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MBTA Communities Multi-family Zoning
EOHLC - MBTA Communities Zoning Compliance
At the 2024 Annual Town Meeting, the Town adopted new MBTA Communities Multi-family Zoning Overlay District and Overlay District Map that identified five subdistricts where multi-family zoning is allowed by-right. The new MBTA Communities Zoning was subsequently approved by the Attorney General on August 26, 2024.
On December 17, 2024, the Planning Board adopted new MBTA Communities Multi-family Zoning Rules & Regulations to establish the procedures and requirements for submitting site plans pursuant to Zoning Bylaw Section 7.11 MBTA Communities Multi-family Overlay District and to notify Applicants of the review criteria for these site plans.
On December 26, 2024, the Town submitted a District Compliance application along with the new Regulations to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC). On June 12, 2025, the Town received notice from the EOHLC Secretary stating that the Town is conditionally compliant with Section 3A and 760 CMR 72.00.
EOHLC has determined that the following items will need to be addressed for the Town to found in full compliance:
- The District’s geography is less contiguous than the flexibilities provided in Section 72.05(1)(a)(3) of the Regulations permit. At least half of the District land areas must comprise contiguous lots of land.
- Several areas of the District appear subject to special permit requirements, including §7.2 Floodplain Conservancy District, and §6.2.2 Minimum Lot Area. These two sections together subject a large portion of the District to special permit requirements due to the presence of flood zone areas. The Town can either exempt the District from this requirement and move the substantive requirements into Site Plan Review or another non-discretionary process, or remove the affected parcels from the District’s unit capacity.
- The GIS shapefiles provided show a district that excludes street and rail right of way areas, and the district acreages submitted in the compliance model indicate that the ROW was not included in the area measurements. The definition of gross density in G.L. Chapter 40A, Section 1A requires including right of way areas in calculations. Therefore, these areas must be included in district shapefiles even if local practice is to not include them in zoning districts. Including these areas will affect the district’s land area and gross density calculation
The Town has one year to bring the District into compliance, which will require modifications to the Overlay District boundaries and the parcels that are included and not included in the Overlay District boundaries. Click HERE for a copy of the letter
MBTA Communities Site Plan Rules & Regulations
Final MBTA Communities Multi-family Zoning Overlay Map
Shown to the right is the final Zoning Overlay Map adopted by the 2024 Annual Town Meeting.
This map meets the required compliance with:
Unit Capacity: 1,198 (1,094 required)
Dwelling Units/Acre: 22.8 (15 units/acre required)
Land Area within the Station Area: 53.05% (50% required)
Total Land Area: 84.41 acres (50 ac. required)
Final MBTA Communities Multi-family Zoning Bylaw
Click HERE to go to Zoning Bylaw Section 7. The MBTA Communities Multi-family Zoning Bylaw begins in Section 7.11.
Click HERE to go to the Town's WebGIS Interactive map. Under the "Layers" tab on the left hand side go to "Zoning" and click the small white triangle to expand this section. From here, click the check box for "MBTA Subdistricts Draft Overlay Map to see the five locations. You can also click the check box for "MBTA Communities: Station Areas" and "MBTA Communities: Excluded Areas" to see both the 1/2 mile radius with a purple circle and the excluded areas which will appear in a light blue color.
Please note, you can click on any parcel from the GIS map to learn more about it by using the "i" button on the right side of the website, use the hand button below the "i" to move around the map.