[Added 10-23-2006 ATM by Art. 16]
The purposes of the Village Center District
are to encourage redevelopment and infill development in the Salisbury
Square area in a manner that promotes compact building form, protects
and enhances the value of land and buildings and provides for a variety
of business and residential uses; and toward these ends, to establish
distinctive dimensional and design standards that reinforce and enhance
the traditional architectural styles and historic development patterns
evident in the district. In the Village Center District, no structure
shall be erected or altered and no building, structure, premises or
land shall be used for any purpose or in any manner other than as
permitted as follows.
The boundary of the Village Center District
is found on the map titled "Village Center District" dated August
24, 2006, which map is hereby incorporated in and made part of this
article.
[Amended 5-20-2019 ATM by Art. 15]
Definitions of terms used herein shall be in accordance with § 300-5, Definitions.
The following use regulations apply in the Village Center District, subject to site plan review in accordance with Article XVIII of this bylaw and § 300-82.8 below:
A.
Permitted uses.
(1)
Commercial uses. A building or buildings containing
one or more of the following uses:
(a)
Retail store for the sale of food, drug and
proprietary goods, up to a maximum of 7,500 square feet of net floor
area for an individual retail establishment.
(b)
Restaurant or other place serving food, where
food service is located entirely within the building or on a patio
or outdoor seating area operated in connection with an indoor-service
restaurant, up to a maximum of 3,500 square feet of net floor area
for an individual restaurant establishment.
(c)
Bakery, deli, coffee shop, ice cream shop, sandwich
shop, or similar establishment in which all or a majority of the food
service is food to be consumed off the premises, but not including
drive-through food service.
(d)
Business or professional office.
(e)
Post office.
(f)
Inn or bed-and-breakfast facility.
(g)
Bank, including manned or automated drive-up
facilities that are attached to the rear or side of a full-service
banking office.
(h)
Automated teller machine (ATM), not attached
to a full-service banking office, provided that public access is available
only from within a building and is operated in connection with other
uses in the same building.
(i)
Personal service, such as a beauty salon or
barbershop, including sale of related goods; or a dressmaking, dry-cleaning
and pressing or tailor shop where no work is done on the premises
for retail outlets elsewhere.
(j)
Printing or copying shop.
(k)
Laundromat.
(l)
Brew pub.
[Added 5-20-2019 ATM by Art. 15]
(2)
Vertical mixed-use development.
(3)
Accessory uses incidental to a permitted use.
(4)
Uses exempt under MGL c. 40A, § 3
B.
Uses allowed by special permit. The following uses
may be allowed by special permit from the Planning Board, which shall
be the special permit granting authority (SPGA) in the Village Center
District:
(1)
For any permitted commercial use subject to a maximum net floor area requirement under Subsection A above, the Planning Board may grant a special permit to authorize an increase in net floor area, provided that no restaurant shall exceed 6,500 square feet and no individual retail establishment shall exceed 25,000 square feet.
(2)
Horizontal mixed-use development.
(3)
Drive-through service for a commercial establishment
such as a pharmacy, located in the rear or side of the building, but
not a drive-through food service establishment
(4)
New one-family detached dwelling.
(5)
Brewery.
[Added 5-20-2019 ATM by Art. 15]
A.
Development in the Village Center District shall conform
to the following dimensional regulations:
B.
Special provisions.
(1)
Setbacks.
(a)
For an existing structure, the minimum and maximum
yard setbacks shall be the same as the existing setback on the lot.
(b)
The minimum side yard setback in Subsection A above shall be zero feet for zero lot line buildings. As part of site plan review, the Planning Board may require the applicant to provide equivalent open space elsewhere on the site equal to the area otherwise required to comply with the minimum side yard setback.
(c)
The minimum separation between two or more buildings
on the same lot shall be 20 feet.
(2)
Maximum building eight or maximum building coverage. The Planning Board may grant a special permit to increase the maximum height to 40 feet or the maximum building coverage to not more than 50% in order to encourage any of the following: the provision of consolidated or shared access or shared parking for two or more adjoining parcels, subject to a legally enforceable agreement or restriction in a form acceptable to the Planning Board; below-grade parking that reduces the amount of surface parking on a lot; or an increase in the minimum percentage of affordable units required under § 300-82.9.
A.
Minimum off-street parking requirements. Development
in the Village Center District shall provide off-street parking in
accordance with the following schedule of parking spaces. Where fractional
spaces result, the required number of parking spaces shall be construed
to be the next highest whole number.
(1)
Residential uses: for a studio or one-bedroom
dwelling unit, one parking space; for a dwelling unit with two or
more bedrooms, two spaces.
(2)
Retail uses: four spaces per 1,000 square feet
of gross floor area for the first 10,000 square feet; 2.5 spaces per
1,000 square feet for between 10,001 and 12,500 square feet of gross
floor area; and two spaces per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area
over 12,500 square feet.
