SETBACK LINES STUDY COMMITTEE
The members of the Setback Lines Study Committee were appointed by the Moderator, Henry L. Hall, Jr., in December 2004. Our first meeting was on January 11, 2005. A total of eight meetings were held throughout the year.
In our study, the building setback lines, adopted by Town Meetings starting in 1913, were compared with the setback restrictions of our present Zoning By-Laws. A preliminary report was made to the 2005 Annual Town Meeting. In this report we noted that for residential properties, with little exception, the zoning setbacks are as restrictive or more restrictive than the building setback lines. The committee, therefore, recommended that all building setback lines in residential districts be rescinded except where the building setback lines are more restrictive or where the dividing line between a business district and a residential district passes through a residential lot.
Building setback lines in business districts are generally more restrictive than the zoning requirement. The Corridor Study (Belmont Street and Trapelo Road) recommends transition zoning between business and residential districts. Belmont does not have these. Where there are building setback lines at district boundaries, they serve to protect the adjacent residences from an overbearing presence of a business building. The committee recommended that the building setback lines in the Belmont Street-Trapelo Road corridor not be rescinded at this time. We believe that rescinding these would be premature before zoning amendments providing the required protection are enacted. We recommended that building setback lines in other business districts not be rescinded at this time for the same reason.
The committee also recommended that all district boundaries be made to coincide with lot lines.
The Setback Lines Study Committee has not been dissolved and is prepared to assist the Planning Board in implementing any of our recommendations.
Respectfully submitted,
Martin Cohen, Chairman
Richard Betts, Deborah Emello, Robert Gallant, Charles Hamann, Henry Ogilby, and Eric Smith
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