Comprehensive Shoreland Protection Act (CSPA), 2008
The Shoreline Water Quality Protection Act (SWQPA), 2011
The CSPA, or Comprehensive Shoreland
Protection Act, was established in a bid to protect the
shorelands of New Hampshire, viewed as being among “its most
valuable and fragile natural resources”. A Protected
Shoreland area was therefore established along all of New
Hampshire's waterfront with most construction and usage of
this land being subject to the act but decided on a
municipal level. In August 2008, however, the CSPA underwent
major changes that have been met with a large degree of
derision from local property owners.
Any construction, excavation, or filling activities within
the Protected Shoreland to be undertaken by property owners
and residents must be accompanied by a permit or declaration
of exemption from the Department of Environmental Services.
While it's clear that the intent of the CSPA is to protect
New Hampshire's Shoreland, some of the changes are
restrictive at best. In particular the changes concern the
use of chemicals (including fertilizer), the cutting of
trees, removal of stumps, roots, and rocks, and the creation
of impervious surfaces within the Natural Woodland Buffer.
Impervious surfaces include the floor of your home and while
properties with their foundations down before the 2008
amendments are protected, other property owners are now
limited to a percentage of their total land that can be
covered with such surfaces.
Furthermore, all new property is now required to have a
minimum 150 feet of shoreland frontage and while this figure
was once determined by measuring the actual irregular
frontage, an average straight line distance is now taken, in
many cases reducing the existing frontage of properties and
lots.
View
RSA-483B
The Shoreland Water Quality Protection Act (.pdf
8mb)
- A Summary of the Standards
