ATVers win court battle in New Hampshire
Nov. 4, 2003 – A New Hampshire Superior Court judge has ruled that state laws allowing people to ride ATVs on privately donated land used for a trail system take precedent over local laws that would ban the riding.
But the judge also ruled that local laws could be passed to regulate the riding on the land, such as the hours of riding or the number of ATVs on the land at any one time.
The case involved a lawsuit filed by the town of Lyndeborough against Larry Boisvert and his mother, Barbara Boisvert. The Boisverts first wanted to operate a commercial recreation area, but then decided to open the land to the public as part of the state's trail system. But the town made changes to its zoning laws so that the planning board would be required to deny approval for any recreational use that adversely affects property values, increases noise, or "is a nuisance to abutting properties."
The Granite State ATV Association sees the judge's decision as a major victory, since if the decision had gone the other way, then a landowner would have spend a lot of time and money preparing and submitting a site plan review to the local government before allowing riding on land.