§ 79-E:4-a — Coastal Resilience Incentive Zone

I. A city or town may adopt the provisions of this section by vote of its legislative body, according to the procedures described in RSA 79-E:3, to establish a coastal resilience incentive zone (CRIZ). Municipalities may use storm surge, sea-level rise, and extreme precipitation projections in the 2016 report of the New Hampshire Coastal Risk and Hazards Commission, "Preparing New Hampshire for Projected Storm Surge, Sea-Level Rise, and Extreme Precipitation," and its successor projections, to identify potentially impacted structures.
II. The municipality implementing a CRIZ shall determine the resilience measures it deems qualifying, such as, but not limited to, elevation and free-board renovations, elevation of mechanicals, construction of resilient natural features, enhancement or creation of tidal marshes, elevation of private driveways and sidewalks, construction or enlargement of private culverts and other structures to enable increased water flow and storm-surge, and movement of property to higher elevation on the property or to a newly acquired property at a higher elevation within the municipality. Municipalities may grant tax relief to the qualifying structure and property as described in RSA 79-E:4.
III. Municipalities may provide other relief to properties in a coastal resilience incentive zone that are subject to repeated inundation, by acquiring preservation or water control easements or establishing tax increment financing districts.
IV. Municipalities may create a nonlapsing CRIZ fund as a capital reserve fund under RSA 34 or RSA 35, or a town-created trust fund under RSA 31:19-a, to provide funding for projected municipal costs associated with projected storm surge, sea-level rise, and extreme precipitation, and such funds may be used to support the coastal resilience incentive zone purpose established in this section.

Legislative History

2017, 203:3, eff. Sept. 3, 2017.