They call Senate Bill 84 “The Starter Homes Act,” arguably the most ambitious piece of legislation in the last session aimed at increasing the number of smaller, affordable housing units in the state.

It didn’t pass, but it wasn’t killed, either. It was instead retained, giving housing advocates more hope than ever about making headway in the years ahead.

The bill prohibits lot size requirements greater than 66,000 square feet (about 1.5 acres) for single-family residential lots not serviced by municipal or community sewer infrastructure; and 44,000 square feet (about 1 acre) if there is adequate water system capacity, unless the municipality provides empirical evidence that the water system cannot support additional homes.

“The name gets to the core problem,” says Natch Greyes, vice president of public policy for the NH Business and Industry Association. “It’s about single-family lot sizing and the ability of New Hampshire to better produce medium-priced homes that are starter homes for professionals and young families, and for older individuals to downsize into so as to free up the single-family home market, which is locked up right now.”

Going into the 2024-25 session, the bill was not given much of a chance to advance, but it won support in the Senate, 13-10, and received majority support in committee in the House, even though the Housing Committee in the House chose to retain the bill to continue working on it over the summer. It could come back as the most significant housing reform bill of the next session.

Housing advocates believe momentum is moving in their direction after years of failed efforts to rein in what they see as excessive and sometimes arbitrary measures to suppress housing in all but a handful of NH communities.

“The Legislature is getting more comfortable with the idea that is has a responsibility to set common sense guardrails around what zoning should look like at the local level because zoning and housing supply are inextricably linked,” says Greyes. “We can’t say we are concerned about housing in New Hampshire and not be willing to take that on. And I think we are making more headway.”

Mike Skelton, CEO of the Business and Industry Association, says the statewide group will continue to lobby aggressively on the issue. “The majority of people in New Hampshire clearly get it, that as a state we are not going to be able to compete economically or maintain the quality of life and vitality the state is known for unless we have people and are growing our population,” he says. “We can’t shrink and still maintain a healthy state with fewer and fewer people.”

The battle lines have been drawn. There is not a single zoning or development related measure that the NH Municipal Association has supported or will support, according to Executive Director Margaret Byrnes.

“Our policy is to oppose any statewide zoning mandates,” she says. “It’s one of our most black-and-white policies. We say zoning has been delegated to our municipalities for good reason. We have master plans and to have the state step in and say, ‘We don’t care about your master plan or what your voters adopted locally, this what you have to do,’ is unacceptable.”

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