Freedom ZBA Seeks Clarity About Permitted Uses of Residential Summer Camps

Freedom—October 25, 2026—Children’s residential camps are a current zoning topic because of events that took place this summer, according to Scott Lees, Chairman of Freedom’s Zoning Board of Adjustment.

Lees spoke at an October 15 joint meeting of the ZBA and Planning Board, an annual event to identify issues that might warrant changes to the zoning ordinance.

At the top of the ZBA’s discussion list were clarifying permitted uses at children’s summer camps—residential camps, in zoning terms—and clarifying the definitions of grandfathering and non-conforming uses.

The questions stem from the ZBA’s August 25 vote to uphold the Zoning Officer’s decision that two Ossipee Lake businesses, White Mountain Weddings and Lake Ossipee Conference Center/NH Retreat Center, are grandfathered.

The two businesses are registered with the State and are owned by Camp Cody. They operate when the legacy children’s summer camp is not in session.

Neighbors of Camp Cody filed a complaint that the property had become a year-round commercial operation without obtaining town approvals. They pointed to increased traffic, noise and trespassing, and said neither type of business is permitted by right or by special exception in the Shorefront Overlay of the General Residential District.

The Zoning Officer responded to say the wedding venue and conference center businesses were grandfathered. The ZBA upheld his decision on appeal.

The ZBA conceded that commercial use had “intensified” at Camp Cody over the years, but said that alone did “not necessarily constitute a prohibited expansion of a non-conforming use.”

“The Camp today is part of the modern world,” the ZBA’s Notice of Decision states.

ZBA Chairman Lees told the joint meeting that the Camp Cody decision by his board was “nothing new” because it only “reinforced long standing town policy.” But he suggested there was a problem.

He said residential camps should have greater certainty about what is permitted, and what is not, to reduce the likelihood of recurring zoning disputes.

“Everybody knows this, everybody knows that, but nothing’s written down, so it would be good just to clarify it officially,” Lees said.

The ZBA also recommended clarifying the meaning of the terms “grandfathered” and “non-conforming use.”

ZBA member Karl Ogren said the word ‘grandfathered’ was “thrown around a lot” during the White Mountains Weddings proceedings.

“I don’t think we have a definition in our zoning ordinance,” he said.

Les Babb, the Select Board’s representative to the Planning Board, took up the thread of the discussion that businesses should not have to repeatedly defend long-standing activities because the ordinance is unclear.

He said the issue of Camp Cody’s non-children’s camp businesses has been raised to town officials “three or four times” since he has been in office.

Because there is nothing specific in the ordinance, he said, the Zoning Officer has to investigate each complaint and make a decision. That decision can be challenged because it involves a non-conforming use, and the challenge is pushed to the ZBA, which has to give it a hearing.

“There’s nothing in the ordinance that says summer camps are grandfathered for the following non-conforming uses,” he said. “That’s why [the ZBA] is asking,” he explained to the Planning Board.

ZBA Chairman Lees said he did not have specific recommendations to make because the issues were still fresh from this summer’s hearings. He said the ZBA’s observations should be considered food for thought by the Planning Board.

“It was pretty sad to see that camps may be under attack because people don’t like what happens when they [the camps] are such a vital resource to our community,” Lees said.