New Hampshire voters last year made it clear they wanted state leaders to take action on the housing front.

Legislators apparently got the message, passing a slew of bills this past legislative session designed to make it easier to build new housing in New Hampshire.

The approved bills, later signed by new Republican Gov.  Kelly Ayotte, call for the streamlining of the state permitting process to build housing, allowing housing construction in previously designated commercial zones, expanding the right to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and putting a limit on how many parking spaces local communities can require at new housing developments.

There were some housing setbacks during the recently completed session in Concord, including a deep financial cut in the state’s Affordable Housing Fund and failure to act on bills tied to local lot-size requirements and local opposition to manufactured housing.

In general, lawmakers seemed cautious about clipping the regulatory powers of local governments too aggressively.

Still, most observers and lawmakers agree that an impressive amount was accomplished to address the state’s acute housing shortage that’s driving home prices and rents to record high and forcing many young people to contemplate leaving the state.

“It was a productive legislative session,” said Nick Taylor, director of Housing Action New Hampshire, a housing advocacy group. “There’s certainly a lot more that needs to be done [to boost housing construction]. But legislators made some real progress.”

“We had some major successes this past session,” said Rep. Joe Alexander, the Republican chair of House Housing Committee. “And we did it the most conservative way possible, by cutting red tape and protecting people’s property rights.”

The following are some of the housing highlights of the past legislative session.

Streamlining State Permitting

Working with the governor’s office and lawmakers via the state budget bill, the state Departments of Transportation and Environmental Services agreed to significantly streamline their permitting processes for obtaining necessary housing construction permits, according to Matt Mayberry, chief executive of the New Hampshire Home Builders Association.

As for DOT, it plans to cut the time it takes to get necessary permits for new housing-connected roadways, driveways and other transportation-related matters from18 months to 60 days.

In turn, DES plans to cut the time it takes to conduct various environmental reviews from about one year to 60 days, he said.

Among other things, the agencies have agreed to assign dedicated personnel to the permitting process and provide a new online tracking system so developers can keep tabs on the status of their permit applications.

“It was such a painful process,” Mayberry said of the state’s old permitting procedures. “They’re now making it so much easier.”

Commercial to Housing Conversions

The recently passed HB 631 allows housing to be built in previously designated commercial zones, as part of an effort to encourage more mixed-used redevelopments in general.

Alexander said many community downtowns across the state have older buildings with occupied retail stores and offices on the ground floor, but empty spaces on the top levels.

The new legislation would allow housing on those upper floors, he said.

“I like to say [the bill] is going to help save downtowns,” he said. “This will help create a more walkable downtown environment.”

Others note the legislation will also make it easier to redevelop struggling strip malls into more vibrant mixed-use parcels.

But some worry that the legislation may encroach too much on commercial zones, such as industrial parks, where many blue-collar jobs are needed and created.

“That gives me some pause,” said Mayberry. “We need places for people to work. I had advocated a more narrowly worded approach to the legislation.”

But Taylor and Alexander said the bill addresses such concerns by giving local governments the discretion to reject housing proposals in manufacturing and industrial parks.

ADUs and Parking Limits

The legislature had previously allowed single-family property owners “by right” to build ADUs attached to their homes, meaning they wouldn’t need local zoning approval to build.

But homeowners didn’t have the right to build detached ADUs on their property. The newly passed HB 577 made it clear: Detached ADUs are also permissible “by right.”

“It makes it much easier to build ADUs,” said Taylor of the new law.

Another obstacle to housing curbed: local parking minimums.

Developers have long complained that local governments often impose onerous parking requirements on multifamily housing projects, driving up costs and making some projects physically and financially unfeasible.

The newly passed SB 284 prohibits municipalities from requiring more than one parking space per new housing unit.

“It’s another one of those measures that will help” boost new housing, said Taylor.

Affordable Housing Budget Slashed

Due partly to tight state revenues in general and partly to political opposition to spending too much on housing, the amount of revenue earmarked for the state’s Affordable Housing Fund was slashed from $35 million in the last two-year budget to $10 million in the new two-year state budget.

The fund, which has been used over the years to finance multifamily housing projects, was allowed to keep its annual $5 million allocation from the proceeds of the state’s real estate transfer tax, or $10 million over two years.

But lawmakers opted not to allocate an additional $25 million to the fund as it has in past budgets.

“That was a major disappointment,” said Taylor of the cut in revenues for the Affordable Housing Fund. “It was a big hit to the fund.”

Building Lots and Manufactured Fousing

Housing developers and others have also complained in the past about onerous local lot-size restrictions that prevent construction of single-family homes on smaller, less expensive lots.

This past spring, the Senate passed SB 284, which addressed the controversial lot-size issue, but the House opted to delay action on the legislation.

“It shows there’s a lot more work to do” to get the bill passed, Taylor said of the House inaction.

Lawmakers also unexpectedly failed to pass legislation that would have allowed developers to construct so-called “manufactured” homes, or highly efficient and less-expensive prefab-like houses, wherever single-family homes are allowed to be built.

Some local residents aesthetically dislike manufactured homes, but developers say they’re highly efficient and generally less expensive to build than traditional stick-built homes.

Both the Senate and House passed variations of HB 685, but the two chambers couldn’t iron out the differences in their bills.

“That was too bad,” Taylor said of the failure to pass the legislation. “It was such a simple bill.”

Next Up: Local Rules

Overall, observers are impressed with what lawmakers accomplished this past session.

“The legislature did a great job,” said NHHBA’s Mayberry. “They got a lot done.”

But now comes the hard part: taking on NIMBYism and all the rules some local communities have thrown up over the years to block construction of housing.

“We have to pivot our focus to municipalities,” said Mayberry.

Elissa Margolin, director of St. Anselm College’s Initiative for Housing Policy and Practice, said there’s no doubt local zoning and building codes are hampering construction of badly needed new housing in New Hampshire.

“Even if polls show support for new housing, local zoning laws make it so difficult to build,” she said.

But Margolin added that challenges also exist at the state and federal levels, challenges that also need to be addressed if more housing it to be built in New Hampshire.

“There are still many challenges ahead,” she said. “Politically, there will always be challenges. But there’s palpable momentum when it comes to addressing regulator reforms. It’s encouraging.”