At a meeting on Monday, February 9, the City Council’s Zoning and Planning Committee reviewed the status of potential projects proposed under the Village Center Overlay District (VCOD) zoning ordinance, following a request by Ward 2 City Councilor Susan Albright for twice-yearly updates.
Nora Masler Colello, the City’s chief of long-range planning, said the VCOD allows multifamily housing near seven transit stations and village centers across the city: Newton Centre, Newton Highlands, Eliot, Waban, Auburndale, West Newton, and Newtonville.
She also outlined the three zoning categories that make up the ordinance: Multi-Residence Transit (MRT), Village Center 2 (VC2), and Village Center 3 (VC3).
The outer ring
Multi-Residence Transit (MRT) zoning applies to areas on the outer edges of village centers and is intended to allow small-scale residential development on underused parcels. New buildings under MRT are capped at a ground-level footprint of 1,500 square feet and a height of two-and-a-half stories, or 40 feet, with a pitched roof. Buildings must also be set back at least 20 feet from the property line.
Masler Colello noted that many MRT projects are designed to incentivize preservation, allowing up to six units per building.
VC2 stalemate
VC2 zoning applies to smaller village centers and main streets, with an emphasis on ground-floor activity such as retail and other pedestrian-oriented uses. Masler Colello said VC2 allows for some new development, but within tighter limits intended to preserve the scale and character of these areas.
Under VC2, buildings are capped at a ground-level footprint of 10,000 square feet and a maximum height of three-and-a-half stories, or 56 feet. Front setbacks are not permitted unless a building abuts a residential or public-use district.
While a handful of projects – including a fully affordable development in Ward 2 and several VC2 proposals in West Newton that Councilor Susan Albright pointed out – have moved forward, overall activity under the ordinance has remained limited.
VC3 opportunity
“And then we’ve got VC3, which provides out of the three, the highest development potential, and that applies to major corridors and allows taller buildings, and also includes controls for building and that street level appearance to really the shape the most central areas of the village in which it applies,” Masler Colello said.
For VC3, buildings are capped at a ground-level footprint of 15,000 square feet. The zoning also includes an affordable housing bonus that allows additional height or floor area in exchange for deeper affordability requirements.
Projects that use the bonus must set aside 50 percent of units as affordable at 80 percent of Area Median Income (AMI), compared with a 25 percent affordability requirement in VC2, which generally applies to units affordable between 50 and 80 percent of AMI.
Masler Colello added that VC3 also includes additional regulations for so-called “mixed-use priority streets,” where active ground-floor uses are emphasized.
The ordinance also includes provisions for adaptive reuse – a planning approach that allows existing buildings to be repurposed for residential or mixed-use development rather than demolished. Masler Colello said the Planning Department has seen a noticeable increase in adaptive reuse projects over the past six months.
Early proposals for VCOD would have rezoned all of Newton’s village centers, but the ordinance narrowed as it was shaped alongside the MBTA Communities Act, with some centers pushing to opt out.
History of VCOD
Deb Crossley, a former City Councilor and past chair of the Zoning and Planning Committee, speaking with Fig City News a day after the meeting, traced the origins of the VCOD to years of zoning research and community feedback that predated the MBTA Communities Act, which reshaped housing policy statewide.
“Development isn’t a friendly word anymore,” Crossley said.
Crossley described 1987 as a turning point, when zoning restrictions increased on by-right development, limiting building heights, prohibiting housing above retail, and requiring special permits for most multifamily housing. Prior to that period, multifamily housing and new construction had steadily increased in the city since the 1920s.
Crossley said work on VCOD began years before the MBTA Communities Act, emerging from extensive community engagement aimed at revitalizing village centers that were struggling with vacancies, turnover, and declining activity.
Crossley said zoning restrictions that limit many properties to two-story buildings make new construction financially difficult, even as the city faces a serious housing shortage.
She added that much of Newton is now in a “replacement” phase, where older homes are torn down and rebuilt, often as larger single-family houses that can feel out of scale with existing streetscapes.
In practice, she said, most development in Newton falls into one of three pathways: construction allowed “by right,” projects that require a special permit, or development pursued through a comprehensive permit.
By-right construction allows projects to move forward without discretionary review, so long as they comply with existing zoning rules. Special permits, by contrast, require approval from the City Council and typically involve a longer, more political review process. Comprehensive permits under Chapter 40B offer another state-driven route, tied to affordability requirements, that can override certain local zoning restrictions.
Adopted in 2023, the VCOD created a by-right zoning framework intended to allow more multifamily housing in specific village centers while leaving existing zoning intact elsewhere. After public pushback, the ordinance ultimately applied to only about 3 percent of Newton’s developable land.
“It’s been really slow,” Crossley said. “We have about nine units built. Nine, not thousands.”
Crossley said she supports periodic public updates on how the ordinance is being implemented, arguing that clearer information could help address lingering concerns. While VCOD applies to only about 3 percent of Newton’s developable land, she said it has continued to face resistance from some residents and City Councilors.
Crossley said VC2 has seen little activity because projects requiring ground-floor retail at limited heights often fail to end up as profitable, particularly as construction costs have risen.
Crossley said she understands why City Councilors seek extensive public input on zoning changes, but she noted that the process can sometimes make it harder to move development forward.
During the Zoning and Planning committee meeting, Councilors also discussed potential changes to how multifamily housing is permitted, such as the gap between projects limited to two or four units and those allowing six units through a combination of buildings.
Councilor Susan Albright said she has docketed an item aimed at addressing that issue, signaling that further zoning adjustments may be considered.
