Megan Sullivan asked to see examples of densities required by the MBTA Communities Act. The MBTA Communities Act mandates us to zone 50 acres for multifamily housing at an as of right density of 15 units per acre.
ONE EXAMPLE: Old Village Square (Maple Street) off RTE 27 about a half mile South of RTE 109 is 42 single family homes that were built on almost 7 acres as of right in the RU zoning district that encompasses the downtown. When it was built the RU zone allowed an additional unit for every extra 6K sq. ft. of land. Old Village Square is at a density of 6 units per acre. The MBTA Communities Act might be nearly satisfied by such a development that contained 2-family homes of 1,500 sq. ft. each in place of the 3,000 sq. ft. single family homes that are there.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE: Prentis Place off North Street just North of the Pfaff Center is likely about the same density as Old Village Square.
To my eye, Old Village Square and Prentis Place both have tremendous curb appeal. Old Village Square because the garages are in the rear and from the street each unit looks distinctively different. Prentis Place because of its layout and landscaping. BTW, both are likely huge profit centers for the town, as neither requires much by way of municipal services. The last I knew Old Village Square had only one school child in its 42 units, meaning the town netted about $600,000 a year in property tax revenues over costs.
This is a depiction of what various densities might look like on an acre of land.
The following was a slide from the public forum on the MBTA Communities Act showing differing housing densities.
At the Planning Department’s public forum on the MBTA Communities Act the apartment building on Jane’s Avenue at North Street was mentioned as having 15 units. Given the footprint of that building is on likely on less that half an acre, that might be an example of a density of about 30 units per acre. The building on North Street that houses the Butterfly Shop was said to contain 13 apartments, again, likely a really high unit per acre count.
Tilden Village and Medfield Gardens must both exceed 15 units per acre. I would think that Thurston Place off Brook Street and Glover Place off North Street might be at densities of 6-8 units per acre.
If one includes in our MBTA Communities Act required 50 acres sites such as where The Parc, Aura and the Shaw’s Plaza are located (none of which are likely to be redeveloped), one can craft a plan that will never result in 750 more units.
See also the examples via the link below of some handsome cluster developments:
DEV CASE STUDIES Res Cluster Development BrovitzCPD Feb 2022 (PDF)
Feb 28, 2022
http://town.medfield.net/documentcenter/view/5804
BUSINESS ZONING DISTRICT Town of Medfield, MA Medfield Planning Board Consulting Team: Brovitz Community Planning & Design Dodson & Flinker Development Case Studies: Residential Cluster/Open Space, Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND), and Pocket Neighborhoods DONOVAN
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