HB1057

NH House Public Works and Highways Committee C/o The Honorable David Milz, Chairman Dear Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: NH Farm Bureau opposes HB 1057 as written. The bill makes changes to RSA 231:81-a governing private roads where their is no written maintenance agreement. This is a law Farm Bureau and others spent multiple years working on to come to language acceptable before it was passed into law in 2019. The catalyst for the law was the desire for national home mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to have statute in place governing the road maintenance on roads in which homes they backed are located. Farm Bureau was involved due to the effect such a law would have on our members owning non-residential, open space property adjacent to private roads. We are concerned the bill overly complicates an already complicated statute, could be burdensome as proposed, and is not necessary. This said, we do like that the bill defines "equitable" which is used but not defined in the exiting statute and support the bill moving forward as amended, only to define "equitable." In addition, we suggest the phrase "type or use of structures" be added to the proposed definition in the bill. We thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Rob Johnson, Policy Director/Administrator NH Farm Bureau Federation 295 Sheep Davis Road, Concord, NH 03301 (603)224-1934