Framingham City Council Aims To Deal Developers a 4 Story Downtown Favor
A maximum building height of 3 stories lowers negative impacts on water & sewer, schools and traffic. 4 stories raises developer profits.
​​​​In its meeting scheduled for Tuesday, March 18, the City Council is aiming to make the next misstep in the tortured trials of Framingham's effort to comply with the state MBTA Communities Act (MBTA CA). For prior history, read:
How Framingham's MBTA Communities Act Response Ran Off the Rails
The City Council is trying to salvage something workable from the train wreck of the Mayor's last minute, cobbled together, December submission to the state, where he offered the entire 225 acre area Central Business District (CBD), with an estimated 6,286 developable residential unit capacity to the state as his compliance solution, when the state only required 50 acres and 4,355 units.
The Mayor's submission to the state may be viewed here​.
The City Council has gotten one thing right. It has reduced the area of the CBD to 125 acres, as shown in the following graphic:
However, the City Council has raised the maximum building height from the 3 stories in the Mayor’s submission to 4 stories. It did that because reducing the CBD area also reduced the number of residential units available for state MBTA CA compliance.
The mathematics of this is pretty simple.
This is ‘back of the envelope’ mathematics, but shows what is going on.
The Mayor’s submission pegged the number of new residential units which could be built in the CBD at 6,286. The state corrected that to 5,348 in its letter granting conditional compliance to the Mayor’s submission. However, when the CBD gets reduced to 125 acres from 225 acres, the number of residential units needed for MBTA CA compliance also gets reduced to roughly 5,348 * 125/225 = 2,971. That’s short of the 4,355 required for compliance.
Increasing the maximum building height to 4 stories increases the unit count to 2,971 * 4/3 = 3,961, which is much closer to 4,355, and explains the shift from 3 stories to 4 stories.
The Problem With 4 Stories in the CBD
The difficulty with increasing the maximum building height in the CBD is that it is being done purely to achieve state MBTA CA compliance, and not to achieve the best solution for Framingham.
4 stories rather than 3 automatically means 30% more stress on an already weak water & sewer system, 30% more cars and traffic, and 30% more students flowing into a school district close to its capacity limit, especially with the high school already busting at its seams.
4 stories also means that more unpleasant, overbearing buildings will be built along Route 135.
4 stories also means that if Framingham ever wants to reduce the maximum building height even in some sections of the CBD, it will run into problems with state MBTA CA compliance.
It is worth noting that our Planning Board Chair is the Planning Director in Hudson, which recently was singled out for the best main street in America. One of the attractive features of Hudson’s main street is the low rise building height of 3 stories at most, as this video shows.
The good news is that there is a simple way to achieve a solution for Framingham, which keeps 3 stories as the maximum building height in the CBD, and provides a much more balanced approach to MBTA CA compliance.
The Way to Achieve MBTA CA Compliance While Keeping 3 Stories as the CBD Maximum Building Height
The solution is very simple and has been argued a number times in prior articles:
‘Make sure Framingham gets credit for prior residential developments, just as dozens of other communities have around the Commonwealth.’
For full details see:
Framingham's MBTA Zoning Solution Takes No Credit for Past Housing
In essence, all the City Council has to do is keep the maximum building height in the CBD at 3 stories but create additional Multi-Family Overlay Districts (MODs) which align with existing residential developments, such as the series of high rise residential buildings along Rt 9 outbound after Temple St. Such an approach would yield more than 2,000 residential units to count towards MBTA CA compliance. Added to the 2,971 from the CBD with 3 story maximum building height, that makes a simple solution to MBTA CA compliance completely achievable.
The Opposition
Two voices stand in opposition to this appealing solution:
- Director of Planning & Community Development, Sarkis Sarkisian
- City Councilor Christine Long
The Director argues that adding MODs which overlay existing residential developments is ‘against the spirit of the MBTA CA’, yet that approach has been widely used by other communities which have achieved MBTA CA compliance approval. So, the Director’s argument flies in the face of widespread successful approaches to MBTA CA compliance.
The City Councilor argues that such MODs are problematic because special permit control is lost for those areas. The point the City Councilor is missing is that for all areas which are used for MBTA CA compliance, special permit control is lost. That includes the CBD. So, the City Councilor’s argument flies in the face of simple logic.
What Will Happen?
Will the City Council embrace the false narratives of the Director and the City Councilor?
Will the City Council embrace a 4 story maximum building height for the CBD which blesses developers with larger profits than a 3 story maximum, but strains city resources?
Will the City Council see the advantages of a 3 story height maximum for Framingham in terms of future control of development in the CBD, and in lowering the negative impacts on roads, water & sewer system and the schools?
It is hard to tell which way the City Council will go on this, but it is worth remembering that in the Nobscot fiasco, when a vote came up to exclude the controversial Edmands/Edgell parcel from an MBTA CA zoning package, 5 City Councilors voted NO: Ottaviani, Cannon, Alexander, King and Leombruno. So, we know these 5 City Councilors have a pro-developer record.
All it takes is for City Councilor Long to join that group and the developers will win out, with a 6-5 City Council majority gifting them 30% more profits with a 4 story CBD maximum building height, with consequent great disadvantage to Framingham.
We have an election in November, where the Mayor is in serious trouble because the voting community has been turned off by his special treatment of developers in Nobscot.
It would be ironic if, given this lesson, the City Council extends special treatment to developers in the CBD.