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New Hampshire Association of Regional Planning Commissions 
Meeting Minutes 
March 25, 2026 
1:00-3:00PM 
John Andrews Room 
NH Municipal Association Building 
25 Triangle Park Drive 
Concord, NH 
 
 
1. 
Welcome and Introductions  
 
At 1:00PM, Chair Peter Griffin called the meeting to order and asked for 
introductions. 
 
Present: Peter Griffin, SNHPC; Matt Baronas, CNPC; Jen Czysz, SRPC; Jay Minkarah 
NRPC; Shanna Saunders, LRPC;  Sandy Crystall, CNPC; Meghan Butts, UVLSRPC; 
Paul Rasmussen, SRPC; Dave Kerr, LRPC; Todd Horner, SWRPC; Sylvia von Aulock, 
SNHPC; Sarah Wrightsman, SRPC;  Noah Hodgetts, Principal Planner, NHOPD; 
Brodie Deshaies, Legislative Advocate, NHMA 
 
Sylvia shared that this would be her last NHARPC meeting as she is retiring in June. 
 
2. 
Action items 
a. 
Appoint a New Vice Chair 
There were no volunteers to serve as Vice Chair. The matter will be revisited at the 
June meeting. 
 
b. 
Appoint Jay Minkarah to the State Coordinating Council (SCC) 
P. Griffin moved to appoint Jay Mincarah as the NHARPC representative to the SCC. 
S. Saunders seconded the motion. A roll call vote was taken with all members 
voting in favor. The motion passed. 
 
c. 
Review and Approval of the December 10, 2025, Minutes  
S. Saunders moved to approve the December 10, 2025 minutes. Following a brief 
discussion to correct the spelling of Meghan Butts name, P. Rasmussen seconded 
the motion to approve the minutes as amended. A roll call vote was taken with all 
members voting in favor. The motion passed. 
 
3. 
CPACER Presentation: Brodie Deshaies, Legislative Advocate, NHMA 
Brodie Deshaies presented an overview of the C-PACER program, which enables 
commercial property owners to finance energy efficiency, renewable energy, water 
conservation, and resiliency improvements through private capital repaid via a 
property assessment lien.  
 
He explained program eligibility, qualifying improvements, and the steps 
municipalities must take to participate, including adopting an ordinance, 

establishing a district, and entering into an agreement with the NH Business 
Finance Authority. Municipal responsibilities are limited to administrative tasks such 
as recording liens and assigning them to capital providers, with no liability for loan 
defaults, which are handled by the provider.  
 
The Energy Committee recommended adopting the program due to its potential to 
increase the tax base with minimal effort and advised placing a warrant article on 
the next town meeting ballot, as a proposed bill to allow Selectboard opt-in is 
unlikely to pass in time. The presentation also highlighted an effort led by NHMA, 
Clean Energy NH, and NH BFA to expand education and outreach, including 
webinars, short informational materials, and collaboration with regional planning 
commissions and professional organizations to improve understanding and adoption 
of C-PACER. 
 
4. 
Legislative Updates  
Noah Hodgetts, Principal Planner, NHOPD 
N. Hodgetts reported that there has been no update on the Zoning Enabling Act 
Study Commission since the last meeting. However, HB1005 which sought to repeal 
this Commission was killed in the House. 
 
He reviewed tha following bills with input from Brodie Deshaies:  
SB592: enabling regional, conservation, and energy resource planning for habitat 
strongholds and wildlife corridors 
SB 439: relative to municipal data center zoning 
SB440: which passed the Senate, gives non-charter towns the option of the 
governing body voting to adopt 53-f energy efficient and clean energy districts, 
HB639: relative to the use of and disputes over blockchain and digital currencies, 
HB 244: which moves all references to building code adoption and building codes 
from the planning and zoning statutes into RSA 155-A 
SB 94: prohibiting all municipal technical amendments to the state building code, 
HB1196: seeking to repeal the House Champions program passed the House, and 
is currently in the Senate Commerce committee. 
HB1195: requiring that family and group family childcare be allowed in all 
residential zoning districts and not be subject to site plan review 
HB1103: making changes to RSA 79-E to give municipalities the option of using 79E 
tax relief for housing opportunity zones outside the downtown town center and 
allows tax 79 tax relief for new construction. 
RSA 79-E: community revitalization tax relief for conversion of industrial and 
commercial properties to residential, and to allow 79-E tax relief in housing 
opportunity zones for new construction without any prescribed affordability limits 
HB1468: would allow municipalities to adopt a flood resilience section in the 
master plan 
HB1681: relative to the definition, inspection, and local approval of tiny houses 
and yurts as innovative housing structures. 

