Neighborhood Heritage Districts: A Handbook for New Hampshire Municipalities

Hengen, Elizabeth; Baldwin, Carolyn

A handbook developed following an investigation into establishing a Neighborhood Heritage District program for New Hampshire municipalities. Features the following sections: What is a Neighborhood Heritage District; What Type of Areas Qualify for a Neighborhood Heritage District; How to Establish a Neighborhood Heritage District; Administering the District; Public Outreach. From introduction: "From the outset, we suspected that New Hampshire’s approach to districts would differ from the traditional neighborhood conservation district approach employed elsewhere in the United States. In the early stages of this project, the consultant team reviewed the method of how neighborhood conservation districts are established in other states, as well as the options already available in the New Hampshire land use statutes. We found that other states used existing zoning provisions, rather than adopting new legislation to create neighborhood conservation districts. A search of "neighborhood" in zoning ordinances outside of New Hampshire turned up “urban renewal” and "blight" improvement provisions, but no provisions for preserving the character of existing neighborhoods. While a number of states, including New Hampshire, have historic districts in their land use enabling legislation, we found none specifically for neighborhood conservation districts. Instead, conservation district ordinances were adopted under general zoning authority, as were any which are designed to preserve the character of existing neighborhoods. We also found that most of the existing conservation districts focus on residential neighborhoods. Furthermore, they frequently regulate changes to architectural features on a particular building, rather than limiting themselves to larger impact changes. Here in New Hampshire, we wanted to develop a program that is clearly distinct from existing local historic districts. We also wanted a program that is more far-reaching—one that could encompass nonresidential, mixed and more rural areas. For these reasons, we have chosen to call this new planning option Neighborhood Heritage Districts, rather than Neighborhood Conservation Districts, as they are called elsewhere. First, the term “conservation” is usually associated with conservation of land and natural resources, rather than buildings or the built environment. Second, the word “heritage” underscores the broad layers of history and culture that make up the built landscape that these districts are intended to protect." Funding was provided in part by a 2007 Historic Preservation Fund grant administered by the New Hampshire State Historic Preservation Office (project number NH-07-003, grant number 33-07-21633) and the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Neighborhood Heritage Districts: A Handbook for New Hampshire Municipalities

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