Nobscot Could Be Rezoned To Create Walkable Village Center

FRAMINGHAM, MA- Revamping Nobscot has been on residents' minds for years but now a formal proposal by the Planning Board could make the talks a reality.

The Planning Board has proposed to make Nobscot a mixed use zone to make way for both housing and commercial business, offering density bonuses to projects that incorporate the two near intersections. Plans for rezoning Nobscot date back to 2015 when the city's Master Land Use plan honed in on Nobscot village center.

Nobscot is currently classified as B-2 which is considered Community Business and under the new zoning proposal would be changed to B-3. The current zoning is heavily dependent on cars to move about throughout the village center, but under the new proposal the design plan promotes a walkable, vibrant, village center that supports a mixture of use. To encourage this pedestrian-driven village center vision, shops will be centered around intersections and homes would pan further out.

The mixed use classification would allow developments to use an extra 25 percent of their lot and create public community spaces.

The Planning Board and The Division of Community and Economic Development held community meetings on the proposal this year, getting as many as 96 people to come out and voice their opinions. Similar meetings are slated to begin later this month for the current zoning draft.

Planning Board Administrator Amanda Loomis said "It is understood that not everyone was happy with the B-3 zoning that was drafted." Loomis added that many different members of the community came out and that was the very reason the board wanted to continue holding the meetings. "That’s why it’s now released, and now we get to fine-tune it, and that’s why we really want to have this engagement through the community," Loomis said.

At Tuesday's meeting the City Council voted to get the ball rolling on that fine-tuning. This kick starts a long process of the proposal passing through several hands in the city before getting the green light. The current timeline of the proposal gives the Planning Board 65 days to have public hearings on the proposal. After that the board has six months to give its recommendation to the City Council. Then the city council has 90 days to make any modifications to the proposal. The City Council will then hand the proposal off to the mayor who will have 10 days to approve or deny it.

Public meetings with the Planning Board about the proposal will be held at the McAuliffe Branch library on Water Street and are scheduled for: Jan. 18, from 1-4 p.m.; Jan. 22, from 5-7 p.m.; Jan. 25, from 1:30-4 p.m.; Feb. 1, 1:30-4 p.m.; Feb. 4, 9-11 a.m.; Feb. 5, from 5-7 p.m.; and Feb. 8, from 1:30-4 p.m.

Residents are welcome and encouraged to voice concerns, opinions and comments on the proposal as well as ask questions.

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