[Added 4-2-2018 by Ord.
No. 17-127]
The Commercial Corridor Overlay District is an overlay district.
Parcels within the overlay district are subject to either the additional
requirements of the overlay district or the underlying district at
the applicant's option. In cases where a conflict exists, the
regulations of the overlay zoning or the underlying zoning shall apply
based upon the scheme the applicant intends to comply.
The overlay district applies to the underlying districts in
specific areas that are zoned as Business District (B-1) and Highway
Transition (HT) with the intent of creating development and redevelopment
opportunities along portions of the Town's major commercial corridors
in the specific locations identified on the Town of Weymouth Zoning
Map.[1] Further, this overlay district is created to permit the
incorporation of a residential component as part of mixed-use developments.
This is not possible within the underlying Business District (B-1)
and limited within the Highway Transition District (HT).
It is hereby declared to be the intent of the Commercial Corridor
Overlay District to establish reasonable standards reflective of the
changing retail and office markets and additionally support within
this district the Town's intent and goals to:
A.
Promote the economic development, general welfare and safety of the
community through the use of basic urban design standards in special
development areas.
B.
Provide the broadest range of compatible commercial and residential
uses and encourage the development and redevelopment of underutilized
or obsolete commercial property and ensure development and redevelopment
that includes current retail and service trends and allows for a wide
variety of mixed uses.
C.
Encourage reuse and redevelopment of existing buildings and building
lots along portions of the gateway corridors of Route 18, Route 53,
and Route 3A and Columbian Street.
D.
Encourage the consolidation of smaller lots and curb cuts.
E.
Promote urban design that is consistent with the Town of Weymouth's
economic development, planning and programmatic efforts.
F.
Provide flexibility with regard to dimensional requirements in a
manner that is consistent with the purposes and intent of this article.
The Town intends with the overlay district to provide additional
development options for qualifying properties. The overlay district
shall not take away the rights permitted by the underlying zoning
district.
[1]
Editor's Note: The Zoning Map is on file in the office
of the Town Clerk.
A.
Definitions.
The following areas are established and defined.
(1)
The Route 53 Corridor is generally defined as the area along
Route 53 from Broad Street to the Hingham town line with the exception
of the Washington Street Corridor.
(2)
The Washington Street Corridor is generally defined as the portion
of Route 53 beginning at the intersection with Route 18 and extending
to approximately 650 feet east of the intersection with Middle Street.
(3)
The Route 18 Corridor is generally defined as the area along
Route 18 from the intersection with Route 53 to the Abington Town
Line.
(4)
The Columbian Street Corridor is generally defined as the area
along Columbian Street from the Braintree town line to the intersection
with Forrest Street.
B.
Generally.
Application for special permit can be made to the Board of Zoning
Appeals under this article provided that the lot consists of at least
30,000 square feet and either of the below is true:
(1)
The proposal consists of both a residential and nonresidential
use with the ground floor of the building reserved for use as retail,
office, or both and provides an active, transparent facade. See § 120-25.23C.
Proposals may also be comprised of more than one principal building
on a lot representing the mixed use; or
(2)
The proposal is for a professional office building of between
three and five stories dependent on the additional requirements in
§ 120-25.17A.
In addition to the applicability requirements, an applicant
must have a pre-application conference with the Director of Planning
and Community Development or other appropriate staff as determined
by him, to discuss additional criteria including:
A.
Adequacy of the site for the size of the proposed project and the
extent that building design elements as well as setbacks, height and
density (FAR) prevent large monolithic structures that overwhelm the
streetscape and adjoining neighborhoods. Design elements shall be
tailored to the building's specific location.
B.
Suitability of the site for the proposed use or uses ensuring that
the retail use is compatible with the residential component of the
proposal as well as with existing residential uses abutting the proposal.
Specific consideration should be given to noise, lighting, and hours
of operation.
C.
Degree to which the proposed project complies with the goals of the
Town's Master Plans.
D.
Impact on traffic, pedestrian flow, safety, and access for emergency
vehicles.
E.
Impact on established residential properties and areas including
noise, lighting, and traffic.
F.
The extent to which the project promotes sustainable building, site
design, and internal walkability.
G.
Extent to which buildings, driveways, parking areas, loading areas,
outdoor activity areas, light sources, trash areas, and other potential
nuisances shall be located and designed to minimize adverse impacts
on abutting residential properties. To limit the adverse impact of
any proposed use the special permit may require alternative site layouts,
including increased setbacks from residential property lines, different
locations of buildings, parking areas, and driveways, the incorporation
of loading and trash collection areas as part of the principal building
design, and increased screening for light sources and outdoor activity
areas.
H.
Driveway intersections with streets and traffic circulation patterns
within lots shall be located and designed to minimize congestion and
safety problems on adjacent streets and nearby intersections. The
special permit may require alternative driveway locations and site
design in order to alleviate potential congestion or safety problems
and to maximize internal circulation.
Further, the Board of Zoning Appeals shall review all special
permit requests with these criteria in mind.
A.
Height.
Proposals shall have a minimum of three stories and 45 feet
with a maximum of five stories and 70 feet in the following areas:
(1)
The Route 18 corridor [§ 120-25.15A(3)].
(2)
The Route Washington Street corridor [§ 120-25.15A(2)].
(3)
The Route 3A corridor [§ 120-25.15A(5)].
Within the Route 53 corridor [§ 120-25.15A(1)] and
within the Columbian Street corridor [§ 120-25.15A(4)],
height shall be limited to a minimum of three stories and 45 feet
and a maximum of four stories and 60 feet.
The Board of Zoning Appeals shall consider in its review of
the appropriate height within the defined ranges the following:
(4)
The purpose and intent of the overlay district.
