[Amended 5-21-2012 ATM by Art. 28; 5-16-2016 ATM by Art. 22; 5-16-2016 ATM by Art. 24; ; 5-20-2019 ATM by Art. 19; 5-20-2019 ATM by Art. 23; 5-16-2022 ATM by Art. 16; 5-19-2025 ATM by Art. 14; 5-19-2025 ATM by Art. 15]
An accessory building is one which is subordinate or incidental to the main use of a building on a lot. Accessory buildings on lots eighty thousand (80,000) square feet or larger shall not be limited in size with the exception of conformance to maximum building coverage requirements in each zone as required in § 200-3.2-D, Intensity of Use Schedule. The term "accessory building" when used in connection with a farm shall include all structures customarily used for farm purposes and they shall not be limited in size.
A self-contained housing unit, inclusive of sleeping, cooking and sanitary facilities on the same lot as a principal dwelling, subject to otherwise applicable dimensional, parking, setbacks, lot coverage and other requirements, of this bylaw.
A land use which is subordinate and incidental to a predominant or main use. See § 200-3.2, Use regulations, Subsection B(8), Accessory uses, for accessory use listing per zoning districts.
Shall include farming in all of its branches and the cultivation and tillage of the soil, dairying, the production, cultivation, growing and harvesting of any agricultural, aquacultural, floricultural or horticultural commodities, the growing and harvesting of forest products upon forest land, the raising of livestock, including horses, the keeping of horses as a commercial enterprise, the keeping and raising of poultry, swine, cattle and other domesticated animals used for food purposes, bees, fur-bearing animals, and any forestry or lumbering operations, performed by a farmer, who is hereby defined as one engaged in agriculture or farming as herein defined, or on a farm as an incident to or in conjunction with such farming operations, including preparations for market, delivery to storage or to market or to carriers for transportation to market.
Commercial facilities for keeping animals to be diagnosed and treated, in treatment or recovering from treatment in accord with normal veterinary practice as established by the Massachusetts Board of Registration, Veterinary Medicine, pursuant to MGL c. 112, § 55 and 256 CMR. This definition shall not apply to educational institutions of veterinary science.
A lot with structures or pens in which five (5) or more dogs, cats or other household pets are boarded, bred, or sold.
A business offering goods for sale at auction to the public, excluding the regular sale of automobiles, motorcycles, recreational vehicles and similar vehicles, boats or light industrial or farm equipment.
A physical machine that is used to perform banking functions, including but not limited to cash or check deposits, cash withdrawals, account balance inquiry, account transfer transactions, or customer service inquiries. This machine acts as an automated version of a human bank teller.
In the residential districts or for dwellings in the nonresidential districts, the renting of rooms and furnishing of meals for not more than four persons shall be permitted, provided that the building is owner-occupied.
A structure enclosed within exterior walls or firewalls built, erected and framed of a combination of any materials, whether portable or fixed, having a roof, to form a structure for the shelter of persons, animals or property.
Building area is the aggregate or the maximum horizontal cross-section area of the main building on the lot, excluding cornices, eaves, gutters or chimneys projecting not more than thirty (30) inches. Also excluded from building area are steps and one-story porches, decks, balconies and terraces.
The vertical distance from grade, which is the average ground level, to the top of the highest roof beams of a flat roof, or to the mean level of the highest gables or slope of a hip, pitch or sloped roof. When a building faces on more than one (1) street, the height shall be measured from the average of the grades at the center of each street front.
Any facility operated on a regular basis, whether known as a "day nursery," "nursery school," "kindergarten," "child play school," "progressive school," "child development center," or "preschool," or known under any other name, which receives children not of common parentage for nonresidential custody or care during part or all of the day separate from their parents, as further defined in the State Building Code.
Any facility operated on a regular basis which receives adults not of common kindred for nonresidential custody or care during part or all of the day.
The use of any area of land, whether inside or outside of a building, for the storage, keeping or abandonment of junk, scrap or discarded materials made or used by human beings, or the demolition or abandonment of automobiles or other vehicles, boats or machinery or parts thereof.
A building or group of buildings designed or altered for the purpose of accommodating students or members of religious orders with sleeping quarters, with or without communal kitchen facilities, and administered by bona fide educational or religious institutions as defined by MGL c. 40A, § 3, and the cases thereunder. Dormitories include fraternity or sorority houses, convents, priories or monasteries, but do not include clubs and lodges.
