Site Plan Review before signing off on the plan, clearing the path to a building permit.
The ZBA is essentially judiciary, providing an essential gatekeeper function, deciding on a case-by-case basis whether a landowner’s proposal meets a permitted use, based on its location in one of the Town’s four zones, or whether to grant a Special Exception for certain listed uses that are slightly beyond the ordinarily permitted uses. They may grant variances to allow certain detailed requirements (such as setback distances from boundaries or roadways) to be waived.
Outranking all the boards, the Town’s governing body wields the top authority and ultimate responsibility. Who is that powerful group? You! It is composed of all the townspeople whose names appear on the voter rolls, usually referred to as “the checklist.”
If you are a voter registered with either party or as Undeclared, your name, residential address, and party affiliation are on the checklist. (I’ll use Andover for this example; most other New Hampshire towns are similar but may differ from Andover in some details.) If you are not registered with the Andover Town Clerk, you are not allowed to vote in Andover or at Andover Town Meeting.
Andover’s governing body meets once a year at Town Meeting, “on the second Tuesday after the first Monday” in March. Among other things, townspeople vote on budgets proposed by various boards, vote to raise and appropriate their own property taxes, and vote on various warrant articles that have been proposed by the boards or by voter petitions. This venerable New Hampshire process, chaired by a Town Moderator, is about as close to a pure democracy as one will find in the modern world.
The voters of Andover have a second important democratic role, namely, communicating their collective vision for the Town’s Master Plan, the official document which outlines the collective vision for Andover in the next decade. The Planning Board has used survey results to update the Master Plan every 10 years or so. The original plan was created in 1974 and has been updated three times since then.
The current Andover Master Plan was developed from 2007 to 2013 and has not changed since then. It is due for an update, which is underway. Planning Board Vice-Chair Jake Gilman is leading the Andover Master Planning Subcommittee through that process.
The Master Plan provides the vision that guides the work of the Planning Board through the upcoming decade, so it is an important document. The Planning Board’s actual planning role might be summarized as “balancing the desire for Andover’s prosperous economic growth and development, with the preservation of Andover’s natural and historic character.” In its quasi-legislative role, the Planning Board drafts amendments to the Town’s zoning ordinances that accord the people’s wishes as expressed in the Master Plan, and then those amendments are voted up or down by the majority of voting townspeople who happen to be present at the annual Town Meeting.
The most recent Andover Planning Board proposals were written in 2021 and 2022. The first created an alternative method for subdivision of large undeveloped lots, encouraging preservation of larger “natural spaces” and allowing more compact clusters of dwellings within largely undeveloped “natural spaces” than current regulations allowed.
Voters approved this new “conservation subdivision” ordinance by a vote of 174 to 107 in March 2022. A second change in the zoning ordinance, intended to allow more Village District workforce housing (that is, homes that working people can afford to pay for) was approved by voters with a vote of 198 to 121 on March 14, 2023.