Ordinance O-2025-40 – Setback Exceptions, Accessory Dwelling Units, & Parking Regulations
Keene
Description
A proposed zoning text amendment was scheduled for public workshop. It would exempt retaining walls from setbacks, drop interior door and utility hookup requirements for ADUs, allow up to 25% of parking spaces to be reduced administratively, ban remote parking on residential parcels, and add parallel parking to Table 9-3.
Impact summary
If adopted, the rules would make it easier to add ADUs and reduce parking requirements citywide, affecting future residential and commercial projects.
Applicant
- Name
- City of Keene Community Development Department
At a glance
- Hearings
- 1
- Public comments
- 0
- Total mentions
- 1
Recorded in the meeting · Planning, Licenses and Development Committee
A recommendation, not a final decision. The council decides next.
Last discussed Jan 12, 2026.
Meeting timeline (1)
Related issues (3)
Review of six-unit and setback zoning changes (O-2025-15-A)
A request to review the land development code amendments adopted through Ordinance O-2025-15-A drew opposition from the Monadnock Interfaith Project and Councilor Ruttle-Miller. The council was slated to decide how to handle the review request.
Zoning Update: Setbacks, ADUs, and Parking (O-2025-40)
A second reading was scheduled for a zoning clean-up ordinance that would exempt retaining walls from setbacks, update accessory dwelling unit rules to match new state law, and make parking reductions easier — including allowing up to 25% administrative parking reductions.
Cumulative traffic impacts from development
Members noted that traffic studies only look at one project at a time, so a road can hit a tipping point with no fair way to spread the cost. Impact fees could help but New Hampshire's three-year spending rule makes them impractical.
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