Equitable Zoning by Design
Equitable Zoning by Design is a report on zoning for multifamily housing in New England.
With generous funding from the Provost’s Office at Northeastern University, Utile’s Tim Love was able take some of zoning tools initially developed while consulting for the City of Newton and explore them in more detail, both from a design and community engagement standpoint. Amy Dain, an independent researcher with a unique understanding of the history of zoning in Boston’s suburbs, Sam Naylor, an Associate and housing architect at Utile and co-editor of The State of Housing Design at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard, and Camille Wimpe, a thoughtful and talented graduate student at Northeastern, co-led the effort. Each brought their unique disciplinary perspectives to the research and zoning toolkit that emerged.
The final report summarizes the full range of issues that were considered and includes several suggested (and elegantly diagrammed) design-based zoning tools that are different in scope and ideological intent than the more comprehensive form-based template that was used in Somerville MA and several other communities in New England. While the form-base “lite” toolkit establishes the size and shape of buildings by prescribing the maximum building footprint, maximum number of stories, and optional solutions for the roof form, the code includes fewer design standards, thus allowing for more design freedom. The reduction in design standards also means that the code is easier to use and enforce.
The collaboration with the municipalities of Canton, Framingham, and Ipswich, all required to reform their zoning within the same time period, provided the opportunity to test some of the zoning tools in real time. Discussions with local officials and planning boards also gave the authors the opportunity to observe and compare the different hurdles that town planners face when attempting to reform zoning policy.
Learn more and download the full report here.