[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Laconia 12-29-1975 as Ch. 47
of the Public Ordinances of 1975. Amendments noted where applicable.]
[Amended 2-25-1980 by Ord. No. 34-80.3; 10-24-1993 by Ord. No. 239-93.10, 4-11-1994 by Ord. No.
250-94.8]
It is hereby ordained that there is created a City Planning
Board, which shall be constituted as follows: one designee of the
City Manager, to be appointed by the City Manager and approved by
the City Council as an ex officio member; one administrative official
of the City to be appointed by the City Manager as an ex officio member;
one City Councilor who shall be appointed by the City Council as an
ex officio member; and six persons to be appointed by the City Council.
In addition, the City Council may appoint three alternate members.
The term of all members shall be three years, except for the Council
member, which shall be two years.
All members of the Planning Board shall serve as such without
compensation, and the appointed members shall hold no other municipal
office, except that one of such appointed members may be a member
of such Zoning Board of Adjustment.
The terms of ex officio members shall correspond to their respective
official tenures, except that the term of the administrative official
selected by the Manager shall terminate with the term of the Manager
selecting him. The term of each appointed member shall be six years,
except that the respective terms of five of the members first appointed
shall be one, two, three, four and five years.
Members of the Planning Board may, after public hearing, be
removed by the Council for inefficiency, neglect of duty or misfeasance
in office. The Manager may for like cause remove the administrative
official. The Manager or the Council, as the case may be, shall file
with the City Clerk a written statement of reasons for such removal.
Vacancies in the membership of the Planning Board occurring
otherwise than through the expiration of term shall be filled for
the duration of the unexpired term by the Manager, in the case of
the member selected or appointed by him, and by the Council in the
case of the members appointed by it.
[Amended 4-26-1999 by Ord. No. 05.99.05]
The Planning Board shall elect its Chairman from the appointed
members and create and fill such other offices as it may deem necessary
for its work. The term of Chairman shall be one year, with eligibility
for reelection. The Planning Board shall hold at least one regular
meeting in each month and shall adopt rules for the transaction of
business and shall keep a record of its resolutions, transactions,
findings and determinations, which record shall be a public record.
The Planning Board shall select, concurrent with the member's
term, one of its members to serve as liaison to the Lakes Region Planning
Commission.
The Planning Board may appoint such employees as it may deem
necessary for its work, whose appointment, promotion, demotion and
removal shall be subject to the same provisions of law as govern other
corresponding civil employees of the City. The Planning Board may
also contract with city planners, engineers, architects and other
consultants for such services as it may require. The expenditures
of the Planning Board, exclusive of gifts, shall be within the amounts
appropriated for the purpose by the Council.
It shall be the function and duty of the Planning Board to make
and to perfect from time to time, so far as funds appropriated by
the Council for such purpose will permit, a Master Plan for the development
of the City, including any areas outside of its boundaries which,
in the Planning Board's judgment, bear relative to the planning
of the City. Such Master Plan, with the accompanying necessary maps,
plats, charts and description matters, shall be designed with the
intention of showing, as fully as is possible and practicable, the
Planning Board's recommendations for the desirable development
of the territory legally and logically within the scope of its planning
jurisdiction, including, on that basis, among other things, the general
location, character and extent of streets, viaducts, subways, tunnels,
bridges, waterways, waterfronts, boulevards, parkways, roadways in
streets and parks, playgrounds, squares, parks, aviation fields, and
other public ways, places, grounds and open spaces, sites for public
buildings and other public property, routes of railroads, omnibuses
and other forms of public transportation and the general location
and extent of public utilities and terminals whether publicly or privately
owned or operated, for water, light, heat, sanitation, transportation,
communication, power and other purposes; also, the acceptance, removal,
relocation, widening, narrowing, vacating, abondonment, change of
use of or extension of any of the foregoing ways, grounds, places,
open spaces, buildings, properties, utilities or terminals, and other
planning features, as well as a zoning plan for the control of the
height, area, bulk, location and use of private and public structures,
buildings and premises and population density; the general location,
character, layout and extent of any community centers and neighborhood
units; and the general character, extent and layout of the replanning
of blighted districts and slum areas.
