Keene City Council adopts paving setback ordinance and personnel reclassification ordinance

The Keene City Council adopted two ordinances on second reading at its regular meeting, taking both votes by roll call and moving to implement changes to land-use rules and city job classifications.

Ordinance O2025-29, relating to pavement setbacks and cross-site access, was recommended for adoption by Councilor Philip M. Jones and seconded by Councilor Laura E. Tobin. Jones said the change “allow[s] you to go from one commercial entity to another without having to go out to the street to do it,” describing it as a legal recognition of an existing practice. The council held that the public hearing had already occurred and proceeded to a roll-call vote; the ordinance passed with all voting members in favor and one recusal by Councilor Greenwald.

Ordinance O2025-32, moved for adoption by Councilor Thomas F. Powers and seconded by Councilor Remington, updates class allocations and reclassifies two positions in the classified area. Powers described the action as mostly housekeeping to reflect retitling and position changes and to improve recruitment in a tight labor market, saying the changes include establishing a new assistant city engineer position and retitling the assistant city attorney to deputy city attorney. The ordinance was adopted by roll call.

Both ordinances were presented as committee-backed items; O2025-29 came forward from the Planning, Licenses & Development committee and O2025-32 came from the Finance, Organization & Personnel committee. The meeting transcript does not include the meeting date in a single explicit timestamp.

What happens next: both ordinances will be codified and implemented according to standard administrative procedures for ordinance enactment in Keene.