[Massplanners] Form Based Code-Massachusetts

[Maren Toohill]

Littleton has adopted 2 FBC districts, the Village Common mixed-use FBC district (June 2020), and the King Street Common mixed-use FBC district (October 2021). We didn’t completely let go of the uses that are allowed in the FBC districts, but it’s much more about the look, feel, design, and streetscape/public realm than the prior zoning. FBC can be a zoning best practice in certain cased, but a community must have the staffing/training to properly implement; it can offer a “clear path” for developers. Communities are saying “if you design to this particular standard, you will get the approvals needed to build/redevelop”.
Littleton hopes to use the King Street Common FBC district to help meet the MBTA Communities multifamily zoning requirements (with a few tweaks).
Other communities with FBC include Ayer, MA (and Bozeman MT if you need a field trip – just kidding!) Hopefully others will chime in, I’m not up to date on other communities that have adopted/are working on FBC.
George Proakis, the new Town Manager in Watertown holds a wealth of FBC knowledge. Consultants Tim Love and Jessy Yang at Utile helped guide Littleton through the FBC development and adoption process – I highly recommend their work.
Best of luck with the process,
Maren

Maren A. Toohill, AICP
Town Planner
978/540-2425
MToohill at littletonma.org<mailto:MToohill at littletonma.org>
Town of Littleton

From: MassPlanners [mailto:massplanners-bounces at masscptc.org] On Behalf Of Katharine Lacy via MassPlanners
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2023 10:55 AM
To: Christopher Skelly <CSkelly at berkshireplanning.org>
Cc: Mass Planners <MassPlanners at masscptc.org>
Subject: Re: [Massplanners] Form Based Code-Massachusetts



**THIS EMAIL WAS SENT BY AN EXTERNAL SENDER**
Littleton did.  Hopefully Maren will weigh in!

On Wed, May 31, 2023 at 10:18 AM Christopher Skelly via MassPlanners <massplanners at masscptc.org<mailto:massplanners at masscptc.org>> wrote:
Has anyone else adopted form based code besides Lowell, Pittsfield and Somerville?

Anyone from Lowell or Somerville like to share their thoughts?


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Chris Skelly, Project Specialist
Berkshire Regional Planning Commission
1 Fenn St., Suite 201 | Pittsfield, MA 01201
c: 413-834-0678
cskelly at berkshireplanning.org<mailto:cskelly at berkshireplanning.org>
www.berkshireplanning.org<http://www.berkshireplanning.org>

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