Before voting at Town Meeting to accept Article 3 (a.k.a Option C)—or reject and moderate it to bring back for another vote later this year—it's useful to try to visualize the actual impact this kind of zoning could have, especially in the locations most likely to be built out by developers.

Article 3 rezones The Mall and parcels on Lincoln Road, Codman Road, and Lewis Street for 650 units with a maximum build-out of 800 Units at 10 units per acre (25 units per acre in mixed-use parcels like the Mall and Doherty's), three-stories high (36' for residential and 42' for Mixed Use buidlings), with 15-30 foot front setbacks.  

The Planning Board will be addressing underground parking, access ways large enough to accommodate firetrucks, outdoor lighting, signage, and more.  

We developed the conceptual sketch above to show what the scale of a development might look like based on criteria being discussed in Planning Board meetings. Here is how the sketch came about:  

• Initially as a concept to explore, we focused on the corner of Codman Road. (That’s roughly 3 acres before factoring any wetlands).  We added a "block of units" on the corner—which represent twenty-three (23) 1,000-square-foot units and include room for common space, septic, paving for access and underground parking. In Option C, Codman Corner is zoned for a 30-foot front set back (roughly two average car lengths), so in this conceptual sketch, these buildings take advantage of that proximity to the road and view over Codman Farm and Community Gardens. The actual property lines for the sake of the conceptual sketch are only estimates (as they also are in the RLF's conceptual sketches of redevelopment at the Mall).

• Then we wondered what it might look like if the development extended to the corner of Lewis Street. We added another block of twenty-three units (23) at the corner of Lewis Street and Codman Road. This part of Lincoln Road is zoned for only a 15-foot setback and sit closer to the road.

• Then we wondered about adding a smaller development of sixteen (16) units on Doherty’s parcel overlooking the community gardens (though this mixed-use parcel could potentially accommodate more:  up to 29 units). 

• This sketch shows a total of 62 units (9.5% of the Option's modeled 650 units or 7.8% of the maximum build-out of 800 units) and assumes underground parking as discussed in January by the Planning Board. It is actually a conservative representation of what the Option allows—based on the real numbers—which would be up to 74 units on the same parcels. 

• We based our sketch on a new, $20 million, 74,000-square-foot development in Wilmington, MA, called LUME.  It was completed in November 2023 and its two buildings comprise 39 apartments and 10 townhomes.  The two "building blocks" on Lincoln Rd. represent 23,535 square feet each based on specifics from the Lume project.  Here is a link to LUME’s sales website to explore this project further.  

This is a conceptual sketch trying to apply what Article 3 allows and some of the elements discussed at the Planning Board Meetings by referencing a newly built development for scale and mass while also considering what a developer might do to make a tidy profit.