zoning revisions committee presentation, 02-16-2011, final version

Rezoning Northampton for a Sustainable Future

The Zoning Revisions Committee (ZRC)

Who We Are

– A volunteer committee,appointed by the PlanningBoard

– Formed to help implement“Sustainable Northampton”(the city’s comprehensivemaster plan adopted in 2008)

– Selected to represent avariety of viewpoints,expertise and neighborhoods

– Review current zoning & recommend revisions

– Be a technical resource for the Planning Board

– Provide a wide range of opportunities for publicinput to the zoning revision process

Rezoning Northampton for a Sustainable Future

Our Charge: Get Sustainability into Zoning

Infill is a Key Issue

Infill Rose to the Surface as a Critical Issue for Sustainability

Infill is new construction or redevelopment that 'fills in' empty lots or adds unitsor uses in areas that are already developed

Infill is an important tool for concentrating development in walkableneighborhoods, rather than sprawling into undeveloped areas

Infill is the historic pattern of development in Northampton

Parking Lots

Flavors of Infill – Adding Units Within Existing Homes

House 030.jpg

BEFORE: 2-UNITS AFTER: 3-UNITS

ATTIC CONVERSION = “INVISIBLE INFILL”

Flavors of Infill – Converting Outbuildings to New Units

CARRIAGE HOUSE CONVERSION, BUTLER PLACE

Flavors of Infill – Converting Garages to New Units

BEFORE

AFTER

Flavors of Infill – Building Additions

BRIDGE STREET & POMEROY TERRACE

Flavors of Infill – Filling Gaps in the Street

How should this gap in Walnut Street be filled?

?

?

Infill and Sustainability

Environment– Reduces the need for new infrastructure, and reduces driving

– Can be more energy efficient and lower carbon emissions

– Is less damaging to natural systems than “greenfield” development

Economy– Increases walking to businesses, supporting more commercial real estate and local jobs

– Makes public transit more viable

Equity– Provides a wide range of housing types and work spaces that meet peoples’ needs

To Meet the Goals of Sustainable Northampton:– Traditional neighborhoods, village, and mixed-use commercial centers will need to

accommodate additional units (infill)

– But, it must be designed in a way that respects its surroundings and creates a "sense ofplace"

Forum #1: What We Learned

General support for infill and mixed-use development in commercial and residentialdistricts, especially in existing neighborhoods within walking distance tobusinesses and green spaces, because infill…

Makes the city more sustainable

Encourages economic development

Provides affordable units for renters and income for owners

Makes neighborhoods more walkable

Support for infill as long as it is compatible with neighborhoods, including:

Scale

Design

Traffic

Forum #2: Why We’re Here

After Forum #1:

We considered how to create more flexible regulations that…

- Allow for a greater mix of uses

- Allow some new residential units and new options like cottage housing

- Ensure that this happens in a way that is compatible with our neighborhoods

We Need Community Feedback On:

- Topic #1: Home Business Proposed approach to regulate home occupations in a simple, flexible way that ensures that business uses will be compatible with residential neighborhoods

- Topic #2: Dimensional Standards for Infill Possible approaches to allowing for a greater variety of residential developments

- Topic #3: Residential Design Standards Design standards we should have for residential development, and what types of projects they should apply to

Simplify Home Business Permitting

What We Heard About Mixed-Uses (Forum #1)

- Should be allowed in commercial and residential areas…

- Provided that it is in scale and compatible with surrounding uses

What We Did

- Worked on zoning to allow more uses in commercial districts

- Now working on more mixed-use in residential neighborhoods

The key step is revising “Home Occupation” provisions. We’re proposingreplacing them with what we call “Home Business.”


Overview of Current Regulations

A home occupation does not require Special Permit only if:

– No clients or customers are seen on site

– There is no sign for the business

– There are no sales of goods from the premises

– You don’t meet or work with other people in your house

If home business activity doesn’t fit this narrow definition, then a SpecialPermit is required to allow a small sign, sale of goods from the home, or oneother person to work with you


Goal

Allow many types of home business by right, but minimize impactson neighborhood

Allow current illegal home businesses to operate legally

Strategies

Regulate auto traffic instead of clients and customers seen

Don’t distinguish between types of visits (by client, employee,delivery person, contractor, etc.)


Proposed Home Businesses Changes Allowed Without Special Permit

No more than 5 automobile round trips per day can be generated by the business

A one square foot sign, attached to building and not lighted, is allowed

Home made goods can be sold from the premises

Up to two “open studios” to sell home made goods permitted per year

Special Permit Required If the Home Business…

Generates more than 5 automobile round trips per day

Holds more than 2 open studio functions per year

Stores materials outdoors (as long as not visible

from street or adjacent properties)


Benefits for Sustainability

Supports…

Infill and uses existing structures for multiple purposes

Entrepreneurship, and lowers barriers to small business

Equity - applies to all kinds of work equally (professional services, homemade goods, etc.)