(3)
Restaurant: one space per three seats or one
space per 50 square feet of public floor area (i.e., area reserved
for actual consumption of food and beverages by the general public),
whichever is greater.
(4)
Personal service establishment: one space per
250 square feet gross floor area.
(5)
Professional or business office, bank or post
office: three spaces per 1,000 square feet gross floor area for first-floor
offices; an average of 2.5 spaces per 1,000 square feet gross floor
area for upper-story offices.
(6)
Inn or bed-and-breakfast facility: one space
per sleeping room, and one space for every three employees on the
largest shift.
(7)
For a use not specifically listed in this section,
the minimum required number of off-street parking spaces shall be
as specified by the Building Inspector based on a listed use with
similar characteristics of parking demand generation.
(8)
For shared parking that is subject to a legally
enforceable agreement or restriction, the Planning Board may authorize,
as part of site plan review, a reduction in parking of up to 25% of
the total required spaces for the uses served by said parking.
B.
For the purpose of this article, an off-street parking
space is an all-weather, surfaced area having a width of not less
than nine feet and a length of not less than 18 feet.
C.
Location of off-street parking. No off-street parking
shall be located between the street side line and the front facade
of any new building facing the street except by special permit from
the Planning Board.
(1)
Parking shall be located to the rear of the
building or to the side, but not within 20 feet of the front facade,
or within a building at grade, accessible from the rear of the building,
or under a building. Where parking is located behind buildings in
a mixed-use development with additional buildings located to the rear
of the site, a quadrangle effect should be created with parking, landscaping,
and walkways.
(2)
The Planning Board may grant a special permit
for an alternative off-street parking plan, including an increase
in the maximum front yard setback to the extent required to accommodate
said parking, provided that the parking is screened from pedestrian
view with appropriate building elements or landscaping features, or
a combination thereof.
D.
Buffer areas. Off-street parking shall be buffered
from adjacent land uses, as follows:
(1)
Any off-street parking or storage area which
abuts a residential district or residential overlay district shall
be separated from the adjacent property by a ten-foot buffer area.
The buffer shall be suitably landscaped and maintained so as to create
an effective year-round visual screen at least six feet in height
in order to insulate the residentially zoned land from the off-street
parking area.
(2)
At minimum, any off-street parking and loading
area shall be separated from adjacent properties by a four-foot buffer
area planted with grass or similar ground cover, or adjacent properties
may be connected by a landscaped walkway. Where adjacent parcels agree
to share a common parking area with a common entrance and exit, the
Planning Board may approve eliminating the minimum four-foot buffer
on all common property lines. No buffer area shall be required for
a one-family detached dwelling.
E.
Landscaping. Off-street parking areas shall be landscaped
in accordance with Planning Board rules and regulations.
In addition to the requirements set forth in Article XVIII of this bylaw, the Planning Board shall approve a site plan for development in the Village Center District only upon finding that the proposed project could not reasonably be altered to:
A.
Achieve greater consistency with the Village Center District development standards and design guidelines in § 300-82.8 below, as applicable;
B.
Improve convenience and safety of vehicular and pedestrian
movement within the site and egressing from it, such as by the location
of driveway openings in relation to traffic and/or adjacent streets
and the placement, height and size of signage;
C.
Improve access to each building or structure for fire
and service equipment;
D.
Provide greater compatibility of buildings, lighting
and signs by virtue of their location, arrangement, size and design;
E.
Increase protection for adjacent or neighboring properties
against noise, glare, odor, lighting, unsightliness or other objectionable
features; and
F.
Reduce the visual intrusion of parking areas viewed
from public ways or abutting premises.
As part of site plan review under Article XVIII of this bylaw, applicants shall submit narratives, plans, elevations, and/or section drawings to demonstrate that the proposed project incorporates the following design guidelines to the maximum extent feasible and as appropriate, given the type, size and location of the proposed project. The Planning Board may impose reasonable conditions on its approval of a site plan to achieve the purposes of this article.
A.
Preference for mixed-use development. Mixed-use buildings
are preferred along Elm Street, Lafayette Road, Bridge Road, Beach
Road and Route 110, to include retail, restaurant and similar public
uses on the ground floor and office and/or residential uses on upper
floors.
B.
Design guidelines; commercial or mixed-use buildings.
(1)
Buildings should have a vertical orientation,
which means that (a) the building actually has a greater height than
width, or (b) the facades and roof lines of the building are designed
to reduce massing and bulk so that it appears as a group of smaller
masses with a distinct vertical orientation. In addition, the height
of the first floor should be taller than the upper floors and expressed
through facade treatments that convey the functional diversity within
the building.
(2)
Building should be oriented on the lot parallel
with the front setback line to establish and preserve a consistent
building line, with primary entrances oriented toward the street.
