BCAT News

The Burlington Planning Department is finalizing a plan to create a mixed-use middle housing overlay district in Burlington’s Town Center – in other words, areas where developers can build three-story apartment or condo buildings with retail on the ground floor. 

The plan is intended to solve a “missing middle” problem laid out in Burlington’s 2022 Housing Needs Assessment: Burlington has a lot of single-family homes and several large multi-family apartment complexes, but it’s missing a lot of other housing types (townhomes, row houses, duplexes) to meet the needs of current and future residents.  

The new district, if it’s approved by Town Meeting in January, would create small pockets where the new housing type would be permitted: On Terry Ave, on Grant Ave, and at the corner of Cambridge St. and Kinney Ave, the old Mass Glass location. 

“This is all abutting single-family neighborhoods, so it’s a softer transition than from commercial directly next to residential,” said Planning Director Liz Bonventre. “This is a type of form that provides traffic-calming. It’s a park-and-walk development style so the parking lot for businesses will be behind the building, leaving the street to have parallel parking and wide sidewalks, and cafe seating, all those things.” 

The Planning Board has laid out rules for the new district to keep it in line with the town’s aesthetic and character norms and in compliance with its existing zoning laws. A developer would have to build commercial on the ground floor, with a maximum of two stories of residential units above at a maximum density of 12 units per acre. Fifteen percent of units would be designated affordable. Each unit would get 1.5 parking spots, and there would be parking for commercial space, likely behind the buildings. 

The Planning Board is still working through some logistics, like whether parking could be underneath the building or in a podium-parking form, and whether there ought to be some sort of requirement that developers contribute to the public good through green spaces, murals or other options. 

“I’m really excited about this and I think it’s something that the town really needs,” said Planning Board Member Barbara L’Heureux. 

“This is a follow-on from Town Meeting in september. There was an MBTA Communities [law] that was dictated by the state, and we covered it. We didn’t do too much else, and there was a lot of feedback from Town Meeting members, they said we’re not doing enough for additional housing,” said Planning Board Chair Bill Gaffney. “This is what we promised Town Meeting.”