Reduces…

Traffic and use of nonrenewable resources

– Note: A recent report states that telecommuting opportunities haveincreased 400% in the last three years

Cost of doing business in Northampton

Regulations - fewer special permits required


We Need Your Feedback

Does it make sense to relax the home business standards?

Do you prefer an approach that regulates, based on:

– A. the effects of the business on the neighborhood(e.g. number of trips generated by the business)?

OR

– B. use and lot characteristics? (e.g. parking requirements)

Dimensional Standards in Urban Residential Zones

What Are Dimensional Standards?

– Regulations that govern development, e.g. location of buildings on a lot

– Standards are different for each zone and use – examples include minimum…

• Lot sizes

• Setbacks, or distance between a building and the property line

• Frontage, or length of property line along the street

• Percentage open space

What We Heard at Public Forum #1:

– General support for infill development within walking distance of stores, offices, jobs,parks, bike paths, etc.

– Preference for small projects over big ones (i.e. filling gaps in the street, adding units toexisting houses and accessory buildings, converting large houses)

– Design is important (covered later)

– Traffic and infrastructure are concerns

– Infill should not disproportionately affect one area of the city


What We Did:

- Identified Dimensional Standards as key barrier to infill development in existingneighborhoods

- Studied current neighborhood dimensions in depth

- Researched innovative housing development types and zoning changes beingmade in other cities to allow for more innovative developments

- Developed proposals for changing dimensional standards


Sustainability Benefits of Dimensional Standards Changes to Allow Infill

Environment:More people live in walking distance to goods and services = less driving

Economy:More residents to support nearby businesses, both existing and new – (and more businessesnearby will make neighborhoods even more walkable)

Rental income for property owners

More disposable income due to lower car expenses (more walking = less driving)

Equity:More variety of in-town housing = more people can afford to live here

Zoning Out Traditional Neighborhoods

What percentage of homes in our urban neighborhoods do not conform* to currentminimum lot size zoning regulations?**

URC

- 63% of 1-3 family homes do not conform

- 83% of 4 family homes do not conform

URB




URA


- 100% of 2 family and multiple-family homes do

not conform (they are not allowed)

*Non-Conforming refers to a property that is used or structures that are built in a way that is not permitted by the zoning forthe property. The use is “grandfathered”, or permitted to continue, because the land was being used in such a fashionbefore the zoning law was passed.

**This analysis looked only at conformance with lot size requirements. An analysis of properties that also meet minimumsetback, frontage and other requirements would yield even higher rates of non-conformance

Why Does this Matter?

- Zoning doesn’t matchour existingneighborhoods

- We have great urbanneighborhoods that cannever be built again!

Zoning Out Traditional Neighborhoods

Example: Walnut Street – Properties that DoNot Conform to their Zoning (by lot size)

84% could not be built on these lots today!

84%

Example: Elizabeth Street – This 2-FamilyHome Could Not be Built Today

Lot Size: 5,183 Square Feet

Today, would need 12,000 SF to buildthis home

Would need 8,000 SF to even build asingle family home

Innovative Infill Housing NOT Allowed

COTTAGE & POCKET HOUSING

Adaptive Reuse Infill Housing NOT Allowed

ADAPTIVE REUSE OF OBSOLETE BUILDINGS

Allowed Downtown, but….

Not allowed in Leeds…


Summary: Problems with The Current Zoning

The current dimensional regulations are designed to DECREASE the density ofexisting neighborhoods, while the sustainability plan says to INCREASE density -and that was confirmed in our last public meeting on infill

Innovative housing types, especially where people have smaller homes withshared yards (e.g. cottage housing), are not allowed

Adaptive reuse of obsolete structures like old churches and schools for housing isnot possible in our neighborhoods


Summary of Possible Approaches:

Fix the dimensional tables– Reduce lot size, frontage, setbacks, etc. to match our existing

neighborhoods better and allow infill.

– Keeps the minimum lot size requirements

Develop performance-based standards

– Replace the dimensional tables to regulate only setbacks, parking,open space (and design).

– Gets rid of the minimum lot size requirements

– Allows new units no matter what lot size exists, if you meet theperformance standards

Create a special permit for infill

– Using either approach above, ONLY allow new units on a case-by-case basis through

– Planning Board special permit - Could be used to test above methods

Existing Zoning: URB 2-family

Minimum Lot: 12,000 SF

Example Zoning Change: URB 2-family

Smaller frontage, setbacks and lot size


Existing Zoning: URB 1-family


Example Zoning Change: URB 1-family

Smaller frontage, setbacks and lot size


Infill and Innovative Dvpts in Neighborhoods

Performance-Based Zoning Approach

This approach does not regulate number of units per lot area

If you meet setback, parking and open space requirements, you can build your project

Also provides an easyapproach to allow forinnovative developmentslike cottage housing withoutrequiring a special permit.