A retail or consumer service use of land or a building in which the business transacted is conducted by a customer or client from within their automobile. Does not include curbside pickup using standard parking spaces or automobile repair and service stations.
A building or portion thereof designed exclusively for residential occupancy, including one-family, two-family, and multifamily dwellings, but not including hotels or boardinghouses.
One (1) or more rooms, whether or not containing an interior door in common with another dwelling unit, and containing cooking, sanitary, eating and sleeping facilities arranged for the use of one (1) or more persons; as distinguished from and not including boardinghouses, communes, dormitories, hotels, lodging houses and similar transient living accommodations; or trailer homes, mobile homes or trailer coaches or recreational vehicles outfitted with living accommodations.
A building designed for and occupied exclusively as a home or residence and containing three (3) or more dwelling units.
A detached building designed for and occupied exclusively as a home or residence and containing no more than one (1) dwelling unit.
A detached building designed for and occupied exclusively as a home or residence and containing two (2) dwelling units.
The capture of energy produced at one time for use at a later time. A device that stores energy is generally called an accumulator or battery. Energy comes in multiple forms, including radiation, chemical, gravitational potential, electrical potential, electricity, elevated temperature, latent heat and kinetic.
An exterior wall which faces a yard or courtyard whose minimum dimension shall be not less than fifty (50) feet.
An individual, two (2) or more persons related by blood or marriage, or a group of not more than five (5) persons who need not be so related, living as a single housekeeping unit.
Any private residence which, on a regular basis, receives for temporary custody and care during part or all of the day, children under seven (7) years of age or children under sixteen (16) years of age if such children have special needs; provided, however, in either case that the total number of children under sixteen (16) in a family day-care home shall not exceed six (6), including participating children living in the residence.
A tract of land in separate ownership devoted primarily to agricultural use, including the raising of livestock.
Manufacture or production of fiber-optic goods or products.
Any indoor or outdoor place, location or activity where new or used goods or second hand personal properties offered for sale or exchange to the general public by a multiple of individuals or licensed vendors usually in compartmentalized spaces whether or not a fee is charged for entrance to the area or a fee is charged to the persons or vendors displaying such merchandise.
The total area of the several floors of a building measured from the exterior building faces.
Any fixed or mobile place, structure or vehicle, whether permanent, transient or temporary, including any restaurant, coffee shop, cafeteria, luncheonette, short-order cafe, grille, tea room, sandwich shop, soda fountain, tavern, bar, cocktail lounge, nightclub, roadside stand, and lunch wagon feeding establishment; private, public or nonprofit organization or institution routinely serving the public, catering kitchen, commissary, or any other similar eating and drinking establishment or place in which food or drink is prepared for sale or for service on the premises or elsewhere, or where food is served or provided for the public with or without charge.
A licensed food service establishment in which a substantial portion of the food is prepared in advance of the designated order, for consumption on or off the premises, which provides for food pickup by the public without the need to leave the car.
Area of the ground that is covered by a structure, or structures on a building lot, including the foundations and all areas enclosed by exterior walls and footings and/or covered by roofing.
The continuous linear extent of a lot measured along the public street right-of-way from the intersection of one (1) side lot line to the intersection of the other side lot line of the same lot.
A detached or attached accessory building for the parking or storage of vehicles belonging to the occupants of the premises.
A building other than a private garage used for maintenance, repair or storage of automobiles or other vehicles for compensation.
The range of measures that use plant or soil systems, permeable surfaces, stormwater harvest and reuse, infiltrate or evapotranspirate stormwater and reduce flows to sewer systems or to surface waters.
The sum of the areas of all stories of the building of compliant ceiling height pursuant to the Building Code, including basements, lofts, and intermediate floored tiers, measured from the interior faces of exterior walls or from the centerline of walls separating buildings or dwelling units but excluding crawl spaces, garage parking areas, attics, enclosed porches and similar spaces. Where there are multiple principal dwellings on the lot, the GFA of the largest principal dwelling shall be used for determining the maximum size of a protected use ADU.
Any home licensed, authorized or operated by the commonwealth for residential care and supervision of persons who are capable of self-preservation.
Any home licensed, authorized or operated by the commonwealth for residential care and supervision of persons who are not capable of self-preservation.