(5)
Visual scale of proposal in context to the surrounding area.
(6)
Proximity to established residential areas.
(7)
Extent to which a proposal utilizes topography, facade articulation,
roof line variation, step-up techniques, and building materials to
achieve appropriate visual scale.
B.
Setbacks.
Recognizing that the primary mode of transportation along major
commercial corridors will be the automobile, the goal of this article
is to safely accommodate traffic while preventing these gateway corridors
from being visually dominated by large expanses of paved parking areas.
With this in mind the following setback requirements shall be, at
least, as follows:
(1)
The maximum front yard setback shall be 70 feet, taken as an
average across the building frontage to allow for a minimum five-foot
landscape area along the frontage, a row of parking, and a travel
aisle.
(2)
The minimum front yard setback shall be 25 feet and will include
a minimum five-foot landscape area along the frontage.
(3)
When a setback averaging less than 70 feet is proposed, the
height of the building will be limited to two stories and 35 feet
from the front of the building to the seventy-foot setback line.
(4)
Side setbacks shall be 10 feet.
(5)
Rear setback shall be 15 feet.
C.
Additional requirements when abutting a residential use.
A twenty-foot "no build" and "no parking" buffer will be provided
along any property line abutting an existing residential use. A landscape
and irrigation plan shall be submitted showing the size, species and
location of planting material as well as the design and building materials
of a fence. The buffer must adequately screen the proposed development
from abutting residential uses as determined by review by the Director
of Planning and Development. At a minimum, buffer trees should be
of three-inch to four-inch caliper.
The buffer will consist of a privacy fence and landscape screen
as illustrated below.
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When abutting an existing residential use, in addition to the
twenty-foot "no build" and "no parking" buffer, a step-up approach
shall be applied to building heights as illustrated below. Building
height will be limited to 35 feet for the first 25 feet after the
twenty-foot buffer.
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The required buffers are to be located so as not to interfere
with safe emergency vehicle access and will be subject to review and
approval by the Weymouth Fire Department.
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The building area for any building for occupancy should not exceed a floor area ratio (FAR), as defined in § 120-6, of the following:
The Route 53 and Columbian Street corridors shall have a maximum
FAR of 0.75.
The Route 18, Route 3A and Washington Street corridors shall
have a maximum FAR of 1.00.
Any building within 1,000 feet of an MBTA Commuter Rail station
may increase its maximum FAR by 0.25.
FAR as defined in § 120-6 excludes commercial space and structured parking from FAR calculations.
All proposals under this article shall dedicate a minimum of
15% of the total land area as open space. Further, a maximum building
coverage of 60% shall apply and only 75% of any site shall be of an
impervious material.
A.
Generally.
Parking shall be provided per below:
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Studios and one bedrooms
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1.25 spaces per unit minimum with 1.5 spaces maximum
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All other residential
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1.5 spaces per unit minimum with 2 spaces maximum
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If the proposed development site is within 1,000 feet of an
MBTA Commuter Rail station, the Board of Zoning Appeals may accept
a reduction in the above requirements to 1.0 space per studio or one-bedroom
unit and 1.25 for other units.
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The number of spaces required for other uses are pursuant to § 120-74 of this ordinance.
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B.
Shared parking arrangements.
The Town encourages the use of shared parking arrangements.
The Board of Zoning Appeals may consider proposals of this kind as
justification for at most a twenty-percent reduction in the required
on-site parking.
In considering proposals for shared parking, the Board of Zoning
Appeals shall use the following criteria:
(1)
Uses sharing the parking facility may be on a separate lot,
but shall be a maximum of 600 feet from the closest parking space.
The applicant must submit a copy of the formal, written agreement
outlining the details of the shared use agreement;
(2)
The hours of operation and peak demand of the uses involved;
(3)
The applicant shall demonstrate that vehicles occupying a particular
number of spaces are unlikely to require the use of those spaces at
the same time of day or same day of the week as the other shared use;
and
(4)
The degree to which the applicant is committed to implementation
of transit demand management measures such as those to promote car
and van pooling, bicycling, and public transit.
The Town of Weymouth has adopted the Commonwealth's Complete
Streets Policy and has been designated as a Green Community. The Town
is committed to ensuring that all proposals provide the amenities
required to encourage multi-modal and clean energy transportation
options. As such, the Town requires the following to be included as
part of each development proposal:
A.
Charging stations for electric, hybrid, or similar types of vehicles
shall be installed with the below frequency based on parking spaces:
B.
Bicycle racks shall be installed as part of each development. The
required number of rack spaces shall be at least 15% of the total
number of residential units.
In cases of lots with split zoning, the overlay district shall
extend over the entire lot.
A.
Buildings shall generally be sited to face streets and sidewalks
of the main corridor with entrances located to provide convenient
access from the sidewalk network.
B.
An accessible, primary pedestrian entrance to the building shall
face an abutting street. For interior buildings sites, entrances should
connect to a pedestrian way that provides convenient access to the
abutting street and sidewalk network.
C.
Building walls facing the street should present an active facade
incorporating windows, doors, columns, changes in materials, modulation
of the facade, and similar details to add visual interest.
D.
Parking for ground level, non-residential uses may be provided along
the front, the sides, or both the front and sides of the building
while parking for residential uses is encouraged to be sited in the
rear of the building or within an interior parking structure. A detailed
landscape, irrigation, and lighting plan for all parking areas shall
be submitted as part of the application.
E.
Any portion of an above-ground parking structure fronting a public
way shall include facade details and landscaping to maintain an attractive
streetscape.
F.
Dumpsters, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, mechanical, electrical
and plumbing equipment and loading docks shall be fully screened from
view.
