NH RSA 674:32 — Manufactured Housing Anti-Exclusionary Mandate (NH)

Tracked preemption from the New Hampshire overlay bundle.

Overview

Effective
1988-01-01
Sunset
Authority
state
Scope
state:NH
Primary-source summary
**Last reviewed**: April 2026 **Activity level**: Medium-to-High — long-standing statutory mandates on ADUs (RSA 674:72) and workforce housing (RSA 674:71) constrain every municipality; legislature has seen repeated 2023-2025 density-preemption attempts (HB 399 / HB 577 / HB 1661) and STR preemption bills (HB 1128). New Hampshire's zoning regime is grounded in the Town Meeting / Select Board governance model, so state mandates interact with a highly decentralized local process.

Trigger predicate

When this evaluates true for a parcel, the law's preempted fields take precedence over base zoning.

always true

Preempted fields

2 fields on the base district schema are rewritten when the trigger fires.

FieldOpValueNote
base_districts[*].allowed_usesaddmanufactured_housing_HUD_compliantManufactured homes meeting HUD standards (42 USC §§5401 et seq.) cannot be categorically excluded from all residential districts. Municipality must permit manufactured housing in some portion of the municipality — manufactured-housing parks, individual lots in residential districts, or both.
base_districts[category=res].manufactured_housing_park_provisionrequirepermitted_in_some_districtStrong preemption against discriminatory exclusion of manufactured housing parks

Citation

Authority source
NH RSA 674:32 (Manufactured Housing) and 674:31 (Definition); traces to 1980s anti-exclusionary-zoning reforms
§ RSA 674:32, 674:31
https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/LXIV/674/674-32.htm

Research notes

Enforcement: private right of action — appeal to ZBA, then Superior Court. Manufactured housing is presumptively allowed wherever conventional single-family is allowed, even if the local ordinance is silent on the topic. Cross-references HUD §5401 manufactured-home construction and safety standards.