HB1759: amends RSA 673:14 to allow land use board members to present 
evidence and request a binding vote on whether another member should recuse 
themself, prior to a board deliberating on an application. 
SB435: would replace the term “unreasonable hardship” in the five variance 
criteria in RSA 674:33. 
SB508: creates new restrictions on stamping of plans within 10 business days, and 
prohibits planning boards from requiring revised plans from an applicant more than 
once. 
SB564: (return of SB170 from last year) would (1) prohibit municipalities from 
capping the road length if the road complies with state fire code requirements, (2) 
remove the ability for municipalities to cap the number of housing units on dead 
streets, and (3) allow for utilities and infrastructure underneath designated open 
space  or permitter buffer areas of subdivisions. 
SB627: which would increase tolls on out of state drivers to add back some funding 
to the 10-year plan. 
 
Most bills to make changes or repeal changes from last year were killed. The 
exceptions are HB1540, HB1010, and HB 1079, which all passed the House. 
o HB1540 – amended in the House to clarify that municipalities 
continue to have the authority to enforce local health ordinances under 
RSA 147 for ADUs, related to the inspection, maintenance, upgrade, or 
replacement of subsurface sanitary disposal systems. 
o HB1010 – amended in the House to clarify that municipalities can 
subject applications for multi-family development in commercial 
districts to site plan review and cleans up some other language and 
definitions including that nonconforming structures can be converted 
to multi-family dwelling units provided the structure is not altered to 
further violate zoning district dimensional requirements. 
o HB1079 – amended in the House to clarify that existing structures 
built before July 1, 2025, are nonconforming structures which can be 
converted to ADUs, and that such conversions are not considered a 
change of use. There is a need for some additional technical changes 
to clarify that such non-conforming structures can’t be further altered 
to violate zoning district dimensional requirements. 
Bills which have been killed include:  
o HB1357, requiring  manufactured housing be allowed on individual 
lots; HB1050, allowing educational uses in all zoned and unzoned 
districts 
o HB1023, allowing commercial accessory units by right 
o HB1802, requires training, testing, and certification of land use board 
members 

o HB1181, updating the notice requirements to allow for posting of ZBA 
hearing notices on the municipal website instead of in a newspaper of 
general circulation as is the case for planning boards 
o HB1619, repealing the workforce housing law, and placing limitations 
on municipality’s ability to enforce land use regulations  
 
5. 
Discussion Items 
a. 
Marketing and Advocacy Updates  
J. Minkarah reported that he participated in a televised interview with Fred Kocher 
to promote the work of RPC’s. He suggested having other RPC directors also do 
interviews to provide more information.  It was agreed that the organization needs 
more exposure to get the word out on what RPC’s do. P. Griffin asked if anyone 
knew of a podcast they could reach out to. The idea of creating a marketing video 
was discussed. 
 
6. 
NHARPC - NHMA Partnership  
a. 
Town & City Articles and Webinars 
The group brainstormed ideas for future articles:  
 
• 
CPACER Jan/Feb (Shanna, Katrin, Municipality) 
• 
Pencil broader initiative (Sarah Wrightsman)   
• 
Resources for volunteer planners, assist with outdated terms, amendments. 
 
b. 
NHMA Conference Sessions Solicitation 
The group discussed options and suggested the following: 
 
• 
Transportation Planning - Without new projects advancing into the Ten Year 
Plan, how to RPCs continue to advance transportation improvements? 
o 
Dave, RPC  
o 
Jen/Colin, SRPC  
o 
Meghan Butts, UVLSRPC 
o 
Glenn T., LRPC  (check with Shanna) 
• 
Grant Writing - A live rendition of NHARPC CORNER: Grants & Grant Writing: 
Turning Community Priorities into Action 
o 
Michelle, NCC 
o 
Todd, SWRPC 
o 
Kyle, SRPC 
• 
C-PACER 
o 
Shanna, LRPC 
o 
Katrin Kasper, CENH/SRPC Commissioner 
o 
Tim Corwin 
 
 
7. 
RPC Updates 
S. Crystal  shared that Bow is updating its Master plan and is holding a vision 
session 
 

M. Butts spoke about the recent venue incident in Tamworth. The group discussed 
building and permitting issues related to venue rentals.  
 
P. Griffin asked when the committee would like to plan the next Convening. The 
group agreed to hold the next Convening in Spring 2027. P. Griffin, P. Rasmussen, 
and J. Minkarah volunteered to form a subcommittee to plan the event. A 
suggestion for the theme was post-regional plans. The group agreed to hold a 
convening every other year.  
 
S. von Aulock suggested a session on planning for young people and how to attract 
and keep young people into the state through marketing. Maybe bring in OPD and 
DEA to speak about how they are marketing to young people. 
 
P. Griffin discussed rail transportation and the initiatives taking place across the 
country. He highlighted the Downeaster service, which is now approximately 25 
years old and serves over 500,000 passengers annually. In Dover alone, the service 
has contributed roughly $100 million in economic development. He noted that this 
is a strong example of the long-term impact rail investment can have over a 25-
year period. 
 
J. Czysz shared that SRPC partnered with UNH students for a joint session with 
commissioners. They held mini sessions focused on housing followed by a group 
conversation. 
 
 
8. 
Public Comment  
There was no public comment. 
 
9. 
Adjourn 
 
At 3:00PM, J. Minkarah motioned to adjourn. Second by P. Rasmussen. All members 
voted in favor. Motion passed.