According to a letter sent to the City Council, the Mayor, with the input of Planning Director, Barney Heath, Council President Marc Laredo, and Zoning and Planning Chair, Susan Albright, has decided to “extend the time of delivery of a final draft zoning ordinance to the City Council to the calendar year 2020.
“My decision was made for two reasons. First, we recently concluded the 1st draft Zoning Redesign ward-by-ward meetings and listened carefully;we know we have considerable work to do on the second draft to ensure we have the right rules in place to direct the future development of our community. Second, we have a sizeable work load in our Planning Department for the rest of this calendar year. This includes important and time-sensitive planning work reviewing the Northland Special Permit application, a Vision Plan and anticipated special permit application for Riverside,updating our inclusionary zoning provisions, developing and presenting a Climate Action Plan, and completing work on the Vision Plan and associated zoning for Washington Street. I am confident the Planning Department can ably complete these initiatives in 2019 if we extend zoning redesign into 2020.”
Looks like the Mayor et al. have been reading Village 14.
Congrats to all who have contributed. The next zoning step will occur only AFTER Newton’s November 2019 elections!
I’m confused about the Riverside timing. Surely the developer wont submit his special permit application until after the visioning plan process is complete and has had time to incorporate the community feedback into it. Yes/no?
This is very fair, each council member can now make their positions on zoning very clear and will win/loose accordingly…
There are many good things in the zoning rehaul (making the code very clear), giving more choice and options to existing home owners.. and trying to standardize the look and feel of the neighborhood
@Lisa – Here’s the anticipated timeline from the city regarding Riverside:
http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/95749
The conceptual plan was just presented this week (14th) and the formal SP submission is probably coming before May. If it follows the anticipated plan the SP technically comes after the visioning final draft but I wouldn’t expect it to take anything from the vision into account, especially considering the conceptual plan has already been presented. Any changes would most likely come during the public hearing period.
Good decision by the Planning Dept. Property owners in Newton
must learn more about the proposed land use changes. These
new ordinances will shape the city’s future and must be fully understood by all stake holders.
Can anyone explain the term “by right “. If my neighbor or myself own a small empty 6000 sqft lot to the left of an existing house then the proposed allows building a house “by right” on the lot since the old zoning required 10000sqft.
Does by right mean nosey or nimby neighbors abutters can not block a house from being built?
Does the decision to extend the zoning deadline include Washington St. or will we continue to rush that through?
@Bugek – Yep, “by right” means no special approvals are required. There are still processes and reviews to make sure the use is by right but assuming that’s the case it can’t be blocked like a special permit or variance request.
If I recall there was at least one case in the past few years where a developer wanted to convert a lot into multi-family (or condos?) via special permit and got so much push back they basically said screw this and built the largest possible house allowed by right on the lot.
@Peter – Washington St, like Riverside and Northland, is separate from the overall zoning redesign project. The city is drafting the zoning for that stretch as part of the Washington St vision project, from the letter it sounds like that’s still being tracked for this year.
Patrick,
Thanks, the zoning really clears up what can and cannot be done.
I also wonder if the zoning changes may cause a huge rush in people adding additions onto their homes because they currently have room within FAR rights in old zoning.
The new zoning places a can on size of home no matter how large the lot.
@Bugek,
If you do own a small lot next to your house that was not developable under the existing ordinance, but does become developable with the revised ordinance then the the tax on that land will surely increase.
The Lot Merger Doctrine might also kick in. Those rules make my head spin. Mass law talks about protecting 5000 sq ft lots. Something the proposed ordinance no longer cares about.
Simon,
In most cases, I would guess it would be a ‘good thing’ for a owner to now suddenly own a developable lot or a lot that can now be subdivided ‘by right’.
It can be sold to help retirement, college costs and nosey NIMBY neighbors will not be able to prevent what a owner can do with their own property. I just hope the zoning rules are clear enough to avoid extra confusion…
I believe the number of people in this scenario will far exceed the homeowner who have no intention of selling their ‘extra’ lot and faces unaffordable property tax increases. There’s always going to be winner and losers with any change…
@bugek – I would except an uptick in tear downs the longer this process drags on. Most of the tear downs I see in Auburndale would be significantly over the size limits under the proposed zoning so I’d guess developers want to get as many in as they can under the current FAR system.
It’s almost a catch-22 situation for the planning department – People don’t want McMansion sized tear downs so they try to address that by detaching house size from lot size but then people complain because density. Most of the areas zoned for R3 are already MR so we’re getting impacted by tear downs either way, it’s a question of do we want McMansion sized tear downs or smaller houses more in line with what’s already there.