The Zoning and Planning Committee voted to hold all items (see Report and watch NewTV video):
- Request for discussion and amendments to the Zoning Ordinance and Zoning Map regarding village center districts. According to the report, the Chair noted at the outset of the meeting that they would debrief from the public hearing, review the planning memo, and discuss amendments.
- The memo identified five themes from the public hearing:
- Impact to small businesses: VCOD makes it easier for business to locate and existing businesses to grow
- VCOD and increasing affordable housing: Memo clarified on page 3: “17.5%” should be “15% + 2.5 – 5%” (50% @ 50-80% AMI plus 2.5 to 5% @ 80-110%AMI”). Housing Partnership wanted to add back a two-story affordability bonus. No support for increased height.
- Historic Preservation: Incentives noted in version 2 for preservation and adaptive reuse in the VC2 and VC3 districts were omitted from version 3. The Planning Department responded, stating that such incentives remain only as they apply to the MRT zone, but Planning staff offered to discuss possible incentive ideas.
- Unit Capacity – in terms of MBTA Compliance: Clarification provided regarding unit capacity metric of the MBTA Communities Guidelines; it is not a build-out analysis but rather a tool for determining compliance. The numbers generated assume no present development, that every site is built new to the maximum footage, and with no on-site parking taking up any space. The Chair noted that this model also assumes a small unit size (that by dividing the gross square footage by 1000 sf means units of about 800 sf) and that many units will be larger.
- Interdepartmental coordination
The following Amendments approved:
- 12-14 Park St and 182-184, 180, and 172 Washington St from VC2 to MRT in Newton Corner
- All VC3 in Nonantum to VC2
The following Amendments that were rejected:
- Removing from the VCOD all properties east of Adams Street in Nonantum village that are proposed to be in the VC2 zone
- Removing the villages of Auburndale, Nonantum, Newton Corner, Newton Upper Falls, Four Corners, Thompsonville, and Newton Lower Falls from the VCOD, changing most VC3 parcels to VC2, throughout the VCOD, in a way that would reduce the unit capacity closer to the 8330 required by the MBTA Communities Act but noting that doing so would require adding areas outside of ½ mile from T stops to the compliance application.
- Removing from the VCOD properties at 2, 12, 15, 21, and 27 Clark St and 96 Rowena Rd in Newton Centre, which are proposed as MRT.
