Zoning Rewrite | Reescritura de Zonificación
The City of Lynn is conducting a comprehensive rewrite of its citywide zoning ordinance. This project is a collaboration between the City and a team of urban planners from CommunityScale, with strategy and implementation support from Levine Planning Strategies and legal support from BBHS Law. The project is supported by a grant from the State’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. This project aims to align Lynn’s zoning regulations with the Vision Lynn comprehensive plan.
The project’s timeline spans from early 2024 to June 2025. Building on the foundation laid during the Vision Lynn process, the initiative will further involve the community through additional public meetings, workshops, and surveys, which will engage residents to actively shape the city's future.
Stay informed and engaged as this project unfolds. This page will continually be updated with the latest developments for this important project.
What is Zoning?
Zoning is the city’s ability to regulate the use of land and buildings. It establishes zoning districts and their associated allowable uses (like housing, commercial, and industrial) and associated dimensional requirements (including how tall buildings can be). Zoning also establishes the approval process for developments and special regulations for particular areas and uses.
Read our zoning audit (April 5, 2024)
Other Zoning Topics
The City of Lynn is working towards becoming compliant with the MBTA Communities Act by December 31, 2024. Read more.
The City is also working on adopting a zoning amendment to regulate Accessory Dwelling Units, which will be allowed by-right in Single Family Zoning Districts starting in February 2025. Read more at Mass.gov.
Reescritura de la Zonificación
La Ciudad de Lynn está llevando a cabo la reescritura integral de su ordenanza de zonificación para toda la Ciudad. Este proyecto es una colaboración entre la Ciudad y un equipo de planificadores urbanos de CommunityScale, con apoyo de estrategia e implementación de Levine Planning Strategies y apoyo legal de BBHS Law. El proyecto cuenta con el apoyo financiero de la Oficina Ejecutiva de Vivienda y Comunidades Habitables del Estado. Este proyecto tiene como meta alinear las regulaciones de zonificación de Lynn con el plan integral Visión Lynn.
La línea de tiempo del proyecto va desde principios de 2024, hasta junio de 2025. Construyendo sobre la base establecida durante el proceso de Visión Lynn, la iniciativa involucrará aún más a la comunidad a través de reuniones públicas, talleres y encuestas adicionales, lo que involucrará a los residentes para dar forma activa al futuro de la ciudad.
Manténgase informado y comprometido a medida que este proyecto se desarrolla. Esta página se actualizará constantemente con los últimos avances de este importante proyecto.
¿Qué es zonificación?
Zonificación es la capacidad que tiene la ciudad de regular el uso de terrenos y edificios. Establece los distritos de zonificación y sus usos permitidos asociados (tales como vivienda, comercial e industrial) y requisitos dimensionales asociados (incluyendo la altura de los edificios). La zonificación también establece el proceso de aprobación para desarrollos y regulaciones especiales para áreas y usos particulares.
Tome la encuesta:¿Cuáles cambios le gustaría ver en el código de zonificación de Lynn? ¿Qué se debería quedar igual? Este es su chance de decirnos. Realice nuestra Encuesta de Prioridades sobre las Prioridades Comunitarias de Rezonificación.
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MBTA Communities Compliance
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About the MBTA Communities Act
In January 2021, the Massachusetts legislature passed the MBTA Communities Act, often referred to as Section 3A. The idea is that, if a community benefits from MBTA service, it must accommodate some level of multifamily development by right. Since passing, the Department of Housing and Livable Communities (DHLC) has released and refined specific regulations about how communities are expected to meet these requirements. You can read more about the regulations on the MBTA Communities website.
Compliance in Lynn
According to the regulations, Lynn is a Commuter Rail community and must be compliant by December 31, 2024. The City has achieved Interim Compliance by submitting an Action Plan that indicated next steps towards achieving Full Compliance. Lynn intends to fully comply with the MBTA Communities Act by the deadline.
Fortunately, the City has historically allowed by-right multifamily development near our Central Square Commuter Rail station. To be compliant, communities must submit a 3A District to the state that meets requirements for size, location, and density. In Lynn, we are proposing a 3A District made up of parcels in three different zoning districts:
- CBD: Allows Mixed-Use Street Level by right, which offers up to 10 stories of development with the ground floor being reserved for commercial uses. Because of the requirement for commercial uses in these by-right projects, this is considered a “Mixed-Use Development District” in the language of the 3A regulations, and can only contribute a small amount of units to our total requirements.
- R4 + R5: These districts allow Apartment Buildings by right up to 5 stories.
For Lynn, the creation of our 3A District is about describing to the state how we are compliant with the rules, NOT changing underlying zoning or creating a new zone. Whether or not a parcel is in the 3A District in no way changes what’s allowed on the parcel, or the process by which it is developed.
Lynn’s Proposed 3A District
Lynn needs a 3A district that allows 5,517 dwelling units by right. Based on DHLC’s methodology, this proposed district allows 9,429 dwelling units.
One Change to the Zoning Code
In order for our proposed district to be compliant with 3A regulations, we need to make one edit to our zoning code. We need to strike footnote 18 on page 14 from the code: “Residential units with greater than two bedrooms shall be allowed in not more than ten (10%) percent of all residential dwellings in the CBD.”
This provision of our zoning code is not enforced, as the City does not track the number of bedrooms per dwelling unit in the CBD. 3A guidelines require that our 3A District not limit the number of bedrooms in order to ensure that communities are not precluding housing that could be suitable for families. However, the City does–and is still allowed to–incentivize fewer bedrooms per unit by requiring more parking for units with three or more bedrooms.
The City Council adopted this amendment on Tuesday, December 17. The City will now submit our compliance paperwork to the state for review.