They may be oriented around a courtyard or respond in design to a
prominent feature, such as a corner location.
(3)
Buildings and site design should provide an
inviting entry orientation. The main business entrance to each ground
floor business should be accentuated by larger doors, signs, canopy,
or similar means of definition.
(4)
On the ground level portion of the front facade
of a commercial building, windows should comprise at least 20% but
not more than 80% of the facade surface. Ground floor display windows
should be framed on all sides by the surrounding wall and highlighted
with frames, lintels and sills or equivalent trim features, or may
instead be recessed into the wall or projected from the wall.
(5)
Buildings should avoid unarticulated and monotonous
facades and window placements, regular spacings, or building placements
that will be viewed from the street as continuous walls. Buildings
should provide continuous visual interest and human-scale features
from a pedestrian's point of view, emphasizing design features such
as bay windows, cupolas, recessed doorways, pilasters, columns, horizontal
and vertical offsets, material and color variations, decorative cornices,
awnings or canopies. In general, architectural diversity is encouraged
as long as individual design solutions are compatible with the purposes
of the Village Center District as a compact, mixed-use area with a
strong visual definition.
(6)
Exterior materials may include painted clapboard,
wood shingles, brick or materials of comparable appearance. Neutral
or earth-tone colors are appropriate, but brighter colors may be applied
to building trim with approval of the Planning Board as part of site
plan review. Variation in appropriate materials, colors and textures
is encouraged.
(7)
Garage doors or loading docks are prohibited
in the front facade of any building facing the street.
(8)
A flat or nearly flat roof is generally prohibited.
However, the Planning Board may grant a special permit to authorize
a flat-roof design, provided that the flat roof structure is capped
by an articulated parapet design that acts as a structural expression
of the building facade and its materials, visible from all sides of
the building. For other buildings, roofs shall, at a minimum, have
articulated parapets concealing flat roofs and rooftop equipment (such
as HVAC units) which are visible from adjoining streets or properties.
C.
Building placement. At least 50% of the front side
of a lot facing the street, measured in percentage of the linear feet
of lot frontage, shall be occupied by buildings oriented toward the
street or by a pedestrian plaza located within 15 feet of the street
side line. The Planning Board may grant a special permit to approve
an alternative design that is consistent with the purposes of the
Village Center District.
D.
Walkways. Development in the Village Center District
shall provide walkways connecting buildings to streets and sidewalks
with minimal interruption by driveways. Parking lot aisles along with
access and interior driveways shall not be counted as walkways. Wherever
feasible, walkways should provide some degree of enclosure in order
to define their space, which may be achieved through the use of building
fronts, trees, low hedges, arcades, or trellised walks.
E.
Curb cuts. Developments should minimize the size and
number of curb cuts. Full-width curb cuts are prohibited. Curb cuts
may not exceed an aggregate of 24 feet for every 100 feet of frontage,
except that where the state has jurisdiction over curb cut permits,
the applicant shall make reasonable efforts to comply with these standards.
F.
Utilities. Underground utilities for new and redeveloped
buildings are required unless physically restricted or blocked by
existing underground obstructions.
G.
Landscaped buffer. On any lot abutting a residential district, the applicant shall provide a landscaped buffer of not less than five feet unless the lot is located adjacent to a public park. Off-street parking shall be buffered from an abutting residential district in accordance with § 300-82.6D above.
H.
Outdoor storage. Outdoor storage, trash collection
or compaction, loading, or other such uses are prohibited within 50
feet of any public or private street, public sidewalk, or internal
pedestrianway, or within 50 feet of a residential district except
by special permit from the Planning Board.
Article XIII, Inclusionary Housing Requirements, shall apply to any mixed-use development that includes three or more dwelling units, subject to the following:
A.
Affordable housing units affordable to a qualified affordable housing unit purchaser or renter with a household income that does not exceed 50% of the local metropolitan statistical area median income shall be exempt from the additional 3,000 square feet of land per dwelling unit required under § 300-82.5A of this article, up to a maximum of two per lot.
B.
Off-site units or housing contribution payments under §§ 300-78 and 300-80 of this bylaw shall not be permitted in the Village Center District, provided that where the application of a formula specified in § 300-76 results in a fractional affordable housing unit, the developer shall comply with § 300-79 of this bylaw.
The Planning Board shall be the special permit
granting authority for uses in the Village Center District.
A.
Decision criteria. The Planning Board's actions shall be based upon the considerations and utilize the procedures in § 300-35 of this bylaw and the degree to which the proposed development:
B.
Conditions. The Planning Board shall impose conditions
in its decision as necessary to ensure compliance with the purposes
of this bylaw. Approval of a project shall be conditioned to provide
that no further division of land which increases the number of lots
or units or results in any alteration of the area to be set aside
as open space may occur without a modification of the special permit.
