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Scheduling a hearing and giving notice

This page is for the board secretary and planning and zoning staff. It covers the work between an application being ready for a hearing and the hearing being held: choosing the meeting, giving notice to abutters and the public, proving that notice was given on time, and marking the hearing held. Recording what the board decided is on decisions and notices of decision.

Each hearing has its own page. Open it from the application, under Hearings and decisions, or from the meeting it belongs to. The page heading names the board and meeting, and a chip shows whether the hearing is Scheduled, Held, Continued or Cancelled.

What has to be in place first​

Chiban will not schedule a hearing until three things are done on the application.

  • The meeting is on the calendar. If the board has no meeting on the date you need, add it on the meetings page first.
  • The regional impact and water body findings are recorded. See board applications.
  • An abutter list has been issued, and it was issued after those findings. If you change a finding after issuing the list, Chiban asks for a new list. The message says the list was issued before the regional impact or water proximity finding and tells you to draw and issue a new list first.

Schedule the hearing​

  1. Open the application and go to Hearings and decisions.
  2. Open Schedule a hearing.
  3. Choose the Meeting. Each date is marked with the same labels as on the application, such as too soon to mail notice or after the deadline.
  4. Choose the Kind. For a Planning Board application that has just been submitted, the only choice is Submission and public hearing. For any other application the choices are Public hearing and Rehearing.
  5. Select Schedule hearing.

Scheduling a Submission and public hearing also sets that meeting as the acceptance meeting. For a Zoning Board application that has just been submitted, scheduling the hearing also opens it, and the application moves to Under review.

Chiban builds the notice checklist for the hearing and confirms it: "Hearing scheduled. The notice checklist is ready."

The notice checklist​

The Notice section of the hearing page lists everything that has to be given before the hearing, with who gets it, whether proof is on file, and a status of Missing, On time or Late. Items still missing are listed first.

  • Mail to abutters and others entitled to notice. There is one row for each person on the issued abutter list, and one for the applicant. Each row has the name and mailing address.
  • Public posting and bulletin boards. There is a row for the public posting and one for each bulletin board the town has set up.
  • Notice for regional impact or a water body. Extra rows appear when the findings you recorded call for them.

The date each item is due depends on the board and on the meeting date. Planning Board notice is due earlier than Zoning Board notice. When every item is due on the same day, the page says "All due" and the date. The days and how Chiban counts them are in New Hampshire deadlines and holidays.

The town also lists the notice on its public meetings page. If the notice calls for posting on the town website, Chiban lists it there as soon as the hearing is scheduled and records the website posting for you. The public page offers a printable copy of the notice. See the public meetings page.

Select Print the notice letters. A PDF opens in a new tab with one letter for each mailing on the checklist, ready to print and mail. The letters use the hearing notice template under Settings, Templates. If the application type has no hearing notice template, Chiban says so and prints nothing. An administrator adds the template.

Record proof of notice​

Mailing the letters does not complete the item. Each item needs proof, and the proof has to be dated on or before the item's due date.

  1. Under Notice, open Record proof of notice.
  2. Choose Upload a certificate or receipt and add the file. PDF, JPEG and PNG files work. Give the document a name and select Upload.
  3. Tick the Notice items this proof covers. One receipt can cover many items, for example a certificate of mailing for every abutter.
  4. Choose the Proof: Certified mail receipt, Certificate of mailing, Other carrier with evidence of mailing, First class mail, Newspaper publication, Posting or Website posting. Each kind of item accepts only the proofs that fit it. Mail to abutters, for example, takes the first three.
  5. Enter the Tracking number. It is needed for certified mail and for other carriers.
  6. Enter the Date of mailing, posting, or publication. It starts as today's date. An item is On time when this date is on or before its due date, and Late when it is after.
  7. Choose the file you uploaded under Certificate or receipt, and select Record proof.

The file you upload has to be a certificate or receipt. Chiban does not accept the application itself or a notice it generated as proof.

Mark the hearing properly noticed​

When every item shows On time, the Next step box on the hearing page offers Mark properly noticed. Until then it says how many notices still need proof. While any item is Missing or Late, Chiban refuses and lists the ones holding it up.

Mark the hearing held​

After the meeting has taken place, the Next step box offers Mark the hearing held. Before the meeting it says to mark the hearing held after the meeting on that date.

Enter the Date held. It starts as the meeting date and can be that date or any date up to today. Chiban refuses a date before the meeting or in the future. Once the hearing is held, a Record the decision section opens on the same page.

Continue a hearing to another meeting​

When the board carries a hearing over, open Continue to another meeting in the Next step box.

  1. Choose the New meeting from the board's later meetings. If the list is empty, add a later meeting to the calendar first.
  2. Answer Was the new date, time, and place announced at the meeting?
  3. If you answered yes, write what was announced under What was announced. It is required.
  4. Select Continue hearing.

If it was announced at the meeting, the notice already given carries forward, and the new hearing starts with that proof. If it was not announced, new notice is required for the new date, and the new hearing has its own checklist. Both hearings link to each other as Continued from and Continued to. A continued hearing is listed on the agenda of the meeting it was continued to.

Where the hearing shows up​

  • On the meeting page, under Hearings, and on its agenda once you add the hearings.
  • On the application, under Hearings and decisions.
  • On the public meetings page, under Hearing notices, until the hearing is held.