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Town of Westminster, MA
Worcester County
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Code
New Laws (1) Index
No buildings shall be erected or used and no land shall be used or divided unless in conformity with the regulations of this chapter. All other buildings and all other uses of land or of buildings are hereby expressly prohibited, except those already lawfully existing which by the provisions of this chapter become lawfully nonconforming.
When a lot is situated in part in the Town of Westminster and in part in the adjacent municipality, the provisions of this chapter shall be applied to the portion of such lot in the Town of Westminster in the same manner as if the entire lot were situated in Westminster.
When a lot is transected by a zoning district boundary, the regulations of this chapter applicable to the larger part by area of such lot may also, at the option of the lot owner, be deemed to govern in the smaller part beyond such zoning district boundary, but only to an extent not more than 30 linear feet in depth beyond such zoning district boundary.
[Amended STM 4-16-1983 by Art. 32]
A. 
No building shall be erected, except on a lot fronting on a street, and there shall be not more than one principal building on any lot, except as allowed under this chapter.
[Amended ATM 5-3-2005 by Art. 40]
B. 
Flag lots. In addition, any parcel larger than five acres may be further divided without process through the Subdivision Control Law,[1] provided that each created lot either conforms with the appropriate land space requirements for that zoning district or the following:
[Amended STM 11-3-1994 by Art. 12; ATM 5-6-2017 by Art. 35]
(1) 
Each parcel shall have a minimum of 54 feet of frontage for an access to a Town road, this width to be maintained to the circumference of the radius described in Subsection C(1) below;
(2) 
Each parcel shall contain a minimum of two and one-half (2 1/2) times the land area it would normally require in each zoning district; and
(3) 
There shall be no more than two such accesses adjacent to each other.
(4) 
Flag lots cannot use cul-de-sac turnarounds for their required road frontage.
[Added ATM 6-20-2020 by Art. 34]
[1]
Editor's Note: See MGL c. 41, § 81K et seq.
C. 
Design standards for newly created lots: whether created through the subdivision process or approval not required (ANR) process, all lots created after March 13, 2017 shall be designed as follows:
[Added ATM 5-6-2017 by Art. 35]
(1) 
There shall be a point on each lot from which a circle having a radius of 50 feet can be drawn without touching any of the opposing lot lines.
(2) 
At no point shall the width of a lot from side lot line to side lot line be less than 54 feet.
Land within the lines of a street on which a lot abuts shall not be counted as part of such lot for the purpose of meeting the area requirements of this chapter, even though the fee to such land may be in the owners of abutting lots.
Any land taken by eminent domain or conveyed for public purpose for which the land could have been taken or was taken by eminent domain shall not be deemed to be transferred in violation of the land area, width and space provisions of this chapter.