A use engaged in the basic processing and manufacturing of materials or finished products or parts, storage (warehousing), sales and distribution of such products or parts. May include screened outdoor storage of materials and includes uses that do not meet the light industrial criteria set forth elsewhere in this section. These uses have the potential to produce noise, vibrations, smoke, dust, and odor.
An accessory use which is carried on by the permanent resident of a dwelling unit, with not more than two (2) nonresident employees, and only inside the dwelling with only customary home equipment used therein; further subject to the provisions that all materials and products of the occupation be stored only within the dwelling and accessory structures, no external alterations or structural changes not customary to a residential building are required; the home occupation is clearly incidental and secondary to the residential use, no products may be sold that are not incidental to the home occupation, and the occupation does not result in the production of offensive noise, vibration, heat, dust or other objectionable conditions such as on-street parking.
A building or group of buildings intended and designed for transient, overnight or extended occupancy, divided into separate units and having a common entrance or individual exterior entrances; and including an inn, motel, and motor inn but not including a boardinghouse, lodging house or rooming house.
Institutional and philanthropic uses are nonprofit social and educational activities, facilities and organizations which include the following:
Parish halls and other religious or semi-religious meeting places | |
Museums | |
Agricultural and horticultural societies | |
Historical societies | |
Literary societies, including libraries | |
Scientific societies | |
Fraternal societies | |
Charitable societies | |
Civic societies |
Institutional and philanthropic uses shall not include:
Profit-making businesses and government or nonprofit institutions engaged in the treatment of physical and mental illnesses, diseases and disabilities | |
Profit-making business and government or nonprofit institutions engaged in psychological or social counseling or therapy | |
Residential quarters for groups or individuals in which psychological or social counseling or therapy is administered |
A commercial solar facility whose primary purpose is electrical generation for the wholesale electricity market. It includes service and access roads, equipment, machinery and structures utilized in connection with the conversion of solar energy into electrical power and storage thereof, with a rated nameplate capacity greater than 250kW.
Fabrication, assembly, processing, finishing work or packaging from previously prepared materials, of finished products or parts, and incidental storage, sales and distribution of such products that produce no airborne emissions, objectionable noise, glare, odor, vibrations, smoke or dust associated with the industrial operation. Outdoor storage of raw materials and products is permitted with proper screening.
Any institution, whether conducted for charity or profit, which is advertised, announced or maintained for the express or implied purpose of providing three (3) or more individuals admitted thereto with long-term resident, nursing, convalescent or rehabilitative care; supervision and care incident to old age for ambulatory persons; or retirement home care for elderly persons. Long-term care facility shall include convalescent or nursing homes, rest homes, infirmaries maintained in towns and charitable homes for the aged. (Massachusetts Department of Public Health Regulations 105 CMR 151.000, effective February 6, 1980)
An area of land in one (1) ownership with definite boundaries ascertainable by recorded deed or plan and used or set aside and available for use as the site of one (1) or more buildings or for any other definite purpose.
The property line bounding the lot.
The linear distance from side lot line to side lot line measured along the front yard setback line. At no point, between the front lot line and the rear of the principal structure located on the lot, shall the lot have a width less than two-thirds (2/3) of the minimum lot frontage required.
An approach to environmentally friendly land use development. It includes landscaping and design techniques that attempt to maintain the natural, predeveloped ability of a site to manage rainfall. LID techniques capture water on-site, filter it through vegetation, and let it soak into the ground.
Five (5) or more dwelling units developed on a lot in single ownership, or on lots that were in single ownership in a five-year period prior to filing of an application for a building permit for any of the dwelling units.
A dwelling fabricated in an off-site manufacturing facility for installation or assembly at the building site, bearing a label certifying that it is built in compliance with the Federal Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards.
A use engaged in the basic processing and manufacturing of materials, or the manufacture from previously prepared materials, of finished products or parts, including processing, fabrication, assembly, treatment, packaging, incidental storage, sales and distribution of such products.
For all marijuana and cannabis definitions, please refer to Code of Massachusetts Regulations Title 935 500.00: Adult use of marijuana, and Code of Massachusetts Regulations Title 935 501.00: Medical use of marijuana, for the most up-to-date definitions.
