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Historic District Commission updates regulations to match new 40‑foot town height limit
Summary
At a noticed public hearing the Kingston Historic District Commission unanimously amended its regulations to reflect a townwide change increasing the maximum building height from 35 to 40 feet.
At a public hearing May 20 the Kingston Historic District Commission unanimously approved changes to its regulations to match a planning board decision increasing the townwide maximum building height from 35 feet to 40 feet.
Madeline Roulette read the proposed language into the record during the hearing. The updated language keeps the commission’s compatibility test — new construction must be in harmony with adjacent and surrounding buildings and may be no more than 10% higher than the average height of adjacent structures within the streetscape — but replaces the prior absolute cap of 35 feet with 40 feet. As read into the record, “in no instance will be greater than 40 feet.”
The hearing had been legally noticed pursuant to RSA 676:8–9 and drew no members of the public who had signed up to speak. With no public comment, Commissioner Virginia moved to accept the two changes read by Roulette; Laurie seconded the motion and the vote was unanimous.
The commission closed the public hearing at 7:25 p.m. and instructed staff to forward the updated language to the town’s regulations repository and to the office that coordinates town regulation updates.
Why it matters: the changed numeric cap aligns historic‑district review standards with the planning board’s adopted height allowance and avoids a numeric conflict between two sets of standards; the compatibility provisions remain in place so that the commission continues to evaluate new construction for scale and fit with adjacent buildings.
