FRAMINGHAM – The City Council Planning & Zoning Subcommittee will hold a remote meeting tonight, Wednesday June 10, starting at 6 pm to discuss rezoning approximately 30 acres of land between Edmands and Edgell Roads.
Developers have been trying for years to get more profitable denser zoning at that property, but various proposals have so far been turned down. It is currently zoned for single-family residential.
The latest rezoning plan for a “Nobscot Residential Development District” would allow single-family homes but also two-family dwellings, townhouses, multifamily housing, and senior housing. Proposed density would be 15 units per acre but “up for discussion on unit count per acre,” according to a draft of the proposal posted online.
Proponents of the plan say that something is very likely to be built there that is not single-family housing. And, if the city doesn’t work with the property owners to get something that at least some of the neighbors are happy with, they could end up with a so-called Dover Amendment project that would allow much denser use. Under the state Dover Amendment, local communities have little say in projects that claim to be for educational or religious use, and that definition can be quite broad.
Opponents counter that the Nobscot intersection and nearby roads are already overloaded, there has already been recent rezoning for denser development nearby at the property next to CVS, other infrastructure in the area such as water and sewer may not be up to more large-scale development, and there have not been studies for things like environmental impact and the ultimate cost to the city to provide services to all those new residents and whether new revenue would cover those.
This is the same property that the Administration tried to add to the city’s MBTA Rezoning plan toward the end of that planning process, instead of including it at the start along with properties in other areas of the city that were under consideration.
(This property is not in District 2, but it’s close enough that it feels like almost a part of our neighborhoods )
Information on viewing the meeting is at https://framinghamma.granicus.com/DocumentViewer.php?file=framinghamma_00f3087c8380a690bcd39ac27e1e8659.pdf&view=1 .
Map of the area under consideration for rezoning:
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