Any vehicle or object whether resting on wheels, jacks or other foundation and having no motive power of its own, but which is drawn by, or used in connection with a motor vehicle, and which is so designed and constructed as a dwelling unit which permits its transportation and relocation as a complete unit on its own wheels; and containing complete electrical, plumbing and sanitary facilities; and designed to be installed on a temporary or permanent foundation for permanent living quarters. This shall not include the type of vehicle known as a "travel trailer" or "travel coach."
Any lot upon which two (2) or more mobile homes occupied for dwelling purposes are located.
All vehicles or parts thereof, constructed and designed for propulsion by power other than muscular power, including such vehicles when pulled or towed by another motor vehicle, including watercraft, construction equipment, and tractors.
A lawfully existing use of structure which conformed to the provisions of the zoning bylaw, if any, at the time it was established or constructed, but does not conform to the presently applicable requirements for the district in which it is located.
Any institution, however named, whether conducted for charity or profit, which is advertised, announced or maintained for the express or implied purpose of caring for three (3) or more persons admitted thereto for the purpose of nursing or convalescent care.
An area other than a street used for temporary parking of more than four (4) automobiles or other types of vehicles.
A space designed to be occupied by, and adequate to park a motor vehicle plus access thereto. Within a parking area, each parking space shall not be less than eight and one-half (8 1/2) by eighteen (18) feet in width and length.
An office of recognized professions such as doctors, dentists, lawyers, engineers, artists, musicians, architects, designers, and others, who through training are qualified to perform services of a professional nature.
Any tract of land which is used for the purpose of any motorized vehicle racing, horse racing or dog racing, taking place outdoors.
A portable vehicular structure designed for travel, recreational camping or vacation purposes, either having its own motor power or mounted onto or drawn by another vehicle, including but not limited to travel and camping trailer, truck campers and motor homes.
A licensed food service establishment in which food and beverages are served by a restaurant employee to the consumer at a table or counter and said food and beverage are consumed within the restaurant building.
A riding stable, also sometimes called boarding stables, riding trails and riding academies, is a facility for the boarding and/or riding of horses and ponies. [See Use Regulation Schedule, § 200-3.2B(4), Recreational Use No. 7.]
An individual person, two (2) or more individuals, a group or association of individuals or a partnership or corporation, including an organization of unit owners under MGL c. 183A, having common individual interests in a tract of land and improvements thereon.
Any public way laid out for vehicular traffic or used as a public way for such traffic.
Any combination of materials assembled at a fixed location and requiring attachment to the land through pilings, footings, foundations and the like, to give support or shelter and/or provide for human habitation or use, such as a building, bridge, trestle, tower, framework, tank, tunnel, tent, stadium, reviewing stand, platform, bin, fence, sign, flagpole, swimming pool, or the like.
Any change in, or additions to, the structural or supporting members of a building or other structure as bearing walls, columns, beams or girders.
A structure, building or trailer built on, or towed to, a site for the purpose of providing an on-site office in which to manage the construction of one (1) or more permanent structures or buildings.
A wheeled, roofed vehicle, without motor power, designed to be drawn by a motor vehicle and to be used for habitation, business or recreational use.
A grant of relief by the Zoning Board of Appeals from the requirements of this bylaw which use and construction in a manner that would otherwise be prohibited by the bylaw.
A building used primarily for the storage of goods and materials or for distribution, but not for sale on the premises.
Any device, such as a wind charger, windmill or wind turbine, which converts wind energy to a form of usable energy.
An open, unoccupied space extending across the full width of the lot between the front most main building and the front lot line. The depth of the required front yard shall be measured perpendicular from the nearest point of the front lot line to the required front building set back line. (See diagram.)
Free of any building, structure, canopy, or permanently mounted equipment or dispensing devices.
An open unoccupied space extending across the full width of the lot between the most rear main building and the rear lot line. The depth of the required rear yard shall be measured perpendicularly from the nearest point of the rear lot line to the required rear building setback line. (See diagram.)
An open, unoccupied space between the main building and side lot line, extending from the front yard to the rear yard. The width of the required side yard shall be measured perpendicularly from the nearest point of the side lot line to the required side building setback line. (See diagram.)
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The sale or offering for sale to the general public of over five (5) items of personal property on any portion of a lot in a residential district, whether within or outside any building. Yard sales may be conducted on the premises of the owner or tenant, provided said sale lasts no longer than three (3) consecutive days in a six-month period and all sale goods shall be limited to personal property used previously by the occupant.