In the course of the preparation of such Master Plan, the Planning
Board may make careful and comprehensive surveys and studies of existing
conditions and of data and information relative to the probable future
growth of the City and its environs. The Master Plan shall be made
with the general purpose of guiding and accomplishing a coordinated,
adjusted and harmonious development of the City and its environs which
will, in accordance with existing and probable future needs, best
promote health, safety, morals, order, convenience, prosperity, or
the general welfare, as well as efficiency and economy in the process
of development, including, among other things, adequate provisions
for traffic, the promotion of safety from fire and other dangers,
adequate provision for light and air, the promotion of good civic
design and arrangement, wise and efficient expenditure of public funds,
and the adequate provision of public utilities and other public requirements.
The Planning Board may adopt the Master Plan as a whole by a
single resolution or may by successive resolutions adopt successive
parts of the plan, said parts corresponding with major geographical
sections or divisions of the City or with functional subdivisions
of the subject matter of the plan, and may adopt any amendment or
extension thereof or addition thereto. Such Master Plan shall be a
public record, but its purpose and effect shall be solely to aid the
Planning Board in the performance of its duties. The adoption of the
Master Plan or any amendment thereof shall be by resolution carried
by the affirmative votes of not less than a majority of all the members
of the Planning Board. The resolution shall refer expressly to the
maps, descriptive matter and other matters intended by the Planning
Board to form the whole or part of the plan, and the action taken
shall be recorded on the adopted plan or part thereof adopted, by
the identifying signature of the Chairman or the Secretary of the
Planning Board, and a copy of the plan or part thereof shall be certified
to the Council.
The Planning Board shall have power to promote public interest
in and understanding of the Master Plan and of any Official Map of
the City which may hereafter be established by the Council, and to
that end, may publish and distribute copies of the Master Plan or
of such Official Map or any report and may employ such other means
of publicity and education as it may deem advisable. Members of the
Planning Board, when duly authorized by said Planning Board, may attend
city planning conferences or meetings of city planning institutes
or hearings upon pending city planning legislation, and the Planning
Board may, by resolution, spread upon its minutes, pay the reasonable
traveling expenses incident to such attendance. The Planning Board
shall have authority to make such investigations, maps and reports
and recommendations in connection therewith, relating to the planning
and development of the City, as seem desirable to it. The Planning
Board may, from time to time, report and recommend to the appropriate
public officials and public agencies programs for the development
of the City, for the erection of public structures and improvements
and for the financing thereof. It shall be part of the Planning Board's
duties to consult and advise with public officials and agencies, public
utility companies, civic, educational, professional, research and
other organizations, and with citizens with relation to the protecting
or carrying out of the Master Plan and to make recommendations relating
to the development of the City. The Planning Board shall have the
right to accept and use gifts for the exercise of its functions. All
public officials shall, upon request, furnish to the Planning Board,
within a reasonable period of time, such available information as
it may properly require for its work. In general, the Planning Board
shall have such powers as may be necessary to enable it to fulfill
its functions, promote municipal planning or carry out the purposes
of this chapter, provided that the total expenditures of said Board
shall not exceed the appropriation for its expenses.
[Amended 11-25-1991 by Ord. No. 203-91.14]
The Planning Board shall act as the Zoning Commission to initiate or to make recommendations to the City Council on the adoption of Chapter 235, Zoning, and the Zoning Map and on all revisions and amendments thereto, as provided for in RSA 675:2-v and 674:16 through 674:34. Said Board shall have all the powers and duties heretofore provided by law for the Zoning Commission.
[Amended 7-29-1991 by Ord. No. 196-91.7; 6-29-1992 by Ord. No. 214-92.6]
The Planning Board shall have the power to approve or disapprove
subdivisions in accordance with RSA 674:35. In the event that the
Planning Board neglects to act within the prescribed time, the City
Clerk shall be the official authorized to issue on behalf of the City
the certificate showing the date of submission of the plat and the
failure of the Planning Board to act.
[Added 6-29-1992 by Ord. No. 214-92.6]
It shall be the duty of the City Clerk to record at the Belknap
County Registry of Deeds certificate of notice that the City Council
has vested in the Planning Board the jurisdiction to review and approve
or disapprove subdivisions and site plans. Any such certificate of
notice shall state the date of the City Council's ordinance or
resolution vesting such jurisdiction.
[Added 7-29-1991 by Ord. No. 196-91.7]
Pursuant to Chapter 674:43 and 674:44 of the New Hampshire Revised
Statutes Annotated and in compliance with the requirements therein
for adoption of a zoning ordinance and subdivision regulations, the
Laconia City Planning Board is hereby authorized to review and approve
or disapprove site plans for the development or change or expansion
of use of tracts for nonresidential uses or for multifamily uses,
as defined in RSA 674:43, whether or not such development includes
a subdivision or resubdivision of the site.
