LAND UTILIZATION IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 47 



shire Real Estate Association was organized in 1934 as a coordinating 

 agency and clearing house for real estate inquiries, especially by out-of- 

 state people. The State Department of Agriculture and the Federal Land 

 Bank have facilitated transfers by preparing fragmentary lists of avail- 

 able farm properties. These types of services could well be extended. 

 The clearing house organization might be enlarged ultimately to reach 

 every available property, and the service should be more widely pub- 

 licized. Local planning groups could aid in the listing of salable pro- 

 perties not reached in any other way. 



Experiences of persons who have visited the State have been an 

 important influence in encouraging the purchase of summer homes. The 

 attraction of tourists through truthful advertising of recreational assets 

 should be continued as an integral phase of public and private policy. 

 The use of high pressure, exaggerated methods to attain local benefits at 

 the expense of other areas should be discouraged as deterrents to orderly 

 development. 



Public policy might be directed more toward the encouragement 

 or discouragement of occupancy in particular rural areas, using as criteria 

 the relationship between costs of and returns from occupancy, under 

 alternative types of land use. In rural towns with a large proportion of 

 property abandonment, such direction could be carried out with a min- 

 imum disturbance of human affairs. Local road policy affords an effec- 

 tive instrument of control in this regard. The legal closing of hundreds 

 of miles of unused or dead-end roads serving isolated abandoned proper- 

 ties would discourage further occupancy of undesirable and costly loca- 

 tions. The diversion of funds to the improvement of existing roads or 

 even the construction of new roads to create access to inaccessible areas 

 desirable for recreational development would prove to be better public 

 investment in many instances. 



The State Highway Department might add another category to the 

 present highway classification. Town roads serving only scattered loca- 

 tions and covering difficult terrain, but having summer home possibilities, 

 might be designated as "summer roads". Little or no maintenance would 

 be needed on these roads during the difficult months of winter and early 

 spring, and less than the present standard of maintenance could be re- 

 quired of the town during the summer. Such classification would relieve 

 rural towns of existing and potential high maintenance costs, and still 

 would permit settlement by summer residents who were not interested 

 in winter or eventual year-round occupancy. Certain towns in effect 

 have followed such a policy with respect to seldom-used roads, but the 

 legal establishment of policy would eliminate uncertainty, misunderstand- 

 ing, and the present feeling of discrimination on the part of the property 

 owners affected. A "summer road" classification would have to be 

 adopted slowly and in piece-meal fashion, not to interfere with the rights 

 of prior occupants. 



Town zoning offers several possibilities for the control of recrea- 

 tional development. Despite the difficulties presented by a complex pat- 

 tern of land utilization and occupancy, the prevention of undesirable 

 uses and the encouragement of desirable uses through the adoption of 