Brings our traditional neighborhoods into greater conformance with our zoningregulations, and allows good neighborhoods to be reproduced

Allows flexible reuse of existing buildings and properties in face of changinghousehold sizes and needs

More people in neighborhoods makes a community more vibrant and increasessafety through more “eyes on the street”

Residents of neighborhoods where you can walk to services and jobs drive less,but there are more total drivers

New construction can be beautiful and add to the “sense of place” of theneighborhood, but sometimes neighbors don’t like the way a particular projectlooks (design is discussed later)

Reduces the need for expensive new infrastructure, but also increases use ofexisting infrastructure

Considerations: Changing the Dimensional Standards to Allow Infill


Where We Need Your Feedback:Should the dimensional standards be revised to bring the zoning closer to whatexists in Northampton's existing neighborhoods?

Which dimensional standards are most important to you? For example:

– how close houses are to each other

– how close houses are to the street

– how much street frontage houses have

– how big lots are

– where parking is located and how much there is

Should new dimensional standards apply by right, or should they only beavailable by special permit?

If changes to dimensional standards allow for more units to be added to existingneighborhoods, what are your concerns?

How can we address these concerns to make one of our proposed methods oranother strategy work for you?

What are design standards?

Design standards are regulations that can govern howdevelopment should look

Examples include how buildings should be sited andconfigured on a lot, how tall and how bulky thestructure should be, and what architecturaldetails should be present

How do design standards work?

- Development plans are reviewed based onwhether they meet the design standards

- For example, all plans in the Central Businesszoning district are reviewed for compliance withthe city’s Design Guidelines for the district

Sustainability Goal: Promote design that fits intoneighborhoods so that new development makesthe city a better place.

Residential Design Standards

Forum #1: What We Learned

Design is important!

The zoning should encourage infill that….

– Is in scale and architectural character with its surroundings

– Has a similar relationship to the street as neighboring structures

Residents more likely to accept infill if there is assurance through designstandards that it will fit in with their neighborhood

House 030.jpg

Possible Zoning Solutions:

Apply design standards to…

– All development in neighborhoods

– Developments over a certain size, e.g. projects thatrenovate or add more than 700 square feet

– Only to new buildings

– Only to infill that requires a special permit

(only to new buildings, additions or units notcurrently allowed by right )

Create standards that are…

– Detailed and specific

e.g. require specific architectural details

– General and less specific, evaluating general “fit”with the neighborhood

e.g. based on existing conditions on that block


Springfield, Massachusetts Residential Design Guidelines

Site layout, materials, architectural detailing and other characteristics

Knoxville, Tennessee Infill Housing Design Guidelines

Site layout, parking, materials, building scale, porches, roof shapes, landscaping, etc.

Examples of Residential Design Standards

List of Possible Items Covered by DesignStandards:

– Splitting large lots into two narrower lots

– Building and front façade height

– Setbacks

– Size and front setbacks for porches

–Location of front door and walkway to street

– Size and position of windows

– Location of garage or parking area

– Roof shape


–Location and height ofadditions

– Design of multi-unitbuildings / townhomes

– Standards for modernarchitecture homes

We Need Community Feedback On….

Would you be comfortable with regulations on the design of projects in your neighborhoodand on your property?

What kinds or what scale of projects should design standards apply to? (e.g. all projects,projects of a certain size, only infill special permit projects, other ideas?)

How detailed should the design standards be?

Should they require specific details OR evaluate general “fit” with the neighborhood?

Should they allow only traditional architectural styles OR encourage modern architecture too?

Should they be the same for the whole city OR based on other homes in each neighborhood?



Would you be comfortable with regulations about the design of projectsin your neighborhood and on your property?

What kinds of projects should design standards apply to? (e.g. allprojects, projects of a certain size, only infill special permit projects, otherideas?)

What aspects of design are important to you?– Site design (e.g. how close houses are to each other, how buildings relate to the street)

– Or building design (e.g. roof shape, window placement and size, porches, architecture)

How detailed should the design standards be?

Should design standards be proscriptive? In other words, the standardswill detail what applicants can and can't do.

OR

Should it be left up to the applicant to make a case for how their project"fits" into the neighborhood? Applications would be reviewed by staff ora board who would have some discretion to make subjective decisions.

zoning revisions committee presentation, 02-16-2011, final version

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