Framingham\u2019s efforts to include in its municipal planning toolbox a powerful \u201csmart growth\u201d mechanism allowed by the state\u2019s Zoning Act came to fruition earlier this week.\u00a0 With its 114 to 14 vote, Framingham Town Meeting overwhelmingly supported the Planning Board\u2019s proposed warrant article to add the so-called Transfer of Development Rights (\u201cTOD\u201d) By-Law to the Town\u2019s Zoning By-Law, adding Framingham to a growing list of Massachusetts municipalities allowing transfer of potential development to other locations.<\/p>\n
The TOD By-Law provides, without cost to the Town, economic incentives to owners of large tracts of buildable land in residential districts to encourage them to make choices other than building or selling their land for development. \u00a0This is accomplished by giving participating developers an ability to permanently \u201cbuy\u201d those rights in order to construct denser commercial projects. \u00a0The priority development areas eligible for TOD development are in three locations which now qualify for expedited permitting under state law –\u00a0 the Technology Park, the 9\/90 Corporate Center and The TJX Company\u2019s corporate headquarters at Cochituate Road and Speen Street.<\/p>\n
Through the new TOD By-Law, five contiguous acres of land such as farms and undeveloped residentially zoned property which could be<\/em> developed may be deemed a TOD \u201cGiving Parcel\u201d.\u00a0 Holders of Giving Parcels may \u201csell\u201d through a private negotiation their right to build to a commercial developer who seeks to build in a priority development area.\u00a0 Upon demonstration of an agreement between the parties for the transfer of rights, and a professionally prepared \u201cyield plan\u201d showing how many new residences could have been built on a Giving Parcel if fully developed, the By-Law\u2019s formula will be applied to credit the developer with additional square footage beyond the limits of existing regulations. The formula is scaled to account for property value variability across different residential zoning districts.\u00a0 A developer may assemble rights from more than one holder of Giving Parcels for a project, and to the extent that the developer purchases rights beyond what it may apply to its project, it may sell those rights to another developer.<\/p>\n Other requirements include that the residential landowner must agree to restrict the property in perpetuity with an agricultural or conservation restriction, and that the developer must apply for a Special Permit to the Planning Board for the denser proposed development, which permit requires a \u201csupermajority\u201d (4 out of 5) vote.\u00a0 If approved, the developer would gain valuable additional square footage, and other density bonuses for building height, number of stories, lot coverage and floor-area ratio, all significantly higher than the maximums allowed without the development rights transfer, up to maximums provided in the TOD By-Law.<\/p>\n The TOD By-Law takes effect immediately, although it is subject to review by the Attorney General\u2019s Municipal Unit.<\/p>\n See more coverage by the Worcester Business Journal<\/a> and the MetroWest Daily News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Framingham’s efforts to include in its municipal planning toolbox a powerful “smart growth” mechanism allowed by the state’s Zoning Act came to fruition earlier this week. With its 114 to 14 vote, Framingham Town Meeting overwhelmingly supported the Planning Board’s proposed warrant article to add the so-called Transfer of Development…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zoning"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n