For most people it’s been percolating along in the background, probably under the radar of 99% of residents, but the draft of the Zoning Reform Phase 1 Zoning Ordinance, which was intended to be a re-codification and clarification of current rules, is now complete.
The Public Hearing opens tonight at 7:45 pm in City Hall room 205, at the Zoning & Planning Committee. One hopes the Public Hearing won’t be closed tonight, however, because it’s a 180-page document that deserves to have more eyes take a look. It’s purpose was to make our current ordinance easier to understand, with any actual changes in the ordinance to occur in Phase 2. But even from the limited discussions I’ve heard while attending Zoning & Planning for other items like the demolition moratorium, it was clear there was pressure to let some potentially substantive changes get through in the process of trying to clean up inconsistencies. Alderman Baker was particularly vigilant that this not happen without discussion. How these instances were resolved is noted in the Planning Department’s April 10 Memorandum included in the Agenda for tonight.
Compared to the current ordinance, the ZR1 draft has many more illustrations such as a couple shown here, which will be a great improvement. Also helpful are the November 4, 2014 draft of the new Use Table, and a Look Up Table which tells you where to find a topic in the both the ZR1 draft and the current ordinance.
The Look Up Table was included in the Friday Packet three days ago, but I’m not sure how many people will have had a chance to take advantage of it, on our first nice spring weekend, just before April 15! And now, back to finishing up my taxes.
Help me out – I’m confused. So many posts, so much rhetoric and heartfelt opinion on teardowns, density, development and on and on, but not a single person has bothered to comment on the draft document of the rules that will control how it all gets done, which is the revised zoning ordinance? I can’t figure it out. The actual meat and potatoes that will set the rules for everything from FAR to accessory apartments, years in the making through endless staff work and committee meetings, and not a single soul, not a single armchair quarterback or self-apponted expert on housing and development, can even be bothered to say a single word? I’m shocked, just shocked. Do they lack motivation or can they not sustain attention and mental focus across 180 or so pages of the document? Too much trouble to read it? Is it more important to fling epithets and fire off insults than to actually review the draft ordinance itself? The silence is thunderous, and most disappointing.
@HL, If it makes you feel any better, several members of the public have emailed the aldermen/women with comments about the changes to the ordinance. I can’t speak to why no one has chosen to blog about it; perhaps you could be the first!
HL Dewey, Phase I of zoning reform focused on reorganizing, clarifying and correcting errors or inconsistencies in the existing zoning ordinance so that it was simpler, clearer and easier to use and understand (without a law degree). Once it is adopted, the Board of Aldermen will turn to Phase II, which will involve substantive reform.
I attended several of the Phase I discussions as the Aldermen debated changes in Committee, mostly grammatical and organizational, creating charts that refer the user of the ordinance to all the relevant sections of the old ordinance and presenting all the relevant topics in user-friendly tables that our residents can understand. I have read this “recodification” and applaud the Aldermen, most especially Ald. Baker, for producing this document with basically the same content as the old ordinance, choosing to change only self-contradictory parts and to define a few unclear terms. They have been extremely careful and intelligent in reaching their final Phase I product and that took them 2 years. That was the “easy” part. Now the real work will begin. For Phase II there will be debates, arguments, passion and rhetoric in the Council Chambers. I hope you and many of our residents will attend those working sessions. I predict that they will not be easy to listen to or watch and that they will provide excellent theater. The decisions in Phase II will determine the future look and character of our City. I would vote very carefully for the people who will people the Council after November! Ask them all what they will change or not change as that will be your strongest voice on this matter. H L Dewey: I hope you will be there to watch the sausage being made.
Thank you for waking up this thread, H.L. Dewey! I had meant to update people on what happened Monday night, and give people the link to this audio http://yourlisten.com/NewtonVillagesAlliance/zoning-planning-april-13-2015-zoning-reform so you can listen for yourself. (Audio is also on city website http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/65143/03-23-15ZAP.mp3 but the NVA one has tracks for the major topics, so you can listen to ZR Phase 1 discussion, and then get a preview of Phase 2 and ‘context-based zoning.’)
You can also get the live-tweet account here: https://twitter.com/newtonvillages (scroll down to the beginning of April 13 tweets).
Comparing the old language to Phase 1 language is a pretty heavy slog, and kind of wonky to say the least, but it is a good idea to do, because once Phase 1 is approved, it is our zoning code until amended by Phase 2 or intermediate measures. One example of why it matters, noted by the first public commenter: in one place Phase 1 seems to permit only two parking spaces in the setback (i.e. the part of your neighbor’s property right next to your property line), while in another place it seems to permit four parking spaces. You can be sure a property owner would want the more liberal rule applied, while the next door neighbor might not.
There is also a potentially consequential provision allowing the commissioner of Inspectional Services to decide for himself whether something is a permitted use.
Happily, the public hearing was held open, and James Freas welcomed further public comment and is planning to meet with the people who are laboriously going through the language and sending their comments to the alders (but not necessarily commenting here on V14). ZAP chair Marcia Johnson wants to proceed in May, and hopes that the work of resolving any remaining Phase 1 language issues can be completed ahead of time. So anyone with an area of interest should use the Look Up Table linked to in the main post above, and carefully read the current code and the Phase 1 language.