If a legal non-conforming use wishes to expand and the expansion normally would require a variance, does the nonconforming use require a variance?
“The legal right to continue a nonconforming use and the practical ability to maintain a nonconforming use as viable in changing economic climates can be two very different things. Nonconforming uses are not required to remain frozen in the state of activity that existed on the date the prohibitive ordinance became effective. Business circumstances may well encourage them to change and grow. While nonconforming use status does not confer special privileges such that an expansion or change in use would be permitted without obtaining a variance where one would be required for a permitted use, nonconforming uses do have the same right as do permitted uses to engage in customary incidental and accessory uses.” New Hampshire Land Use Law Willard G. Martin, Jr.,Editor, Nighswander, Martin & Mitchel, P.A. (Sub section 5-27, pg 146.) (See this reference, which contains an extensive discussion of this question and related Supreme Court cases, for more information.) (For additional information,
